Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

The May 2011 issue of Brevity begins with a tribute to Tuscaloosa. Michael Martone's essay was written just days after a massive tornado cut a brutal swath through the college town, killing at least 40 individuals and leaving many, town and gown alike, homeless; Wendy Rawlings' poignant look at her Tuscaloosa neighborhood was written before the storm, and sat in our submissions queue on the evening the tornado turned the city's neighborhoods inside out.

SOME SPACE

By Michael Martone

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

By Wendy Rawlings

There Are Distances Between Us

By Roxane Gay

Zuill Bailey and a 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello

By Peggy Shumaker

The Drowning

By Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum

All the Forces at Work Here

By Joe Wilkins

Come Back, Jimmy Dean

By Brooke Wonders

Things are Meted Out to People and Then They Leave

By Tory M. Taylor

Cherry Red

By Liane Kupferberg Carter

By Jenny Patton

Variations on a Home Depot Paint Sample

By David Andrews

Please Do Not Shoot the Pianist

By Tom Hoisington

First Apartment — Brooklyn, 2002

By Rachel Toliver

Dead Babies Photo

By Tammie M. Kennedy

The Role of Fiction in Suicidal Ideations

By Robert Lavender

Mortal Grammar

By Adam Smith

After the Sun Melted

By Annina Lavee

Dogs in the Dark

By Mike Land

NEW BOOK REVIEWS, CRAFT ESSAYS AND INTERVIEWS

In our Craft Section, David Huddle contemplates wielding the mighty instrument of speculation, and Dinah Lenney establishes a compelling case for why she’s against knowing. These essays are adapted from presentations the authors gave as part of Jill McCabe Johnson’s excellent panel, “What the Narrator Doesn’t Know: The Importance of Speculation in Narrative,” at the AWP 2011 Conference. This is the first of a two-part series. In our September issue, Lia Purpura and Lee Martin will continue the conversation.

And on our Book page, reviews of Jay Varner’s Nothing Left to Burn, Jim Minick's The Blueberry Years, Annia Ciezadlo’s Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War, Ethan Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, and J. Luise Eberhardy interviews Jane Brox on her latest book, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light.