Issue #4 Gallery
Editor’s Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barstow & Grand was unable to host its annual issue release party in 2020. Instead, we are trying something different. This page contains contributions from our issue #4 authors and staff, which are meant to represent what is normally shared at such events. Readings, insight into the writing process, inspirations—it’s all here. Thanks for stopping! And please consider purchasing a copy of issue #4 when you’re finished.
Editor Eric Rasmussen shares the concept behind this gallery.
Ken Szymanski, Prose Contributor & 2020-2022 Eau Claire Writer-in-Residence
Ken goes all out to promote his nonfiction piece "More Than a Jukebox, Less Than a Rockstar" from issue #4. Limited time offer! Act now!
Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Poetry Contributor
Poet Elizabeth Kerlikowske discusses porcupines, inappropriate documentaries, and reads her work from B&G issue #4.
Caitlin Cowan, Poetry Contributor
Caitlin Cowan reads the poem "Happy Birthday" and discusses its origins.
Paul Reid, Prose Contributor
Paul Reid hilariously documents the history of his laundry skills.
Remi Recchia, Poetry Contributor
Poet Remi Recchia shares the piece “Funeral as Afterparty” from B&G issue #4.
Jerome Berglund, Poetry Contributor
These images served as inspiration for Jerome’s work in issue #4. Jerome Berglund graduated from the cinema-television production program at the University of Southern California, and has spent much of his career working in television and photography. His work has been featured prominently in many journals, including gracing the cover of the most recent issue of pacificREVIEW. His pictures have further been published and awarded in local papers, and in 2019 he staged an exhibition in the Twin Cities area which included a residency of several months at a local community center. A selection of his black and white fine art photographs was showcased at the Pause Gallery in New York over last winter’s holiday season, and his fashion photography is currently on display at the BG Gallery in Santa Monica.
BJ Hollars, B&G Consulting Editor and CVWG Director
BJ Hollars discussed the work that goes into literary journal production and reads from Angela Hugunin’s “Here, We Do Dignity.”
William Musgrove, Prose Contributor
Initially, the piece ended with the teenager, who knocks over the protagonist’s claw machine, stealing a stuffed animal instead of money. However, this ending didn’t feel quite authentic. Hailing from a crumbling small-town myself, I wanted to highlight the struggle of the people there, the struggle to feel important and valued despite being living in such a similarly insignificant and small community. I wanted to show how issues commonly associated with big cities, such as drug use and theft, also exist in rural America, that boredom and lack of opportunities can lead people to do things they might not normally do.
Throughout the piece, the protagonist ruminates on his inability to escape his perceived blip of an existence. In high school, he was a track star but failed to receive any scholarship offers to advance to the next level, which he saw as his only chance to become a somebody. This boils over into feelings of frustration, into feelings of being forever trapped in a situation he hates. He becomes too paralyzed by the fear of failure to launch his second jailbreak and develops a shell of cynicism to protect himself. When he realizes this at the end of the story, he’s already wasted decades of his life wallowing in defeat.
Laura Remington, Prose Contributor
Laura Remington talks about her roots in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and reads from her story “A Blossom in Spring.”
Chloe Ackerman, Poetry Contributor
Chloe’s Desk
In August, I moved from Eau Claire—my hometown—to Madison, Wisconsin. This! Is my new desk! Sometimes I paint or color or prune my plants at this desk. Sitting here, I’ve written mostly letters and a few things I’m willing to call poems. Writing has been difficult for me since my move, I instead spend a lot of time cutting up newspapers to make tiny poem-like collages similar to Eloisa Amezcua’s Dream Life series.
I first wrote my poem, “What We Left”, a few years ago in the margins of a notebook while overcaffeinated in a classroom on the second floor of Hibbard Humanities Hall at UWEC. At the time, I felt the poem was very weird, and I was incredibly anxious about it. Now, I am excited about what it’s become, and I am very proud it has a home in the fourth edition of Barstow and Grand.
