LITnIMAGE – Spring 2012
Issue 16
Spring 2012
Quarterly
Kirsten McIlvenna
LITnIMAGE fuses flash fiction with edgy visual art to make a quirky online mag. My favorite piece from this issue is Justin Lawrence Daughtery’s “The Lobster Queen” which uses the symbol of the last lobster left in the tank at the grocery store to represent a young woman’s view on life. I loved the subtle hints and details, the interactions between the narrator and her sister and father, and the language that is used throughout. I was eager to read on after the first paragraph:
LITnIMAGE fuses flash fiction with edgy visual art to make a quirky online mag. My favorite piece from this issue is Justin Lawrence Daughtery’s “The Lobster Queen” which uses the symbol of the last lobster left in the tank at the grocery store to represent a young woman’s view on life. I loved the subtle hints and details, the interactions between the narrator and her sister and father, and the language that is used throughout. I was eager to read on after the first paragraph:
I tell Layla, my nine-year-old sister, to go to the end of the aisle, open a box of condoms (which I tell her are balloons), and put them in her pockets. Her clueless eyes widen. She sticks the rest of her chocolate bar in her mouth and drops the wrapper. I flick her curly, crimson hair. We play this game sometimes. I tell her to steal something and she does it and I pretend it’s okay. This way, if she gets caught, no skin off my dick. If I had one.
There is more worth reading in this issue including a story told through five phone conversations by Jeremy Britton, a weaving of narrative and skeptical look at popular television shows by Ella Fishman, and an excerpt and interview with Harold Jaffe about his most recent book OD: Docufictions. Of course, check out the images as well; they blend together well with the fiction to make a well-rounded magazine.
[www.litnimage.com]