Steve Forbert, another Favorite Son

Steve has had a long and successful career as a singer/song writer.

He is best known for his song "Romeo's Tune", which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1980.

An autobiographical song (below) about his New York City experiences upon moving there in 1976 at the age of 21.


An excellent Bio


Steve Forbert's website

More of Martha Ann's Art

I really appreciate classmate Martha Ann's paintings and sculptures

"One Wire,"
My piece chosen for the exhibition "Bare Essentials: Minimalism in the 21st Century" at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, Nov. 4 - Dec. 22, 2011. Note that though it shows masculine austerity and uses industrial materials, it also has expression shown through the history of other movements of the wire. The addition of expression is a quality I expect to see in many if not all of the works in this upcoming show.

Click on for the exhibition, including Martha Ann's work below, at the Woman Made Gallery running from 11/04/11 to 12/22/11.

"One Wire," 12" x 12" x 2, Canvas on Board painted with Rabbit Skin Glue, Wire, and Tacks. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Changes Will Have Occurred

One Hundred Things Kids of Today Will Never know About.

Rayner's Drug Store

From the Meridian Star – edited for length.

July 30, 2006

Rayner Drugs owner finishes a chapter

By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer

In 1947, Ben Quintana moved to Meridian to work as a pharmacist at Rayner Drugs on Front Street. The McComb native bought the store in the early 1970s. Since then, he and his wife, Sarah, have run the business.

Quintana remembers when high school boys on bicycles used to deliver medicines each day, and he remembers giving discounts to his regular customers.

But those days are coming to an end. Rayner Drugs plans to close its doors on Monday after more than 80 years in downtown Meridian.

The 84-year-old said he tried to keep the business open, but no one was interested in buying it. He said large discount stores are making it harder for independent pharmacies to keep up, and he believes the days of independent pharmacies are numbered.

“A lot of my older customers have died off and I haven’t been able to replace them because of the discount stores,” Quintana said. “Big corporations are able to buy drugs cheaper than an independent pharmacy.”

Products in the gift section of Rayner Drugs, which was managed by Mrs. Quintana until recently, are on sale. They include gifts such as 1st Edition Cabbage Patch Dolls, other collectible dolls, decorative fans, greeting cards and gifts.

I never see photos of what was, but is no more, without this song forming in my mind. A lot of truth in it... for lots of folks.

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How Hollywood sees Mississippi.

(excerpted from the Washington Times)

Hollywood’s Mississippi remains a brutal backwater.

No matter how state changes, images of bigotry, violence, ignorance endure Mississippi stereotypes persist.

If, as Michael Medved contends, Hollywood hates America, then it really, really hates Mississippi.

A long line of films — from “In the Heat of the Night” to “Mississippi Burning” and “A Time to Kill” — have cemented the state’s image in American culture as a brutal, benighted backwater teeming with violent bigots.

A steady stream, decade after decade, of screen images of hooded Klansmen, burning crosses and Yankee actors butchering Southern drawls while drenched in sweat have overwhelmed the occasional scenes of remarkably ordinary contemporary life that visitors to the state are far more likely to witness.

On Friday, Hollywood extends its rich tradition of Mississippi-bashing with the national release of “Straw Dogs,” director Rod Lurie’s remake of auteur Sam Peckinpah’s controversial 1971 thriller about a nonviolent academic interloper pushed into violence by the invasion of his home by resentful locals.

While the Peckinpah original was, like the novel upon which it was based, set in rural England, Mr. Lurie has transplanted the story to southern Mississippi, where bullying Deep South rednecks conveniently step in for the resentful British working-class barbarians who torment Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a privileged outsider.

Current hit “The Help,” starring Viola Davis, gives a more balanced view of the state, with sympathetic characters both black and white. (Disney via Associated Press)
Mr. Lurie, credited as a co-writer as well as director of the remake — shot in Louisiana, standing in for Mississippi — told the Miami Herald that he chose the setting to “plant these characters in a community where the lifestyle is violence.”

There is no denying or defending Mississippi’s role as a bastion of resistance to racial integration and equality during the civil rights era. But in addition to being a historical signifier, it also happens to be an actual — you know — place, where actual people continue to live and work. But in the imagination of Hollywood, Mississippi has long since ceased to be a place and become instead a facile metaphor for violent racial bigotry and hostility to outsiders.