Dan Lyksett, Prose Contributor
Issue #4 fiction contributor Dan Lyksett comments on his real-life connection to the story “One Night Stand.”
Mitchell Nobis, Poetry Contributor
An interview with Mitchell Nobis, conducted by his family
Mitch’s wife: When and where do you write poetry when we have kids leaving Legos on the floor?
Mitch: Sleep deprivation plays a key role because I mostly write before anyone else is awake or after the kids are finally asleep at night. Before the pandemic when I was teaching in-person every day, I also spent quite a few lunch periods working on my writing. It's amazing how much I can get done in a 20-minute lunch when the boys aren't there whaling on me with lightsabers and whatnot. I also watch very little TV other than basketball, but I can keep that on in the background while working. The noise of basketball is calming and even generative for me, like music. That also answers where the title of this poem ("The LeBroniverse (Brought to You by Gatorade”) probably came from.
Mitch’s eleven-year-old: Why do you even like poetry?
Mitch: Why do you even like Nintendo? But for real, that's a big question. One short way of answering it is that poetry helps me see and think about the world in different ways than just going through daily life does. Poetry gives me a way to pay closer attention. Reading and writing poetry helps me think about the tiny details of life, which helps me better understand its immensities too. But also because it's fun.
Mitch’s six-year-old: Can we have cheeseburgers for dinner?
Mitch: Sure, big man.
Photo credit: Mitch’s six-year-old (the one who likes cheeseburgers)
Eric Rasmussen, B&G Editor
Editor Eric Rasmussen focuses on one of his favorite pieces from issue #4: “The Lebroniverse (Brought to You by Gatorade)” by Mitchell Nobis.
Kenneth Kapp, Prose Contributor
Fiction author Kenneth Kapp discusses his triptych of stories highlighted in Barstow & Grand #4, then shares a fresh piece of micro-fiction.
Rebecca Mennecke, B&G Prose Reader/Issue #4 Intern
Rebecca reads one of her favorite pieces from issue #4, the poem "To James: the one I scared away," by Laura Wilson.
Linda McMullen, Prose Contributor
The Story Behind “Alan’s Part” from B&G #4…
I was a theatre kid, and, alongside the official drama onstage, there was invariably more backstage. Those makeups and breakups informed this piece, but no specific instance inspired it.
I conceived Alan and Melanie originally as teenagers - both self-absorbed, viscerally attracted to one another, and unwilling to admit that they were fundamentally mismatched. But then I wondered: what would their relationship look like a decade later? Clearly, they would have matured - but it seemed likely that these two would constantly trigger the other's reversion to adolescent form. Impulse would trump judgment, every time. (They are both guilty of that - but Alan much more so.) I believed that they would, inevitably, bring out some of the worst in each other again - and definitively so.
A note on the setting: Salem appears as the backdrop for a number of my short stories, the proxy recipient of my love letters to my real hometown in Wisconsin.
Patricia Williams, Poetry Contributor
A PowerPoint companion to Patricia Williams’ poem “Art History for $15.99” from issue #4.
Jessi Peterson, B&G Poetry Reader
How many blank notebooks does one poet need, you ask?
All these and more, tucked into the shelf of my grandmother's telephone table alongside a well-stocked pencil box and a new set of colored fountain pens. Plus one in both cars and my purse and my office and the bird-watching bag...always be prepared to write!
Katy Hackworthy, B&G Prose Editor
As the prose editor of Barstow & Grand, it was a delight to immerse myself in such vastly different pieces, from the more emotionally grounded personal prose to the goofier, more cinematic short stories. The most exciting part of that process was reading pieces from folks whose work I'm familiar with to total strangers who've connected with the community we're creating both in the Chippewa Valley & the upper Midwest as a whole. As a reader, I am always drawn to writing that takes risks & that has something to say. This is my open invitation to all you rebel writers out there to put it all out on the line & send your stuff our way!
Rachel Esselman, B&G Prose Reader
Rachel Esselman discusses what she loves about the short story genre.