Amarillo Bay Contents
Volume 13 Number 1
We are pleased to present the first issue of our thirteenth year, published on Monday, 14 February 2011. We hope you enjoy browsing through our extensive collection of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry! (See the Works List to discover the over 500 works in our collection, including the ability to search through the issues.)
Fiction
Bambuko's
by David W. Landrum
David W. Landrum
David W. Landrum teaches fiction and creative writing at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has published The Aphrodite Syndrome, an on-line novel, as well as short fiction in Potomac Review and Nocturne Horizons. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Web Del Sol, Driftwood Review, Satire, Mastodon Dentist, and Prism. This is his third appearance in Amarillo Bay.
Then Sossity saw the name of the man who had organized the concert.
Tonya noticed her reaction.
"You know this guy?"
Sossity looked down at the name on the contract.
"I played a couple of gigs at a bar he owned way back when."
"Did he cheat you out of money?"
"Everybody cheated me out of money in those days." She folded up the paper. "No, it's fine."
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Enlightenment
by Susan Gerry
Susan Gerry
After graduating from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, Susan Gerry moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where she worked for Servicio Linguistico Empresarial, as an ESL teacher and translator. She now works for the Department of Human Services in Rockland, Maine, helping families transition from welfare into the work force. She has recently completed a literary mainstream novel, Carnival Mirrors, and is working on a second novel, Rogue Waves, and a collection of short stories.
Menachem was a tenured professor of maritime studies at College of the Atlantic. He had several books of maritime history to his credit, including Lobster Wars of the Maine Coast and Ghosts of New England Lighthouses, two slender volumes now widely used as reference books. As much as he loved teaching, Menachem was enjoying his summer vacation to the max. He yawned, stretched, scratched his hairless chest, and rolled over to reach for his wife, Abby. Strands of wavy, blond Jesus-hair, smelling cleanly of Abby's Herbal Essence Shampoo, draped across his face. He did not brush them away. They were one more reminder of his good fortune, the gift of physical beauty.
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The Predicament of Otto Ratalli
by Robert Wexelblatt
Robert Wexelblatt
Robert Wexelblatt is professor of humanities at Boston University's College of General Studies. He has published essays, stories, and poems in a wide variety of journals, including Amarillo Bay; two story collections, Life in the Temperate Zone and The Decline of Our Neighborhood; and a book of essays, Professors at Play. His recent novel, Zublinka Among Women, won the Indie Book Awards First Prize for Fiction.
"Thank you."
The walls of the dressing room were venerable. How much talent had prepared itself within them, stared at them as he was doing. Ratalli ran his supple fingers over the dressing table, caressing phantom keys.
When he was a child and failed to perform a proper dive the first time or to assemble a puzzle or hit the bull's eye, Otto would scream, punch the side of his head, roll on the ground. The compulsion to behave in this fashion was a bodily thing; it began in the gut and filled his frame. He still felt that incubus agitating in his gut, but now as a kind, happy ferment.
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Security Risk
by Mark Lyons
Mark Lyons
Mark Lyons lives in Philadelphia. He has published stories in several literary magazines, including Evergreen, Whetstone (JP McGrath Memorial Award), Bucks County Writer, Sensations, the Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts, Piker Press, and Wild River Review. He is a recipient of Pennsylvania Council of the Arts fellowships for 2003 and 2009, and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He wrote, edited and translated Espejos y Ventanas / Mirrors and Windows, Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and Their Families, which is published in Spanish and English by Syracuse University Press. He currently works as co-director of the Philadelphia Storytelling Project, which works with immigrants and teens to produce audio stories about their lives.
"Thought I heard that seat. Coffee for starters? Menu?"
"Black, thanks." Marlene, her name tag above the left pocket of her blouse, starts a fresh pot in the Bunn coffee maker.
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Creative Nonfiction
Part 1: Chiang Rai: The Peanut Butter Odyssey
by Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare is Professor of Humanities and Religions at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS (a suburb of Kansas City). While all of his previous published writing has been academic in nature, these essay selections represent his first published creative non-fiction work. They also represent his ongoing love affair with the Kingdom of Thailand, which has been the focus of his personal and professional life for twenty-five years.
