The new issue of Chelsea, a New York literary journal, starts with ten short stories edited by poet Rush Rankin. The stories – each one being fully realized on its own – work particularly well together. They flow while still maintaining a variety that absorbed me as a reader. One story by Wednesday Kirwin shows in visual detail an artist’s interaction with a captive praying mantis; another story by Pabro La Rosa reveals an Afro-Cuban jam session in which the musicians honor a murdered friend.

Originally posted 3.18.2005