Our thanks to Jacob for taking the time to answer a few questions and share his work. If any of your readers would like a free PDF of Coulrophobia & Fata Morgana, they can email me at Right now, I’m working on assembling an exercise bike while I wait on hold with Delta Airlines in an effort to change an upcoming flight….I plan to be done with both endeavors by early 2018. I have two short story collections coming out later this year: Coulrophobia & Fata Morgana with Black Lawrence and The Topless Widow of Herkimer Street with Howling Bird/Augsburg. What are you working on now? What’s next? Of course, I imagine she’d prefer we have our metaphorical drink in a heavily-trafficked public place, accompanied by a chaperone. If the drink could be at a romantic candlelit restaurant, I’d probably vote for Karen Russell….that’s the closest I’m going to get to a date with a genius. I don’t drink-but I suppose you’ll settle for a metaphorical drink. If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be?

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t pitch a brilliant recent novel by my former student, CJ Hauser, titled The From-Aways. Only one? You’ll have to settle for two: Kevin Brockmeier’s memoir of seventh grade, A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, and Sara Lippmann’s short story collection, The Doll Palace. Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade. What was the most difficult part of writing this story.Ĭreating a man who stands up for pedophiles, yet remains sympathetic, is no easy feat. The father in “Hue and Cry,” for better or worse, is a man who embraces mercy-even at great personal expense. Sex offenders, needless to say, are among the easiest targets. For a country built upon a religion that teaches people to turn the other cheek, we’ve become a people who prefer to cast the first stones.

We have an excess of justice in our society and a striking dearth of mercy: one can see this in our politics, in our literature, and all too often in our daily lives.

“Hue and Cry” is nominally a story about young girls spying on a sex offender, but i I like to think that it’s actually a piece about forgiveness. Appel’s short story, “Hue and Cry” appeared in our Summer ’16 issue and can be read here.

Phoning Home by Jacob M. Appel