A Dragon Swallowed the Bear

A Dragon Swallowed the Bear: Six Stories by Jeremy Campbell

There is violence here. There are monsters and fire, open veins and desperate loves, edges sharp and blunt, animals that appear and fade like melting snow. Jeremy Campbell's stories are neither fables nor fairy tales, and to describe them is to deal in paradox. They are focused, distinct, but they bleed, and when you finish reading you will find traces of their worlds all around you. Yes, there is violence here, both regrettable and regenerative. There is compassion. Creation. Death. And the sigh of resignation which is the breath of life itself.

Look down. Your belly has been unzipped.

Fiction, 23 pp. Click here to download PDF.

Jeremy Campbell was born in Michigan. He lived there and probably somewhere else, too. He studied English Literature at Michigan State University and a few years after that someone took this photo of him in a parking lot. The ground was wet. The suit Jeremy was wearing looked like it was his, but it wasn't. The suit was really good at pretending.

Line Jester and Other Stories

Line Jester and Other Stories by Michael Duncan

The stories in Michael Duncan's debut chapbook collection take the reader through surreal landscapes, where art is both necessary and impossible.

In the title story, a performer meets a colleague who shows him how to take his performance to supernatural heights. "On the Death of the Baroness of Silence" presents a musician who considers an offer of financial security in exchange for hanging up his instrument. "Namelessness" and "On the Occasion of the Downed Wire" examine questions of meaning and identity in circumstances that provide neither.

Throughout his stories, the force of Duncan's ideas is matched with an exacting attention to language and detail. The fables in Line Jester and Other Stories offer a bracing reminder of the power of beauty, and a singular, expressionist aesthetic.

Fiction, 33 pp. Click here to download PDF in new window.

Michael Duncan was born in Michigan and attended Indiana University where he received degrees in Mathematics, Economics, and Psychology. He currently works for W.W. Norton and lives in Harlem.

Also by Michael Duncan: "Suggested List for Further Reading," parts 1 and 2