HOOT ONLINE, ISSUE 84, MARCH 2020 – MICRO FICTION, POETRY, MEMOIR, BOOK REVIEWS
Review of Mary South’s You Will Never Be Forgotten
by Nicole Hebdon
Mary South’s debut You Will Never Be Forgotten contains ten stories, the majority of which hinge on the use of social media or the Internet. South draws the reader’s attention to the overwhelming amount of content we see each day, be it harassing comments, viral videos, or a frequently asked question page on a medical website, and draws attention to the people who create it. While many of her characters use the Internet to do things, they do so introspectively, often disgusted by their own behaviors. Instead of blaming technology for their transgressions, it is presented as a tool.
In a time when articles are regularly published that blame the “evil” social media sites for the “decline of society,” it is refreshing to see social media used in this way: it is realistically present in the characters’ lives, but the characters’ actions stem from their own fears, desires, and hopes.
You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South was published in March by FSG Originals, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
by Janet Youngdahl
illustration by Annie Martin
We are gathering the dark today
pulling in bushels of darkness through late December windows
It’s ripe now, won’t last another day on the tree
when dark is ready you have to pull it in quickly
or it becomes dry and shriveled
smells musty like old light and creaky dawn
you need to capture it directly for safe preservation
or the fresh dark will escape
leaking into the pages of the book
that you could read before you looked up
by Elaine Fletcher Chapman
photography by Robert M. Chapman
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Nicole Hebdon is a writer from Buffalo, NY. Her fiction has been published in HOOT Review, The Kenyon Review, The New Haven Review, The New Ohio Review, The Antigonish Review, and The Southampton Review among other places. She received her MFA from Stony Brook.
Janet Youngdahl is a singer who has published work in The Malahat Review, The Antigonish Review and Writer’s Digest. Born in Detroit, she has lived in Canada for 20 years.
Elaine Fletcher Chapman lives near the Chesapeake Bay. This poem is from her new collection, Reservoir, forthcoming late 2020 (Saint Julian Press). Previous books include Hunger for Salt (Saint Julian Press) and Double Solitude (Green River Press).
