Literary

Peach Picks: What to Read This Week

by / Jan. 10, 2017 11pm EST

 ON PEACH

Memento Mori,” a poem by Geoffrey Gatza, the editor and publisher of local press BlazeVOX, was featured on Peach last week. With its title translating to “a reminder of death,” this poem of Gatza’s seems to recount a last afternoon, relishing in the simplicities of the world inhabited by its speaker. The line, “As if all dreams were possible in the vastness,” is haunting.

Yesterday we featured Seattle-based poet Angie Sijun Lou’s gorgeous poem, “You keep me up at night.” Reading like a hopeful and intimate conversation between lovers, the primary speaker recounts their life and relationship, interjecting “you” with time stamped text messages. “You keep me up at night cause you can’t/ stop talking. We lay our bodies down &/ your anxiety rots like fruit/ on the vine—/ you (2:58 am): ‘can i just say one last thing & then i’ll be done. just one last thing i swear.’”


 IN PRINT

You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine (novel)
by Alexandra Kleeman
Harper Perennial, 304 pages

Alexandra Kleeman’s debut novel, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, is a whirlwind of the strange, and was by far my favorite novel of 2016. Equally absurd and intelligent, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine is a story about the mundanities within the lives of nameless characters A, B, and C. Weaved within the narrative are introspections on body image and the effects of marketing, advertising, and obsessive consumption on young women in today’s world.


 ON PEACH & IN PRINT

An Indoor Kind of Girl (short stories)
by Frankie Barnet

Metatron Press, 68 pages

Frankie Barnet’s short story, “A Plot of Ocean,” was the second feature ever on our site and a hit when she read it at our launch party in August, which doubled for Barnet as a stop on her book tour for her debut collection of stories, An Indoor Kind of Girl. “A Plot of Ocean” is the last piece in this beautiful collection out from Metatron Press, and as a unanimous favorite among the three of us, was chosen as our fourth and final Pushcart Prize nominee. In this story, central character Angela travels to Australia and is confronted by the baby she “didn’t keep.” Clever and playful, this magically realist short story is a must-read.


“Peach Picks” is a new column of literary news and recommendations written by the editors of Peach Mag, an online literary magazine based in Buffalo, New York. For inquiries, contact Rachelle at peachmgzn@gmail.com.

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