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The Pinch – Spring 2007

Volume 27 Issue 1

Spring 2007

Biannual

Christopher Gibson

The Pinch offers a strong variety of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction with a few interviews thrown in the mix. Although poetry is a strength of The Pinch, the narratives shine the brightest in this excellent literary magazine. J. Malcolm Garcia led off the issue’s creative non-fiction with “Leave Taking,” a retelling of his experience of going to a brothel simply “for a beer.”

The Pinch offers a strong variety of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction with a few interviews thrown in the mix. Although poetry is a strength of The Pinch, the narratives shine the brightest in this excellent literary magazine. J. Malcolm Garcia led off the issue’s creative non-fiction with “Leave Taking,” a retelling of his experience of going to a brothel simply “for a beer.” Randy Rudder’s “Fallujah” is an articulate account of his attempt to use camping as an escape from the reality of the Iraq War. While camping, Rudder meets a soldier on the verge of deployment to Iraq, out camping with his pregnant wife. It is then that he realizes that even a vacation is not an escape from the reality of war. The short fiction also reflects The Pinch’s strong selection of literature and art. The story that stands out the most is Patrick Thomas Casey’s “It’s Rough Out Here for Dogs.” Casey’s story gives us a glimpse into the frustrations of a man who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. Those frustrations range from an interrupted sex life to the tragedy of leaving his young daughter fatherless. In addition to the well-written literature, the issue also offers some very intriguing artwork. Sexuality reverberates throughout Jada Thompson’s first three pieces, “Peterbilt,” “Implied Consent,” and “Floorplay”; however, Thompson’s choice of colors and subject matter (two women and a Peterbilt sign; a woman giving consent to bees; two men wrestling) make you want to see what she tackles next. [cas.memphis.edu/english/pinch/home/home.htm]

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