Why We Chose It: “Forcemeat” by Henry Goldkamp

“Forcemeat” by Henry Goldkamp was selected for publication by Mid-American Review poetry staff for issue 42.1.

“Forcemeat” brings you into a unique moment between two people as they play a game of deciding if something is more like a muskmelon or muskrat. “The felled log we set on this noon. // That would be muskmelon.” But, more than a game, these images take you as a reader through an emotional journey that is set by the speaker but up to the reader to interpret. The form and spacing works to guide you through the piece, to pause at the right times, to experience the new.

“Forcemeat” is uniquely itself, and unlike many poems we receive in our submissions manager. It was something as poetry editor I’m always keeping my eye out for, something that surprises me, changes me, and lingers. “Forcemeat” was a poem I couldn’t shake. The distinct voice Goldkamp works into this piece helps ground it and give these unnamed characters life. There are many things our editors found to love in this piece, and images that felt distinct to something Mid-American Review gravitates toward. As a reader you walk away with part of this poem following in your shadow, hiding in your mind. It leaves you looking at everything and asking, “Is it closer to a muskmelon, or a muskrat?”

––Megan Borocki, Poetry Editor

Why We Chose It: “Some Kinds of Drifter” by Justin Thurman

Mid-American Review fiction staff selected “Some Kinds of Drifter” by Justin Thurman for publication in Volume XLII.

Thurman’s piece was selected for its overall strength but particularly for its nontraditional use of form and genre. The piece takes the form of an ethnography, detailing the different spiritual and cultural norms common amongst different groups of drifters. Drifters, in this piece, are homeless individuals distinguished from hoboes, who are mentioned but not examined, by the element of choice. “Hoboes are proud of their vagrancy…. Drifters do not suffer from wanderlust to the degree that hoboes might. Drifters have no choice.” The piece also makes use of a cartesian graph upon which individual drifters might be placed to complete the aesthetic of an academic report. 

This notion of choice, and its absence, is an undercurrent throughout the piece that helps to ground it and bring a balance to the absurd sense of humor present throughout. Thurman’s narrator has a strong voice that reads almost as a mix of Ken Burns and Raoul Duke. 

The further details of “Some Kinds of Drifter” are best experienced firsthand, but suffice it to say that the story is one that we on the MAR staff will still find ourselves talking about long after the selection process has ended.

-William Walton, Mid-American Review

Why We Chose It: “Character Sketch for the Oil CEO” by Alyssa Quinn

“Character Sketch for the Oil CEO” by Alyssa Quinn will be featured in an upcoming issue of Mid-American Review.

“Character Sketch for the Oil CEO” by Alyssa Quinn is an astounding metafictional work that shifts the authorial lens back onto the author (fictional, in this case). Though the story maps out the traits and behaviors of an oil CEO, the story also reveals the biases and preferences of the writer, an implicit character in the narrative. The writer deliberates over whether the CEO can be blamed for the cataclysmic oil spill his company has likely caused. The writer agonizes over this guilt in the same way the character might: “he is just a single person in such a large system, does he really matter that much, can he really be blamed? Can he?” The unfamiliarity of hearing this wavering from the writer exposes the tendency of writers to replicate themselves in their characters.

This story also challenges perceptions of how real characters are and what their creators owe them. Intimate description is usually considered a fundamental tool of characterization: an achievement when used well. Quinn makes it feel like an invasion. “You could follow him into the shower, describe the way he washes.” We chose this piece not because it sketches an Oil CEO well—though it does—but because it makes us doubt whether we should be sketching him at all. Perhaps he does not want to be “summoned by every sentence.”

—Daniel Marcantuono, MAR

Why We Chose It: “Daughter” by Dana Deihl

Daughter by Dana Deihl was selected for publication by Mid-American Review staff for Vol. XLI.

Daughter is a piece of magical realist fiction that centers around the story of a mother who gives birth to a ghost baby. For reasons unknown, the baby daughter is translucent, floats above surfaces, and has cold breath. Separated from her husband because of a snowstorm, the mother desperately attempts to suppress feelings of aversion to him. Thus, all by herself, the ghost baby’s mother tries to discern her newborn’s condition, hoping that her daughter will be able to lead a normal life growing up. On her husband’s insistence, she agrees to see a doctor, who adds more mystery to the existence of the ghost baby. 

This story has a unique plot and a compelling voice that perfectly blends these magical elements with reality. The poetic narration and vivid imagery beautifully capture a mother’s confusing yet exhilarating postpartum experience, especially one who birthed a ghost baby. The complex character of the mother and the mystery surrounding the existence of her ghost daughter holds readers’ interest until the end and leaves them wanting more.

—Tooba Amin, MAR

Why We Chose It: ”On The Cape of Sleep and Wellbeing”

On the Cape of Sleep and Wellbeing, by Drew Calvin McCutchen, was selected for publication this spring and published in Mid-American Review Vol. XLI.

On the Cape of Sleep and Wellbeing is a magical story about dreams, community, and the human experience. Readers follow one girl who, for no fault of her own, is unable to join in a dream shared by the entire town each day at 4pm. The story follows her as she attempts to navigate this lonely existence, disconnected from her peers’ reality, reaching for connection by painting them as they dream. The strengths of this piece are its voice, the clear imagery of the town, and the originality of the plot. In its exploration of one character who finds herself living at odds with her community, this story draws influence from folklore, but though it may remind us of some fairy tales we grew up hearing, this story, reminiscent of folk horror, ramps up its tension to an explosive ending that’s as original as it is hard to forget. 

—Samuel Burt and Chloe McConnell, MAR