Good morning, everyone. I hope you've had a good week. Here's what we've got for you to read:

Grace Novarr, a new writer for us, reviewed True Failure by Alex Higley which will be published by Coffee House Press in a few days. You'll find more of Grace's work here.

Our featured story this week is "Favor" by Aharon Levy, also appearing in our pages for the first time. 

And in research notes, past contributor Jonathan Taylor returned to write about A Physical Education: On Bullying, Discipline & Other Lessons  (Goldsmiths Press) and how the techniques of fiction contributed to writing a memoir.

Congratulations to contributor Corey Farrenkopf, whose story collection Haunted Ecologies is newly published by Journalstone.

And more congratulations to our friends at Barrelhouse, which is celebrating its twentieth year and twenty-fifth issue, as contributor Dave Housley writes about here in his editor's note. Barrelhouse has long set the standard for publishing good work, being good people, and building good community. When I started Necessary Fiction back in 2009, at the invitation of James Stegall and Amy Guth of So New Media, my aim was to make a litmag that could be half as good as Barrelhouse, Pindeldyboz, and Monkeybicycle, among others. If you'd like to experience the Barrelhouse community for yourself, I highly recommend their upcoming Conversations & Connections conference coming up in Washington, DC in April. And I'm honored to have an essay of my own appear in their new issue. 

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Steve Himmer