Feeding the Birds
“Each time we run away from ourselves we are driven home again with greater force. Every effort to break out only pushes us further back into ourselves.” – Henry Miller, Stand Still Like the...
View ArticleIn Tony’s Eyes
I didn’t know Jimmy Gandolfini personally, but as most folks who watched The Sopranos would understand, he felt like a close friend and family member. I will call him “Jimmy” in this tribute because I...
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The Plimpton Issue
Terwilliger Bunts, Culture Slides, and Papa Is Safe at the Plate I like cosmic connections in the literary world and I like it even better when they involve fellow New Jersey writers and shared...
View ArticleLetters from Leeds: Joy Enters My Sheltered Life
Dear Joy, My, what an introduction! It’s not often that an unsolicited letter from an unknown writer stops me in my tracks and compels me to pay attention. I empathize with your “jammed highway” of a...
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Opening Lines from Printed Matter: Volume 1 of Rolling Papers Revue
Opening lines. They often are what make or break a poem, a story, a chapter, a novel. They are more than a first impression. They are a promise of what’s to come. A commitment to nuance. A...
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Posers to the Left of Us, Misfits to the Right, Here You Are, Stuck in the...
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. – Mark Twain Atticus does not publish literary posers. We discover authentic voices...
View ArticleFinding Your Way Home
MADISON, NJ — When you’ve lived in a handful of states, it eventually strikes you that with each and every move, you drift further and further from home. For those who leave home for college, it’s a...
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White Noise, Black Mirrors, and the Rising of Self-Appointed Gatekeepers
I considered writing an essay last month during the Baltimore riots that contained only an expansive list of ethnic slurs to see if that list somehow could provide a wakeup call to the foolishness of...
View ArticleWe’re Better Than This, All of Us
Our indie lit community is suffering today because many of us are doing an awful lot of talking, but not nearly enough listening. I’m as guilty as the next person. I’m complicit too. But I am not here...
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The Fighting Jacketti Brothers
Those familiar with old Hollywood war movies may remember the heartbreaking story of the five Sullivan brothers, all of whom were killed in World War II. The “Fighting Sullivan Brothers” were national...
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Jamming to the Soundtrack of Generation T. Rex
My first encounter with music education was a colossal failure, or as today’s teenagers say, an “epic fail.” My first grade music teacher asked me to step in front of the class and identify a...
View ArticleCatalyst for Change: An Appreciation for the Words of Farzana Marie
I feel unqualified to introduce you to the written work of Farzana Marie. I know so little about war. So little about the mindset of soldiers sent overseas to support our military’s mission and...
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The Winning Formula: Tiger Blood and Orange Hair
“We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning.” – Donald Trump “The only thing I’m addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics...
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Mr. Jinx Goes to Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you think that U.S. House speaker Paul Ryan’s fixed scowl on Tuesday night was a juvenile expression of political posturing and gamesmanship, then you, my friend, are in the dark...
View ArticleSingularly Human, Collectively Whole
I own a signed first edition of Raymond Carver’s story collection, Where I’m Calling From. It’s one of my prized possessions. It brings together so much of what I love about literature: masterful...
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Posers to the Left of Us, Misfits to the Right, Here You Are, Stuck in the...
MisIt is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. – Mark Twain Atticus does not publish literary posers. We discover authentic voices...
View ArticleFinding Your Way Home
MADISON, NJ — When you’ve lived in a handful of states, it eventually strikes you that with each and every move, you drift further and further from home. For those who leave home for college, it’s a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
White Noise, Black Mirrors, and the Rising of Self-Appointed Gatekeepers
I considered writing an essay last month during the Baltimore riots that contained only an expansive list of ethnic slurs to see if that list somehow could provide a wakeup call to the foolishness of...
View ArticleWe’re Better Than This, All of Us
Our indie lit community is suffering today because many of us are doing an awful lot of talking, but not nearly enough listening. I’m as guilty as the next person. I’m complicit too. But I am not here...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Fighting Jacketti Brothers
Those familiar with old Hollywood war movies may remember the heartbreaking story of the five Sullivan brothers, all of whom were killed in World War II. The “Fighting Sullivan Brothers” were national...
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