#4: Poetry by Lenny DellaRocca
SEEING ELVIS Some folks see Jesus in a stormy sky.A woman in Vicksburg, Michigansaw Elvis in a grocery store. The cook at Tammy’s Luncheonettetwirls his finger at his templewhen asked about her.In the late ‘60s,I remember a man who saidJesse Presley replaced his twin—He was Fat Elvis in Vegas,he was the one pumped full of […]
#3: Nonfiction by Ellie Zumbach
A LIGHT IN THE BARN And on the eighth day, God looked down on His planned paradise and said,“I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer. – Paul Harvey My father usually wakes up before the sky breaks in the morning. He watches the sun crack open over the hills like an egg, spilling […]
Weekly Favorites: “Sweet Rotten” by Jen Michalski
Jen Michalski is one of those people who knows everyone else in the literary community. She is one of the kindest, most thoughtful among our ranks. I was so very grateful when Jen sent us “Sweet Rotten” for inclusion in the first issue of Cobalt Review eight years ago, and it has remained one of […]
#1: Poetry by Rebecca Pyle
BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE Because I did not have, I had more,Had a horse who could turn six waysInstead of stare, a house wonderfully cool When all other houses were closed, hot.My clothes had awkwardness guaranteed:No fretting the hem or the edges, whether They were like others’. I was inside them.Why I was free to wander […]
Weekly Favorites: Rafe Posey Reviews Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Rafe Posey, one of Cobalt’s founders and its first fiction editor, has been writing book reviews since 1989, when he found himself admiring a photo book called The Dog in Art. We miss him dearly, but are ever-grateful for the time he spent with Cobalt. I especially love this 2012 review for its take on […]
Weekly Favorites: “The Last Original Guitar Riff in G” by Tom Williams
Here’s one of the snazziest stand-alone pieces we’ve published. Thanks to the great Tom Williams, who first came to Cobalt through the Four Fathers collection with Dave Housley, BL Pawelek, and Ben Tanzer. Tom is among the finest. Go read Don’t Start Me Talkin’. Immediately. THE LAST ORIGINAL GUITAR RIFF IN G Our work doesn’t bring us […]
Weekly Favorites: Victor LaValle, the Cobalt Interview
(Photo: Teddy Wolff, via Guernica) Victor LaValle is the author of a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus, four novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, & The Changeling, and two novellas, Lucretia and the Kroons and The Ballad of Black Tom. Below is a 2014 interview with Publisher Andrew Keating, published in Cobalt: […]
Weekly Favorites: “Moles” by Timmy Reed
I can’t not love this short story by Timmy Reed. Over the past 7+ years, I’ve pointed to this as an example of the type of fiction I love most. It’s made its way into half a dozen creative writing classes. I’ve even given a dramatic reading of it at Timmy’s book launch event. Hopefully, […]
Cobalt Review: Issue 21
And now it’s time…to say… Well, it’s not really goodbye. It’s just the last standard issue of Cobalt Review. With the launch of the Cobalt Weekly comes the conclusion of the issues series that’s been rolling since 2011. Don’t worry, the Baseball Issue will live on. And we’ll keep bringing you books and books and […]
Publisher’s Note: Introducing the Cobalt Weekly
Greetings! It has been a wild eight years. We’ve published twenty online issues, six baseball issues, four print volumes, interviews with dozens of authors, and a slew of guest blogs and book reviews. That doesn’t even factor the eight books (and five on the way). But, things change, right? We’ve expanded our staff in the […]