Fart 1: Which treats of the station in life and the pursuits of the famous ‘gina man, Don Dimaio of La Plata. In a village of La Plata, the name of which I have no desire to recall, there lived not so long ago one of those ‘gina men who always halve their pants in […]
In your debut print novel, Fast Eddie, King of the Bees, it was apparent that you like to twist, fold, slice and dice language, often very playfully. In Don Dimaio of La Plata, you seem to have gone several steps further, essentially creating an English dialect/patois for certain sections of the book. What inspired this […]
“Lawd, I beg you, don’t drop a tin can ‘pon me head today!” So muttered Precious Higginson as she sat before her bedroom vanity and pinned her hair one breezy Friday morning in her Jamaican mountain home. Whether the morning was windless or breezy, Precious began every day with the same muttered prayer, for she […]
A long gray line of several hundred Red soldiers stood silently on the unused railroad track overgrown with weeds, near the charred remains of the water tower. Their rifles and carbines, thrown to the ground just minutes before, were being collected by two elderly railway workers who simply dumped them into a two-wheel cart one […]
Akashic asked 20 literary blogs to each review one of 20 short stories from the paperback edition of DEMONS IN SPRING. Their responses are compiled below, with exclusive new commentary from Joe Meno followed by the story’s first line. * STORY #1: FRANCES THE GHOST *REVIEW: Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly JOE MENO COMMENTARY: “I […]
(Benning Heights, SE) This shit has gone way too far. That’s what the little voice in your head tells you. The black hoodie concealing your face is too warm for mid-April, and is thus putting your Right Guard to the test. However, it will keep you above description. And in this case, it’s all that […]
In the “Author’s Note” at the beginning of Cold Havana Ground, you write that you were given access to police files of a case that was “deeply tied to believers in three African-rooted religions practiced in Cuba.” How were you able to get access to these police files? How did you come to learn so […]
Author’s Warning to the Reader This novel is based on events that occurred in the recent past in Cuba. The characters are real, the names fictitious. Descriptions of the Afro-Cuban religious practices are authentic. A glossary is provided at the back of this novel with explanations and definitions of some of the religious words and […]