“If you look historically at films, even if there’s a sort of ‘My Dog Skip’ story set in Mississippi with a sentimental vibe, Mississippi tends to function as the worst of the South concentrated,” said Ted Atkinson, an assistant professor of English at Mississippi State University who is working on a book about the state’s representation in American culture.

There are exceptions, of course, to the prevailing stereotype. The current hit “The Help,” a civil rights drama set in the state, presents a view of Mississippi that includes sympathetic characters — both black and white — with commendable morals and motives alongside the grim realities of segregation and racial prejudice. Another example of a positive mainstream portrayal is “The Blind Side,” the 2009 box-office smash that stars Sandra Bullock as a wealthy Mississippi woman whose family takes in a black football prodigy.

For all its faults, Mississippi has an incredibly rich artistic history whose lasting effects on American culture have been partly obscured by the inescapable stereotype. It’s the birthplace of artists ranging from Elvis Presley to Robert Johnson, the homeland of William Faulkner, often considered the 20th century’s greatest novelist, and Eudora Welty. The small towns and dirt roads often portrayed on-screen are overshadowed by towns such as Oxford, where portraits of Faulkner hang in fast-food restaurants, and the capital, Jackson, host to the USA International Ballet Competition.

Melanie Addington, a director of the Oxford Film Festival, said she has seen firsthand how negative depictions of Mississippi have conditioned visitors to expect the worst. “Every year I have filmmakers that nervously arrive for the festival expecting to be thrust into a scene from ‘Mississippi Burning.’ They are always pleasantly surprised that instead Oxford is an artsy little town with people from all over the world making it home.”

“The idea of Mississippi has functioned in the American imagination as a kind of holding bin for negative things about the nation,” said Kathryn McKee, an associate professor of Southern studies at the University of Mississippi, about the persistently unflattering film portrayals.

“Mississippi just has that cultural baggage and stigma,” Ms. Atkinson said. “It just keeps perpetuating because these Hollywood representations tend to follow that heritage and continue that narrative. It just becomes hard to overcome that.”

With every major film that recycles the familiar images of rampant poverty, ignorance and pointless violence, of course, the popular stereotype is reinforced. Ultimately, it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy, scaring away potential investment and tourism from the actual Mississippi — black and white, rich and poor — deepening the isolation and depressing the economy of a state that already ranks near the bottom as measured by most key social and economic indicators.

Coop Cooper, a Mississippi-based film critic who runs the website Small Town Critic, argues that despite decades of progress in the state, some would be content to see Mississippi remain as it is in the cultural eye. “Things are changing for the better,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of people, including folks from Hollywood, would like to keep that from happening. They need to have some sort of state to lay these stigmas upon, and Mississippi is easier than most.”

Davis Grill Menu – 1950. And interior from???

Click on for larger readable text.

"Bastard Blue" by Murray Dunlap

Over the last year I discovered a friend. I also discovered a writer whose stories soar. I'm referring to Murray Dunlap. The stories he has pulled together in his newest book of stories, "Bastard Blue", had me reading many over several times. They are that good. Most of them are themed from his experiences growing up in south Alabama, but they are not simply regional. They cast a much wider net than that and the textures of the lives he writes about are palpably universal.

"Bastard Blue" is available at Amazon– in both hard copy and the Kindle edition – and bookstores everywhere.
What those who know are saying:

High Praise...
“Forged with a poet’s attention to cadence and rhythm, a storyteller’s devotion to character, and tension that just keeps ratcheting up, Bastard Blue is finally a love story, between a young man and the place that made him, the southern culture that proves to be both a blessing and a curse. Murray Dunlap is a brave writer, and an honest one; the lives he portrays here are as heart-stoppingly authentic as his prose is dazzlingly beautiful. He serves up everything I want in a story: compassion, humor, substance and style.”
Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness

"Yes, Bastard Blue is a first book but there’s more than promise on display within its pages. This collection introduces us to a fully realized talent. Murray Dunlap’s voice is confident, his characters richly drawn, his sense of place as vivid as you will find in fiction. Sentence for sentence his prose is crisp and direct, edged somehow with both menace and hope. He has a knack for creeping up to sentiment in his stories without crossing the line, leaving only genuine, well-earned emotion on the page. This book is so fine somebody should offer a money back guarantee."
-Michael Knight, author of The Typist

"If possible, read Murray Dunlap’s Bastard Blue in a Louis XV style chair, near a subtle fire, or in an Adirondack chair, between peach and dogwood trees. Reading his stories is about as close to having a storyteller there—present, in the room--as I know. This collection is full of heart, mischief, and sly winks. What a grand triumph."

