On "They Rolled On" by Pete Pazmino (356 words) ***

Here's a piece that's like a poem. Great prose is often made of repeated phrases or words, and that's the technique Pete Pazmino uses here to describe an evening among young people, students, in a car. I was never a cruiser, and yet a story like this reminds me of youth--perhaps because in the act of driving and watching we feel like there's a world out there waiting for us, full of all kinds of opportunity. Certainly, that's how I felt when younger. Then you get to be twenty-one and get comfortable with bars and all the opportunity seems to be a myth. But it's nice while it lasts. Read the story here at Monkey Bicycle.

On "Chowbang" by Pete Pazmino (2855 words) *****

This story made me laugh--out loud. That doesn't happen so much when I'm reading, not as much as I think it should. But that's not the only reason this story is such a keeper. It also channels a voice, a character, in ways that few stories do. I came away feeling like I knew this girl--this sort of female machismo hiding a little bit of vulnerability that she won't show us for a second. Read the story here at JMWW. (A warning to those who might want to stay clear of such things: this story contains adult themes and language, more so than most of the stories I've profiled.)