fearsome critter: any creature from early

lumberjack folklore said to inhabit the

FEARSOME
fearsome critters
wildernesses of North America.

vo l u m e 1
vo l . 1
CRITTERS
a millennial arts journal
F e a r s o m e
c r i t t e r s
vo l u m e 1 2018
EDITOR OF PROSE
Bailey Weese
EDITOR OF POETRY
Anthony Procopio Ross
EDITOR OF VISUAL ART
Korbin Jones
CONTENT ASSISTANTS
Kohl Moutray, Anna Bagoly,
Angel Etima Ette-Umoh, Shandy Guffey
COVER ART & DESIGN
Korbin Jones
Copyright 2018 Fearsome Critters
All rights reserved
POETRY
Alaz Ada narcissus on a boat 60
Pazarlık 61
act two 62
Amy Bauer Paternal/Maternal 98
Mara Benowitz National Eulogy 138
“Thoughts & prayers” 139
Jeffrey Burghauser The Newborn is Driven Home 4
Violet Callis Felix Culpa 40
Priyam Goswami Choudhury genesis 100
elle chu self-portrait as a mound of roses 5
you’re on fire 5
Marlee Cox {Homebody} 48
{West of the Cul-de-Sac} 50
Caroline Dehart diary of an anorexic girl 125
Ryan Drendel On Our First Date 148
Meg Eden 9/11 poem 137
Elena Ender The mug my mom probably just got
from Marshall’s back in the early ‘90s 54
Antony Fangary Inland Empire 133
Natalie Gallaher It’s Coming 66
Mónica Gomery Now we live together 77
Julia Guarch One More “Lived Through,” Not Lived 97
Zoe Hanna pushover 66
Ripley 66
Ashley Imlay our generation has had no great war* 97
Elena Jackendoff Something Rots 88
Sarah T. Jewell Getting Ready for Christ’s Party 82
Anastasia Jill Subversive 17
From: A Lolita 18
Catherine Jones The air in the room 1
Ben Jorisch This Thing of Fire 64
Merkin Karr Goodbyes Taste Like Kalopsia 34
Thoughts on Being a Witch 38
 The Newborn is Driven Home
Jeffrey Burghauser
Macerating through its sleeve,
a newborn affirms through retching hips
that the spheres of God & Man still heave
into something like eclipse.
The event of labour must
ands stimulate a man’s doubt—just
before it requires he believe.

God curses on our own terms,

but He blesses only on His own.
After all, the Decalogue affirms
that the most a man has shown
of a filial regard
is mere honor. Though, when jarred
by presentiments of shameless worms,

we presume His total love.

It would make so much more sense to me
e your prints. were we all invited to believe
that creation’s currency
is (now & forever hence)
unambitious tolerance—
a bleak & renewable reprieve.

Theology’s basic chore

is to persuade us that Home is some-
thing other than the thing that wore
the forgettable & numb
burdens of the commonplace.
“The calligraphy of Grace,”
it affirms, “assigned you something more.”
 C O N T R I B U TO R S
Alaz Ada (1998) is from İstanbul. She’s a student of the social sciences. She aspires to be a writer and
translator. She spends her time learning languages, waiting tables, cooking and assisting journalists.
Pearse Anderson (1998) is a writer and photographer studying fiction in Oberlin College. He dedicates
“Leaving the Tall Society” to Emily, Gillian, Joe, Dan Chaon, and the rest of his workshop group.
Abbey Archer (2001) likes to work out even though it sucks and makes YouTube videos. One fun fact
is that she’s lived in Austin, Texas for almost her entire.
Amy Bauer (1989) is a creative writing major at the University of Cincinnati. Her poetry has been
published in SOS Art’s collection of poetry and art on peace and justice, For a Better World 2018.
Mara Benowitz (1996) is a 21-year-old cancer. She’ll graduate from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison in the spring with a degree in French and Journalism.
David Travis Bland (1987) is a writer and journalist based in Columbia, South Carolina. He won the
South Carolina Press Association’s 2017 Judson Chapman Award for Community Service Journalism.
J. Bowers (1980) is a fiction writer from Pennsylvania living and working in St. Louis, Missouri. Her
work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, Redivider, The Laurel Review, and other national journals.
Kas Brady (2001) is an amateur photographer who mostly focuses on nature. They are deeply involved
in photography, music, and film-making.
Jeffrey Burghauser (1980) is a teacher in Columbus, Ohio. He studied at SUNY-Buffalo and the
University of Leeds. He now studies the five-string banjo with a focus on pre-W WII picking styles.
McKenzie Caldwell (1997) is a writer based in Ohio. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys listening to
podcasts and trying to create her own. You can view her work at theelreymark.com.
Violet Callis (1994) is a writer from Lansing, Michigan and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago. Her poems have previously appeared in Patient Sounds, jubilat, Ghost City Press, and to:from.
Priyam Goswami Choudhury (1993) is an Assamese poet living in Berlin. Her work was shortlisted for
the Srinivas Rayaprol Prize for Poetry in 2016 and has appeared in several anthologies and journals.
elle chu (1995) is a poet whose work seeks to reconcile identities lost through life’s changes. Every
change results in a sliver of loneliness and guilt, which she tries to explore.
Marlee Cox (1995) is a student in St. Louis, Missouri. At the intersection of the surreal and the
mundane, her work unpacks disability, identity, and the trauma of survival.
A.J. Cunder (1992) has book-length works including two fantasy novels and a memoir about growing
up and living with type 1 diabetes.
Andrew De Silva (1982) grew up in suburban Detroit. He attended the University of Michigan and
later studied fiction at the University of Southern California, where he is now an associate professor.
Kendal Dickson (1993) is a currently living in Sanger, Texas. She graduated from the University of
North Texas in 2017 with a BA in English: Creative Writing.