-George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie
Murray's recent history is a tribute to his courage, tenacity and strength.
Murray on Murray: I was very nearly killed on 6-7-08 in a car wreck, so I'm trying very hard to put my life back together. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a person and his or her family can be devastating. And my memory-loss has to be the most frustrating component of this entire disaster. It is as if I woke up from a dream of a life to a nightmare of a reality. But, as we all do, I keep focused and build a new life.

Murray Dunlap's work has appeared in about thirty magazines and journals. His stories have been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as to Best New American Voices, and his first book, "Alabama," was a finalist for the Maurice Prize in Fiction.

Miner Saw, Inc

New Yorker Cartoon

Graham Transfer & Storage

Graham Transfer & Storage Co.

2108 A St Meridian, MS 39301

Began business in 1932

Camp Binachi

I well remember scout camp. There were Troops 2 and 6 – maybe others too – there each summer sitting around the campfire, the Tenderfoots, pretending not to be afraid the first time they were were told the legend of the evil "mossback"

Click on to Read more

The Times Sure Are A-Changin'

June 12, 2011
Bob missed his chance to free China
By Steve Gillespie / Managing Editor
The Meridian Star

MERIDIAN — I doubt that anyone has ever been labeled a sellout as much as Bob Dylan. It's the price living icons pay if they survive their youth.

Folk fans denounced him when his sound turned to rock. Rock fans denounced him when his rock turned country, some fans lost interest when he went gospel, or when they considered him old, or when he did that creepy Victoria's Secret commercial ... maybe the word "fan" isn't the correct word. Let's call them people who can't handle change.

Just before Dylan's 70th birthday, May 24, there was a firestorm of whiny media types — who can't handle change — that ridiculed him for going to China and supposedly allowing the communist government to censor his set list.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote an idiotic column about him and his first concert he performed in China in April.

She slammed him for allowing the set list to be censored, and for not singing revolutionary-type protest songs, namely "Hurricane," the song Dylan wrote about the wrongful imprisonment of boxer Reuben "Hurricane" Carter.

Dylan last performed that song live in Houston, Texas, Jan. 25, 1976.

She thinks he should have done "Masters of War," "Blowin' In The Wind," and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." And then what? I don't know. Oddly enough the set lists, which according to Dylan were not censored by Chinese authorities, included several songs filled with social comment, and "protests" if that's the word Maureen likes best. I don't think she realized this 'cause she's not a fan.

Here's the songs he performed in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong: Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue ; Beyond Here Lies Nothin'; Tangled Up In Blue; Honest With Me; Simple Twist Of Fate; Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum; Love Sick; Rollin' And Tumblin'; A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall; Highway 61 Revisited; Spirit On The Water; Thunder On The Mountain; Ballad Of A Thin Man; Like A Rolling Stone; All Along The Watchtower; Forever Young; Don't Think Twice, It's All Right; Things Have Changed; Blind Willie McTell; The Levee's Gonna Break; Desolation Row; It Ain't Me Babe; High Water (For Charley Patton); Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power); Jolene; My Wife's Home Town; Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues; and If You Ever Go To Houston.

The songs on those set lists were essentially the same as those he played in Australia later that month, and there was no censorship there either.

Last month Dylan did an unusual thing by posting a message online at www.bobdylan.com, addressed to his fans and followers. He said he was never denied permission to play in China a year ago, and that that previous story was dreamed up by a promoter before Dylan agreed to come to China. He said that on this trip he sold 12,000 out of 13,000 tickets, and the tickets that weren't sold were given to orphanages, which counters reports that there were lots of empty seats at his concerts. Also it was mostly young people at his shows, and he kind of doubted they would know some of the stuff he was doing 50 years ago.

