“The seventeen pounds on my diaphragm didn’t help my already poor sleep quality and for some reason, maybe a bond I think we always shared, I’m sure Chloe knew it. But her intentions were good, protective, and I think she knew that I knew this.” Nick Michalak on the strong bond with an ex’s cat.

“After swimming up / from the sea with the earth in his arms, Varaha / (a pure blueblood deus ex machina) went on / to mold the mountains and shape the continents.” Three new poems by Dan Grossman.

“In Egypt there were many forms of baksheesh, but this was a new one. Pay me or I won’t stop screaming at you in a café. The waiter flicked him off with restless, impatient hands.” Andrew J. Khaled Madigan on strange encounters and unexpected joys.

“It’d have to be tiny to fit in the pocket, unless he’s donned a pair of voluminous clown pants…with lead lined pockets…that won’t alarm border security…Como the Clown with his sizzling junk and a catcher’s mitt the size of an Alsatian.” Ben Allmon busts some out-of-this-world lyrics.

“In the late 1970s, computers were universally exotic. For a nine-year-old kid, any touchable computer had an appeal like that of an expensive sports car or a ring of great power.” Robin Beery on the lost magic of Infocom.

Do you hear the/mynahs singing of food?/The musicians of love,/and island gods?
A new poem by Elizabeth Kuelbs

“If I go Republican, I can do what every right-thinking, decent Republican American should do, which is call the whole lot of them, starting with Trump, a bunch of weak, craven powersuckers.”

“At the end of the book, Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger have to seize Toad Hall back from the weasels and stoats who have taken over in Toad’s absence. Then they throw a party. Like I said: a romp.” Jamie Leigh reviews The Wind in the Willows.

Contributors and staff offer up their picks for the best movies of 2015.

Contributors and staff offer up their picks for the best books of 2015.