Word Riot

An Interview With Noah Cicero by Tim Nogaj
An Interview With Christopher Higgs by Andrew Borgstrom
An Interview With Karen Lillis by David Hoenigman
An Interview With Todd Zuniga by Timmy Waldron

Deniability by George Witte

U-Turn by Lisa Lim
The Auctioneers by Jessie Morrison
The King of Schmooze by Daniel Stolar

All the World Was Grey Then Red by Richard Bell
Taking the Sting by Murray Brozinsky
Where the Pain Ends Stefanie Freele
Saving by Gary Moshimer

Bad Cheetah by Andy Henion

Maggots at Work by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal
Three Poems by Melanie Browne
A Cigarette’s Worth by Ryan Michael Commins
Two Poems by Tova Gardner
Two Poems by Joe Farley
Two Poems by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Three Poems by Rene Joy
Two Poems by Lara Konesky
RHYMES by Anthony Madrid
Yann Teirsen uses a lot of accordions in his compositions. by Ananda Osel
Two Poems by Jay Pabarue
Two Poems by t. kilgore splake
Two Poems by Valerie Wetlaufer
Two Poems by Dennis P. Wilken
I don’t know what to do with the warmth by Felicia Zamora
Once by Charlene Zatorski

Excerpt from The Insurgent by Noah Cicero

An Interview With Eckhard Gerdes by David Hoenigman
An Interview With Eirik Gumeny by Timmy Waldron
The Definitive Scott McClanahan Interview: Everything else is just an unofficial boring part of Ohio, or Pennsylvania, or Virginia. by Timmy Waldron
Remembering Jim Shepard. Compiled by David F. Hoenigman

Protest! by Steve Finbow, Melissa Mann and Joseph Ridgwell
Review by David Hoenigman

Chablis by Philip Brunetti
Channel Serfs by David Gianatasio
Upon Finding You Alive by Michael K. Meyers
The Difficulty of Endings by Jeff Vande Zande
Point of Detachment by Jessica Vozel

Nail Polish and Beer by Matt Baker
Firewood by Brad Conlin
Kidney Stones by Scott McClanahan

Three Poems by J. Bradley
pick up line by Jordan Castro
Three Poems by Matthew D’Abate
I HAVE DEVOTED MY LIFE TO THE CLITORIS by Elizabeth Hall
Sunday by Judson Hamilton
whatever makes her happy by Jordan Hanhilammi
Two Poems by Gail D. Kelley
Corporate Casual by Ed Makowski
Two Poems by Casey Quinn
untitled by Dana Roders
6 things i won’t to tell my mother by Tristan Silverman
MOTU Physics Teacher by James Sutherland
Holy Ghosts by Christopher Woods

Fifty Years in Halves by Rae Bryant

I’m not thinking of anything specific. This is just a general call for readers to voice their opinions on Word Riot and let me know what you like or don’t like about it.

I’ve been reluctant in the past to do major site overhauls, design or technical, because I sort of like the idea of Word Riot as the (dirty) old man of the lit scene. I want us to remain dependable and ever-present. I sort of like that our layout is a cobbled-out version of whatever HTML and PHP I’ve pieced together over the years. I think it makes the site quirky and unique but also familiar.

I’ve been wondering if it makes more sense to have the site based on a WordPress platform rather than the Jackie-half-brained content management system. But part of the joy that is my crappy hand-code-and-paste-into-the-MySQL-database work flow is I can get my hands dirty and make sure formatting is exactly how I want it to be.

I also wouldn’t want the old URLs to change since authors have their pieces linked on their own sites and the URLs have authority in Google for being up so long yada yada… I think having some sort of hybrid platform is going to be where WR is headed.

</existential lit editor crisis>

Anyway, I’d love to hear any and all thoughts on Word Riot, what we’re doing right, what we should be doing right but aren’t, etc. Seriously. Lay it on me.