"As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing," Dylan wrote. "There's no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play."

In her column Dowd uses excerpts from interviews and Dylan's own book to explain that he never wanted to be the keeper of social consciousness for his generation, even though he's been labeled like that, yet she acts as if he should have played that role. Then she tersely wraps up her column to say he "sang his censored set, took his pile of Communist cash and left."

Dylan ended his message with classic wit, taking a shot at those who try to make a buck off of him even though they really know nothing about him: "Everybody knows by now that there's a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I'm encouraging anybody who's ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them."

Those Dylan "fans" who can't handle change don't go see Bob Dylan as much anymore, and they shouldn't. They don't like that he sounds and looks different, or that he never does a song the same way twice. If you want to see Bob Dylan he has concerts scheduled in New Orleans July 26, Pensacola July 27, Atlanta July 28 and Memphis July 30. You can find tickets at www.ticketmaster.com. If you expect anything, you will be disappointed. If you appreciate artists who love what they do, never quit, and never stop changing — you know, "sellouts" — you'll have a good time.

Bay Towne Marina - SanDestin, Florida

We enjoy our place here in the fall, winter and spring. Summer is for vacationers... and it's hot... and the fishing is slow. So, I stay away. This was taken on a cool November afternoon. Click on:

Classmate, Marty Davidson.

Another reason we should be proud to know him.

Meridian Star

April 22, 2011
Marty Davidson to receive Ellis Island Medal of Honor

By Jennifer Jacob Brown / jbrown@themeridianstar.com
The Meridian Star

MERIDIAN — Meridianite Marty Davidson is slated to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a national award sponsored by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, in New York on May 7.
Davidson is the chairman and owner of Southern Pipe and Supply Company.

According to the NECO Web site, the award is designed to, "pay homage to the immigrant experience," as well as individual achievement.

"The honorees are remarkable Americans who exemplify outstanding qualities in both their personal and professional lives, while continuing to preserve the richness of their particular heritage," the Web site reads. "We honor them because they create a better world of all of us in the future by the work of today."

Davidson will represent the immigrant experience through his Jewish and Russian heritage.

Notable past honorees include Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. John McCain, Attorney Gen. Janet Reno, Rosa Parks, Elie Wiesel, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Joe Dimaggio, Yogi Berra, Muhammad Ali, Walter Cronkite, Quincy Jones and many others.

Davidson will be the second Mississippian to receive the award. The award will be given during a ceremony on Ellis Island. Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States from 1892 to 1954.

Marty Davidson's family first settled in America in the early 1900's when his grandfather, Russian-born Louis Davidson, immigrated. Louis Davidson started the company that would become Southern Pipe and Supply, a plumbing supply company that is now in its 72nd year of operation and its fourth generation of family management.

Louis Davidson started a junk company in Meridian called St. Louis Junk Company. The company started selling bathtubs, and in 1938, Louis Davidson opened Southern Pipe and Supply with his sons Sammie and Meyer.

Marty Davidson, the son of Meyer Davidson, started working at Southern Pipe when he was five years old and continued working summers until he left for college. He began working for the company full-time in 1962. In 1968, he purchased the company from his father.

In that same year, Klu Klux Klan members bombed the home of Meyer Davidson because of his public stance against the bombing of synagogues and churches in Mississippi.

Forty-eight years later, Southern Pipe and Supply has grown from four branches in three states to 93 branches in seven states. In 2010, it was ranked as the seventh largest distributor of plumbing supplies in the United States and the second largest regional distributor by Supply House Times.

Davidson's son, Jay, is now the president of the company.

NECO feels that the story of Southern Pipe exemplifies the type of immigrant story that could only happen in the United States, where an immigrant's journey from Russia evolved into a family company the size of Southern Pipe and Supply.

Davidson has previously been awarded the local Hartley D. Peavey Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, Neville Humanitarian Award, and Meridian Star Citizen of the Year Award, and is honored in the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame.

Imperial Cleaners & Laundry

1328-24th ave

History:

Established in 1944

same location for over 68 years

"We clean your garments

not

your

pockets.

