“Companion” by Ray Caesar

As a publishing intern, I sometimes have the great honor of reading slush pile submissions. FC2 takes all submissions seriously, and even when we reject a manuscript, we don’t send a form letter. Whoever has made the final decision to reject sits down and writes a personal rejection. We praise the merits of the work and specify why we’ve chosen to reject it. When a manuscript is recommended for the next phase of the evaluation process, we write up a reader’s report and pass it along.

Among such submissions that I’ve gone through recently include those of Catherine Kasper and Rebecca Cook. Judging from an AWP panel I attended, more men than women submit for publication, period. I believe I’ve mentioned previously that FC2 is committed to publishing work by women, and perhaps this contributes to the high number of submissions we receive from women. Anyway, I happened to really love the work of these two authors. And though I don’t have a say during the “higher” phases of manuscript evaluation, I can at least pass their names and some of their work along to my readers.

Catherine Kasper’s work is earthy and dark, and she’s a bit fascinated by human anatomy and medical miscellany. Her writing reminded me a little bit of Kate Bernheimer’s, and Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical sketches kept flashing before my eyes as I read. She’s an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and she writes fiction and poetry.

Fiction:
“Rain”
“this is your only warning”
Poetry:
“A Child’s Encyclopedia: St. John’s Wort, Marmot Monax”

Rebecca Cook’s writing has strong elements of humor, even though she deals with topics (this is just a random sampling) such as attempted suicide, pedophilia, and feces smearing. So, it’s dark, but in a different way than most of the dark stuff I read. There are strong emotional (do not read sappy) elements, and one of her stories (I couldn’t find it online) left me bawling. I’m usually repelled by writing that makes me cry, but this story was different. It sneakily tapped into a burried memory, and I started to cry after the last sentence. That’s powerful writing, and I didn’t feel manipulated by it at all. Cook teaches at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

You can find links to her fiction here. I recommend “Soaping the Stream.” You can find links to her poetry here.

Happy reading.