Gwendal Cottin Ribald by Alina Stefanescu, Bull City Press Inch #44, 2020 Reviewed by Lannie Stabile “Your mom can die, but that birder will keep walking down the street, whistling as you piss your pants.” For such a tiny book, Alina Stefanacu’s Ribald , a micro-collection of essays, demands a lot of unpacking. Let us snap open Grandma’s antique trunk, and what will we find? A handful of gravel, a pocketknife, a stressed horse, a gauntlet and sword, a scream, a cold beer wit

by Scott Neuffer Someone gave me an Amazon gift card for Christmas, and I spent it on books. I’m sorry. Amazon is a monster, but if I didn’t spend it on books, I would’ve blown it on Nintendo 64 games, and then I wouldn’t be reading at all. The books I got were written by trampset contributors, all collected works of short fiction, all written by ingenious women…. Every Mask I Tried On by Alina Stefanescu, Brighthorse Books, 2018 This story collection bristles with restless

Alina Stefanescu Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner and several intense mammals. Her writing can be found in diverse journals, including Prairie Schooner, North American Review, FLOCK, Southern Humanities Review, Crab Creek Review, Virga, Whale Road Review, and others. She serves as Poetry Editor for Pidgeonholes, Poetry Editor for Random Sample Review, Poetry Reviewer for Up the Staircase Quarterly, and Co-Director of PEN A

by Alina Stefanescu Suvi Honkanen You were the lover with whom terminal velocity felt possible, probable, until motions at matching tempo failed to render us equal, the nothing amassed. I am forever the blah-tinted face in mirrors, flirting with terror. I am marking the hue of this self-righteous sunset bible belting its way around us like the worst-case-scenario-kiss needs tongue. In the church pew, spittle declares itself decadent as drool turns denial into a gift horse’s m