On Flocks and Rocks Ean Bevel I’m a native Texan, so I get my first gun at five, a few years after most of my peers. I kneel in the dirt between rows of tomato plants and lower my aim onto the blue bird. I shoot. The bird flies up to its ceramic house hanging…

Underside Katharine Coldiron Kathy Ireland has an unfortunate voice. It is high and squeaky and entirely unpleasant, like someone’s unfunny imitation of a dumb-blonde voice. As a contemporary Letterman appearance proves, she is not faking this voice for the movie role of Wanda Saknussemm in the 1988 Golan-Globus film Alien from L.A. Kathy Ireland’s voice…

Drunk and Pregnant in Paris Jane Hammons In 1988 we move to Paris. We have some reason to believe we might find success as artists if we take some time off from our day jobs. I quit my job teaching writing at UC Berkeley. Michael quits his job with a gasoline torch manufacturing company. As…

Dream States Emma Rault i. My dad speaks to me in my dream. It’s the first dream since he died in which he isn’t dying or crying, or telling me how awfully I’ve let him down in some drawn-out argument. In the dream, I’m getting ready to make a decision about setting out on a…

Water on Mars Matthew Fairchild On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 left the solar system. It was an unassuming occasion, marked only by an increase in pressure around the spacecraft. It didn’t hit a wall, burn up, or run over an angel. Instead it simply started noticing that the sloughed off plasma and dust floating…