Outlaws and Outsiders is the theme of Blood Lotus #19, an online quarterly which has been publishing poetry, fiction and other hybrid forms since 2006. The pieces collected here, presented in an elegant and streamlined online viewer, one of the best this reviewer has ever seen, are as much a celebration of the individual at…

“Man, who the hell is they and who the frig is us?” asks one of the characters in Tiphanie Yanique’s story “Kill the Rabbits” from her 2010 collection How to Escape from a Leper Colony. The phrase “kill the rabbits” comes from a popular song, and it means, one character explains to another, to kill…

What are the parents of handicapped children allowed to say about their experience? That it is hard, of course, that they are sad, yes. But how about a father admitting that he feels like closing his eyes and pressing a little harder on the gas pedal when driving the kids home from school? This avowal…

New York. New Year’s Eve. Part One of Quim Monzo’s Gasoline begins with Heribert Julia, a successful contemporary artist in preparation for a large gallery show. Heribert has three weeks to complete a staggering number of paintings. We are told this usually wouldn’t be a problem, only now he can’t seem to focus. Moving forward…

Happy New Year and welcome to Necessary Fiction’s first book review. I’d like to quickly say hello and mention how delighted I am to begin work here as reviews editor. I’d also like to explain why I selected Joanna Ruocco’s novel The Mothering Coven for our first review. First and foremost, it is an excellent…