Merrehope

A 20 room Neo-classical Revival mansion in Meridian completed in 1904, the house began as a small cottage which served as headquarters for Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in 1863. Merrehope is now a museum of local history. "Trees of Christmas" tours are held every Christmas to raise money for upkeep and restoration.

Local legend says that this antebellum home is haunted by 2 spirits. One is of a man who committed suicide in one of the back bedrooms. His heavy footsteps can still be heard from that upstairs bedroom. The other spirit is of a young lady. Although never linked to the house, she started making appearances when an antique photo was placed in the house for display. Late at night her ghost can be seen from an upstairs bedroom either glowing or holding a candle.

Merrehope is one of few remaining antebellum houses in Meridian, Mississippi. It was started in 1858 and was one of the few buildings that was not destroyed by General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War. In house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 (NRHP #71000455).

3 Father Poems by Meg Pokrass

Meg is a friend of mine. Her recently released book, Damn Sure Right is getting brilliant, rave reviews and is available from Amazon and leading bookstores everywhere. She is one of the brightest, most creative people I have ever read...
or known.

Father Poems

by Meg Pokrass

no proof exists

my dark father
was human though
no proof exists

his photographs
were torn in two
then four then eight
his face in the trash

pieces slipping

near each other
becoming
who I wanted him to be

my father never loved us but I loved him madly when I was three

riding his shoulders
grabbing his hands

seeing from above
how breakable
we really were

Before Dusk, Autumn

The two kites went up
into the late afternoon.
One of them, then the other.

I was locked in the car
while Dad and my cousin, Mamie
swirled the field.
Mamie, watching her shadow grow,
looked embarrassed.

I watched through the window-
The kites were leaves,
wind picking them up,
grabbing them.

As shadows spread
Dad must have remembered
that I was his daughter,
that it was my birthday.

Piggy Back

“Let's go
for a piggy back ride!”
He
draped me
over him
like a sweater.
Shouldered safely
I let my hands
explore
his face
and found
two caterpillars.
He told me
to feel his chin,
how it was
like sandpaper.
Everything
was
BIG,
HAIRY,
TERRIBLE
(laughing high above his face).


___
My friend, Meg told me, "Fathers really are a rich source. My mother and I left my father when I was five, I never saws him again, so I had many years to think about the memories."

About Meg:

Meg Pokrass writes flash-fiction, short stories and poetry. Damn Sure Right is her debut collection of flash fiction. Meg serves as Editor-at-Large for BLIP Magazine (formerly Mississippi Review) and before that, for SmokeLong Quarterly. Her stories, poems, and flash fiction animations have appeared in nearly one hundred online and print publications, including Mississippi Review, Gigantic, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, HTML Giant, Wigleaf, The Pedestal, Keyhole, Annalemma, Smokelong Quarterly, elimae, Prime Number, Women Writers and Joyland. Meg creates and runs the popular Fictionaut-Five Author Interview Series for Fictionaut and consults with Writing MFA programs about online publishing. Meg lives with her small, creative family and seven animals in San Francisco, where she edits and teaches flash fiction privately.

A Tribute To My Favorite DJ – Hands Down

Who among us, classmates? I ask you, who does not remember Lee Arthur coming weekly into the Student Activities Building, smiling at us, nodding to Betty Kimbrall, then loading the jukebox with the latest music we all loved and danced to. Who among us did not listen to him on WQIC and smile when he would proclaim, "the black spot on yo' dial"? ave atque vale!



March 25, 2011
Lee A. Rhodes
The Meridian Star

MERIDIAN —

Services for Lee Arthur “House Rocker” Rhodes will be held Saturday, at 2 p.m., at Haven Chapel United Methodist Church with Rev. Cynthia Cross officiating. Burial will be in Forest Lawn Cemetery with Berry and Gardner Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Rhodes, 88, of Meridian, died Monday, Mar. 21, 2011, at Anderson Regional Medical Center. He was born June 22, 1922, in Meridian. He served the community as the first African-American disc jockey in Meridian at WOKK Radio Station.

He leaves to cherish his memories a faithful and devoted companion, Janell Agnes Glass of Meridian; brother, James (Alfredia) Eason of Cincinnati, Ohio; foster sister, Annie Lee Hodges of Meridian; foster brother, Louis Smith Jr. of Meridian; and, a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

Visitation will be today, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at Berry and Gardner Funeral Home.

