Knee-Jerk

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A Note from the Editors

Knee-Jerk is currently seeking the following:

 ·       Creative nonfiction – personal, lyric, traditional, and experimental essays, journalism, musings, anecdotes, lists, humor pieces, etc.; while hateful rants and formal and/or academic criticism have their places, this site is unfortunately not such a place.

 ·       Interview queries – we will consider pitches for interviews with authors, graphic novelists, painters, musicians, and pretty much anyone else involved in the arts. Interviews with scientists and very old and/or wise people are also encouraged.

* See our Contact/Submissions page for more information.

 

Manifesto by David Shields

I want the veil of “let’s pretend” out. I don’t like to be carried into purely fanciful circumstances. The never-never lands of the imagination don’t interest me that much. Beckett decided that everything was false to him, almost, in art, with its designs and formulae. He wanted art, but he wanted it right from life. He didn’t like, finally, that Joycean voice that was too abundant, too Irish, endlessly lyrical, endlessly allusive. He went into French to cut down. He wanted to directly address desperate individual existence, which bores many readers.

 

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Knee-Jerk Talks with Billy Lombardo

How does your experience of a being father fit into this?

I guess that was part of the evolution of what this book became. I felt very connected to the father who was shaping him through this. We don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. Sometimes I feel like I’m father of the year, other times I’m like, “How do you do that?” You know, to your kid, how do you say that?

 

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Excerpt from The Man with Two Arms by Billy Lombardo

 

Henry licked his cone and peeked at Danny over the hill of ice cream. A chocolate smear circled his mouth like a clown’s smile. His hand was clamped around his ice cream and the first knuckle of his index finger poked through the cone. A wet glob dripped over the crotch of his thumb.

Henry steadied Danny’s hands in his own and began licking away at the mess of the ice cream cone in an effort to salvage it, and Danny screamed, finally surrendering the ice cream cone to his father as Lori erupted through the door of the Brown Cow.

 

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Colony Collapse by Donna Vitucci

Our workers, those hardy souls, have found new logs, new tin drums. We and the queen shall stir here to the end. Our purpose is her purpose. Our duty is her. It is she we serve. And despite our stockpiles, we just don't feel like eating. The taste of the wind has changed. More than the shift of seasons; that one's in our DNA, September swarm around any sweet dying thing. This smells apocalyptic.

 

 

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Duly Noted by Eric Bennett

Udo orders seven cases of artificial spray snow. Stacked in the entryway, the cardboard boxes contain twelve thirteen-ounce cans each, and stand as tall as a six-foot, three-inch Christmas tree. And though it may be logical to order artificial snow in Arizona, Udo has other appropriations for the aerosol flurries than festive embellishment.

 

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Rainbow Relaxation: A Review of My Pregnancy at Seven Months by Jessica Glass

At seven months pregnant, hoping to achieve natural childbirth, I am practicing a technique called Rainbow Relaxation. My husband is a mother bird, propping me up with pillows behind my neck and between my knees. He draws up the quilt. It was a wedding gift, and picking out just the right pattern was a labor of love.

 

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Cheese on Carbs by Maggie Ritchie

Cheese fries, according the study, have been found to increase one’s sex drive; pizza makes teeth whiter and raises SAT scores by 50 percent; nachos clear the skin; and, the natural fairy dust from which cheese is made, combined with the happy thoughts that are inherent when eating nachos, can, in fact, cause spontaneous flight.

 

 

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The Knee-Jerk Monthly Poll

What Conversation Heart Would You Give K-J For Valentine's Day?