Author: Brad Zellar

  • Ezro

    Most nights Hurley would sit up late, drinking, and would fall asleep looking for God. He heard leaves falling and trapped, swirling, in the alley out back. And then: the rattle of piss beneath his window and someone warbling a sad song. Some days he saw gulls, so many gulls, with no water anywhere around,…

  • The Lonely Heavy Metal Publicist Tries His Hand At Poetry

    No birds. No flowers. No bees. No moon. No water, moving or still. Nothing growing. Nothing stirring in the shadows. No history. No satisfying toil or contemplation of love. No memories. For no one. Dreams of leaving, I suppose. And the cold shoulder, sure. Or if interest, so fervent as to be suspect, if not…

  • The Way Things Sometimes Play Out, Unfortunately

        I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what a dream is anymore. I got a lot of shit kicked out of me. Have you somehow made your peace with this world? I’m curious: without getting all religious or flaky on me, can you tell me how you did that? Once upon a…

  • What do you do?

    We are children, and then we work. If we’re fortunate, at any rate, we’re allowed to experience our childhood as children, and able, when the time comes to make our way in the world, to find work. Meaningful work, if we’re truly fortunate. The truth, though, is that the introductory icebreaker for youngsters—“How old are…

  • Twin Cities Book Festival

    The stalwarts at Rain Taxi once again put together this full day of lit love for the seventh annual TCBF, which is now firmly entrenched as an autumn tradition and a welcome respite from the paralyzing onslaught of seasonal affective disorder. Think of the day as a sort of Renaissance Festival for bibliomaniacs. You probably…

  • William Trevor, Cheating at Canasta: Stories

    Cheating at Canasta is a marvelous, enviable title, and William Trevor is an astonishing, and astonishingly reliable, writer. Along with Alice Munro, he is also one of the living masters of the short story. That sort of thing usually sounds like so much hogwash, but in this instance it’s nothing but the plain truth. Even…