Buying a car in our South.

I want to thank classmate, Jinny Walz, for sharing this with me. Great video!

Moving Target II – Martha Hopkins

Classmate, Martha Ann, née Markline, continues to turn out interesting and engaging paintings and sculptures. I like this one a lot.



Per Martha Ann:

"Here's MOVING TARGET II, one of 2 of my paintings chosen for the Montgomery Museum of Art Exhibition March 25 - May 15 - Opening March 25 at 6:30. This painting is 48" x 48" x 4".

Mississippi You're On my Mind.

Jesse Winchester

Early Reading Program

B.B. King Meridian Concert

">The Thrill Is Gone

Another Meridianite – Actress, Sela Ward

A Recent Article about Sela Ward

BIO:

Sela Ward was born July 11, 1956, in Meridian, Mississippi. The oldest of 4 children -- with a sister and 2 brothers -- Sela (pronounced See-lah, it's an abbreviated form of Hallelujah) is the daughter of an electrical engineer and a homemaker. Her childhood was nothing short of ordinary for a beautiful girl growing up in the South. While a student at the University of Alabama, where Sela Ward studied art and advertising, Sela was also a cheerleader for the football team, a sorority sister, and was elected homecoming queen. With her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sela Ward headed to New York to pursue a career in advertising, but after the striking, statuesque brunette was encouraged to become a model, she decided to try her hand at modeling. Now on the other side of the advertising spectrum as a Wilhelmina Model, Sela appeared in television commercials, for products such as Pepsi and Maybelline. After gaining experience in more than 20 commercials, Sela dropped advertising and moved to Los Angeles to become an actress -- and lengthen her screen time.

In 2003, Sela Ward's book, Homesick: A Memoir detailed much of her growing up in Meridian.

Meet Meg Pokrass and her Newest Book

Meg is a friend of mine and I am anxiously awaiting the release of her new book, Damn Sure Right. It is scheduled to be released this February, 2011. She is one of the brightest, funny women I have ever read... or known.









Meg Pokrass writes flash-fiction, short stories and poetry. Damn Sure Right is her debut collection of flash fiction. Meg serves as Editor-at-Large for BLIP Magazine (formerly Mississippi Review) and before that, for SmokeLong Quarterly. Her stories, poems, and flash fiction animations have appeared in nearly one hundred online and print publications, including Mississippi Review, Gigantic, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, HTML Giant, Wigleaf, The Pedestal, Keyhole, Annalemma, Smokelong Quarterly, elimae, Prime Number, Women Writers, and Joyland. Meg creates and runs the popular Fictionaut-Five Author Interview Series for Fictionaut, and consults with Writing MFA programs about online publishing. Meg lives with her small, creative family and seven animals in San Francisco, where she edits and teaches flash fiction privately.

Meg's website for a slide show review of her book and sample story

To order a copy of her new book go here

Praise for her writing:

“Pokrass writes like a brain looking for a body. Wonderful, dark, unforgiving.”
– Frederick Barthelme
“Read Damn Sure Right, a collection of miniature tales sure to ruin your
waking hours the way you’ll want them ruined.”
— Kyle Minor, author of In the Devil’s Territory
“Meg Pokrass’ flash fiction conveys entire worlds that are touching,
haunting, funny, moving and strange in the most beautiful ways.”
— Jessica Anya Blau, author of Drinking Closer to Home
“Meg Pokrass is the new monarch of the delightful and enigmatic tiny
kingdom of micro- and flash fiction.”
— Brad Watson, author of Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives
“Meg Pokrass is the brewmaster of flash.”
— Sean Lovelace, author of How Some People Like Their Eggs
“No one this side of Amy Hempel is more capable of saying more with
a handful of well-chosen words… and no one is better at stretching
language into such brilliant new hallucinatory shapes.”
— Grant Bailie, author of Mortarville and Cloud 8
“I feel Pokrass thinking through her sentences, surprising herself, taking
chances. Some of her lines hover between the best stand-up comedy and
Dostoevsky.”
— James Robison, author of The Illustrator
“Pokrass’ unsettling, exciting approach to flash is indeed infectious.”
— Sam Rasnake, editor of Blue Fifth Review