Seven’s heaven’s number. Seven is heaven’s number. If all those words Grandma told us were true.

We’ll take it.

The two of us are sitting here pumped. April is closing out with minimal precipitation (always start with the weather) and terrible snow pack. Tonight though, we have what amounts to the exact issue we’ve wanted to publish from Day One: a blend of all things. That’s why we’re pumped.

The non-fiction is an interview with Osmond Arnesto from the April Issue. A total treat on our part, hanging with him over a spaghetti lunch. He likes Bond. He drives cars, cooks well and writes to the sound of scribbles and bumps in the night.

Find out why we like him, and why he’s on our buddy list for good.

And poetry. Andrei 'Exquisitely Embalmed’ Codrescu, of all people. We’ve been staring at his poetic heels for as long as we can remember. Always fresh, he’s given us some new spit and flow and in the space of .. fifty lines; and these bad-boys have dragged us around by our eardrums, with our mouths open like we’re stuck in some sort of auditory yoga pose. A satisfying afternoon delight, no doubt.

But whether or not you can handle such a piquant smack to the mouth, however, depends largely on your literary style and what it is you do after sneaking away from the office for a quicky with your new fling (or perhaps you're content with just imagining such a frisky encounter?). . .

We recommend all things poesy from Mr. C, but if you haven't already checked out his witty essays and commentary, do yourself a favor and hit the local library right now, get hold of a card, and sweep everything you can find on the shelves into a massive gray duffel bag. Then catch a one-way flight to Romania. Or better yet, New Orleans. Take it from us: this guy is amazing.

Our straight fiction piece is by the second in a short line of Renfroe’s: Mr. S. Craig R. Jr.

Too many periods? Naw. Maybe too many ties of the wrong type. He’s got a bunch of links to more of his work too, at his website – I Don’t Know What I’m Talking About.

And, closing us out, Parmalee Paula Cover, who ousted Osmond for our favorite author name so far. She’s got a deliriously wonderful explorer of a story that’s caught somewhere between Stalin and the Mackenzie River Delta.  Find Vilho, wade with him for clams, then put him on your buddy list too.

Non-fiction. Poetry. Fiction AND a Prose-Poem. It’s like the Prius of Issues.

Heads-up, seven-up, folks. Happy May. Keep a mustache on your face if you can. And if you can’t, keep thinking that it's there and it may arrive in the way children do at a pool.
 
Love,
Eric + Jason

----

Author Bio's!

Andrei Codrescu, born in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, has been called “one of our most magical writers” by The New York Times. After emigrating to the U.S in 1966, he published his first book of poetry, License to Carry a Gun, which won the 1970 Big Table Poetry award. He founded Peabody Award for writing and starring in the film Road Scholar. In 1989 he returned to his native Romania to cover the fall of the Ceausescu regime for NPR and ABC News, and wrote The Hole in the Flag: an Exile's Story of Return and Revolution. He is the author of books of poetry, novels, essays; the most recent are whatever gets you through the night: a story of sheherezade and the arabian entertainments (2011), The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess, (2009) The Poetry Lesson (2010), all published by Princeton University Press.

Parmalee Paula Cover has published fiction and review pieces in PLAZM Magazine and Seattle’s Bumpershoot Poetry Festival Anthology. She has five years of writing and directing programming for the Public Broadcast Service. She has contributed to several videos including Laurie Anderson’s Born Never Asked, Who World Tour, and Lynn Hershman-Leeson’s Romeo Void, and has performed as a featured poet in numerous venues, includng Newyorican in New York City; Purple Onion, Vancouver British Columbia; Green Mill, Chicago; and National Slam Poetry competitions. She is currently working on a novel, ANAGOGIE Scams L.A., the first of a trilogy.

S. Craig Renfroe Jr. is the author of the short story collection You Should Get That Looked At from Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Also, his work has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Cemetery Dance, Necessary Fiction, Hobart, 3:AM Magazine, and elsewhere. Currently he teaches at Queens University of Charlotte. More information can be found at http://craigrenfroe.blogspot.com.