Welcome to Saturday, friends.

Last Sunday evening I went to hear the Swedish folk duo Väsen play. What a show! The members have played together for more than 37 years now, and to watch two musicians who know each other so well and who have such a deep friendship as evident in the stories they told between tunes, was a rare thing. There was a great energy in the audience, too, and I thought about what it means to be well-known and respected in a small sphere (Swedish folk music enthusiasts, say) versus in the wider realm of pop stars. I'm sure there's slightly more money in being Taylor Swift but you don't get to thank her personally and shake her hand on your way out of the club at the end of a show, I'm willing to bet.

It's sleeting here right now, for some reason, despite being spring, but have a listen to one of my favorite Väsen tunes "Hymn till sommernätter (Hymn to summer nights)" and I hope you enjoy it. And while you listen you can read what we published this week:

On Monday, Emily Webber reviewed  A Lesser Light by Peter Geye from University of Minnesota Press. Emily has been reviewing books for Necessary Fiction since 2019, and we're always grateful to see more writing from her. 

And this week's featured story was "On Crossing the Atlantic in the Fall of 1976 as a Five-Year-Old" by James Gibbs, appearing in our pages for the first time.

Elsewhere, Josh Denslow's collection Magic Can't Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure will be published early in May by University of New Orleans Press and is available for preorder now.

And submissions are open for our annual October series of spooky stories until May 5.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Steve Himmer