But my feline lassitude was rudely interrupted by a realization that hit me like a brick in the head: there is no food in the house. On the previous evening, I had casually noted that my little refrigerator contained a ball of day-old sticky rice, a half of a guava, and some ice cubes (hmm…with professorial astuteness, I concluded that this is probably why I went out for dinner last night). As much as I like sticky rice, guava and ice, when I say "there is no food in the house," I refer to the essentials: coffee, Thai instant noodles, bourbon. But let's get serious—even more serious than bourbon—I am out of peanut butter. On the plus side, it's Saturday; had I made this grim discovery on a weekday, the crisis might have forced me to cancel my classes.
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Part 2: The Japanese Refrigerator Incident
by Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare is Professor of Humanities and Religions at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS (a suburb of Kansas City). While all of his previous published writing has been academic in nature, these essay selections represent his first published creative non-fiction work. They also represent his ongoing love affair with the Kingdom of Thailand, which has been the focus of his personal and professional life for twenty-five years.
There are, however, various facets of human knowledge that transcend cultural consciousness and national borders. Regardless of where one is from or how one was raised, there are certain truths that are universally accepted as so. These include the following:
- Do not use a wire coat hanger to check if a wall outlet is working or not.
- If you see some green food in the refrigerator, ask the following questions:
- Is it a vegetable?
- Is it a fruit?
- Is it Jello
- If it is not broken, there is really no valid reason for attempting to fix it.
- Do not force something to happen faster if it is going to happen of its own accord anyway.
It is through the lens of this final truth that we shall consider the Japanese Refrigerator Incident.
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Part 3: The Patawngo Connection (A Fantasy)
by Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare
Timothy Hoare is Professor of Humanities and Religions at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS (a suburb of Kansas City). While all of his previous published writing has been academic in nature, these essay selections represent his first published creative non-fiction work. They also represent his ongoing love affair with the Kingdom of Thailand, which has been the focus of his personal and professional life for twenty-five years.
"What the heck is a patawngo?" the uninitiated and untraveled soul might inquire. What is a patawngo—why, you might as well ask, what is love, what is God, what is the source of life, or what on earth possessed me to wear stretchy polyester shirts during the disco era (although the more fundamental question would be what on earth possessed us to have a disco era in the first place). Some mysteries are not open to discursive explanation. But I will do my utmost to address the essential question of the patawngo.
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Poetry
Alice: 283 Mt. Vernon
by Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon has just finished work on her first novel: Love Fits Itself, which is currently being shopped by her agent. Prior to writing fiction and poetry, she worked as a reporter at the NPR member station in Detroit and as an editorial production assistant for National Geographic magazine. She graduated from Kenyon College and received her M.S. in Journalism from Ohio University. Her work is upcoming in The Kenyon Review On-Line. She has been published in Flashquake, Red Wheelbarrow, The Windsor Review and several other journals. She lives in Michigan with her husband and children.
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Fatima: 212 Mt. Vernon
by Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon has just finished work on her first novel: Love Fits Itself, which is currently being shopped by her agent. Prior to writing fiction and poetry, she worked as a reporter at the NPR member station in Detroit and as an editorial production assistant for National Geographic magazine. She graduated from Kenyon College and received her M.S. in Journalism from Ohio University. Her work is upcoming in The Kenyon Review On-Line. She has been published in Flashquake, Red Wheelbarrow, The Windsor Review and several other journals. She lives in Michigan with her husband and children.
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Gina I: 224 Mt. Vernon
by Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon has just finished work on her first novel: Love Fits Itself, which is currently being shopped by her agent. Prior to writing fiction and poetry, she worked as a reporter at the NPR member station in Detroit and as an editorial production assistant for National Geographic magazine. She graduated from Kenyon College and received her M.S. in Journalism from Ohio University. Her work is upcoming in The Kenyon Review On-Line. She has been published in Flashquake, Red Wheelbarrow, The Windsor Review and several other journals. She lives in Michigan with her husband and children.
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Gina II: 224 Mt. Vernon
by Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon
Kelly Fordon has just finished work on her first novel: Love Fits Itself, which is currently being shopped by her agent. Prior to writing fiction and poetry, she worked as a reporter at the NPR member station in Detroit and as an editorial production assistant for National Geographic magazine. She graduated from Kenyon College and received her M.S. in Journalism from Ohio University. Her work is upcoming in The Kenyon Review On-Line. She has been published in Flashquake, Red Wheelbarrow, The Windsor Review and several other journals. She lives in Michigan with her husband and children.
