Collectors by Joan Murray - a woman gets roped into an art selling scheme and realizes she's both been duped, and used as a prop to help dupe others. Best quote: "He was close to my age - in his late forties - which always seems older when it's someone else."
Bajadas by Francisco Cantu - a really great look at new recruits who become border agents in the Southwest. Glimpses of banal cruelty and compassion alike.
Here I am Laughing with Boers by Laurie Baker - an American teacher working in South Africa at the end of apartheid grapples with being one step removed from cultural outrage while still benefiting from the position of privilege it affords her.
Ghost by Meng Jib - the story of an amputee who's missing limb seems to have a mind of its own. Haunting prose which is fitting given the title of the story.
Always One More Way by Alison Wisdom - an excellent look at a soldier living with PTSD in the form of a very present dead friend.
Restitution by Jerry Whitus - a man who has been bullied his entire life takes his revenge.
The poems I liked best in this one were Stutter by Adam Giennelli and Way Above Illinois by George Bilgere.
I even really enjoyed the LookTwo Essay profiling Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernandez who's signature style seemed to be giving inanimate objects a point of view in his stories. While he takes some influence from Faulkner (who I really really have tried to like but don't), he definitely is a voice of his own.
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