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Geriatrics
by John M. Brantingham
John M. Brantingham
John M. Brantingham has had over a hundred poems and stories published in magazines in America and England such as Tears in the Fence, Askew, Confrontation, The Journal, Pearl, Freefall, The Acorn, and The Wandering Dog. He is one of two fiction editors for The Chiron Review. He was recently featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Mostly it happens in an afternoon
or maybe one early morning.
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A Jungle of Tears
by Stacy Campbell
Stacy Campbell
Stacy Campbell lives in Hurst, Texas. She teaches special education language arts, and sponsors a poetry club at her high school. In her free time she plays the guitar, writes poetry and short stories, and drinks very cold beer. She is previously published in The Texas Observer, Writer’s Digest, North Texas Professional Writer’s Anthology, The Teachers Voice, Orange Room Review, Splash of Red, The Smoking Poet and other on-line publications. She was a Commendation Award Winner from The Society of Southwestern Authors.
all that is left of my mother.
I wander from here to there
thick words stuck in my throat
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Limbo
by Ann Robinson
Ann Robinson
Ann Robinson's work has appeared in American Literary Review, Connecticut Review, Fourteen Hills, New York Quarterly, Passager, Poet Lore, The Portland Review, RiverSedge, Sanskrit, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Spoon River Poetry Review, Willow Review, and Zone 3, among others.
After receiving a B.A. in English literature from Lindenwood University, she attended the M.F.A. program at the University of Arkansas. In addition to owning a farming operation in Arkansas, she is also a legal clerk in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court of Marin County, California. She has been the recipient of the John Spaemer Award for Outstanding Fiction, a Marin Arts Council grant, and a scholarship to study at a Hofstra University conference. She's also studied with Kathleen Fraser, Miller Williams, and Thomas Centolella.
I quit searching along the ravine behind my house,
the brambles and trail of cicada,
the creek that lead into neighborhoods
and late afternoon silence.
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Works List
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Useful Links
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Works by Issue
Works are published the first Monday of February, the third Monday of May, the first Monday of August, and the first Monday of November.
| 2011, Volume 13 |
Number 1, 14 February 2011 — Current Issue |
| 2010, Volume 12 |
Number 4, 1 November 2010 Number 3, 2 August 2010 Number 2, 17 May 2010 Number 1, 1 February 2010 |
| 2009, Volume 11 |
Number 4, 2 November 2009 Number 3, 3 August 2009 Number 2, 18 May 2009 Number 1, 2 February 2009 |
| 2008, Volume 10 |
Number 4, 3 November 2008 Number 4, 18 August 2008 Number 2, 19 May 2008 Number 1, 11 February 2008 |
| 2007, Volume 9 |
Number 4, 12 November 2007 Number 3, 6 August 2007 Number 2, 7 May 2007 Number 1, 5 February 2007 |
| 2006, Volume 8 |
Number 4, 6 November 2006 Number 3, 7 August 2006 Number 2, 8 May 2006 Number 1, 6 February 2006 |
| 2005, Volume 7 |
Number 4, 7 November 2005 Number 3, 8 August 2005 Number 2, 2 May 2005 Number 1, 7 February 2005 |
| 2004, Volume 6 |
Number 4, 1 October 2004 Number 3, 2 August 2004 Number 2, 3 May 2004 Number 1, 2 February 2004 |
| 2003, Volume 5 |
Number 4, 3 November 2003 Number 3, 4 August 2003 Number 2, 5 April 2003 Number 1, 3 February 2003 |
| 2002, Volume 4 |
Number 4, 4 November 2002 Number 3, 5 August, 2002 Number 2, 6 May 2002 Number 1, 4 February 2002 |
| 2001, Volume 3 |
Number 4, 5 November 2001 Number 3, 6 August 2001 Number 2, 7 May 2001 Number 1, 5 February 2001 |
| 2000, Volume 2 |
Number 4, 6 November 2000 Number 3, 7 August 2000 Number 2, 1 May 2000 Number 1, 7 February 2000 |
| 1999, Volume 1 |
Number 3, 1 November 1999 Number 2, 2 August 1999 Number 1, 3 May 1999 |