Cleaver Magazine

Karen Rile
Chestnut Hill Bookstore Tour  In Northwest Philly’s Chestnut Hill, where I’ve lived since 1987, we have an embarrassment of riches: four (count ‘em!) independent bookstores on our 1.5-mile main drag, each store complementing the others with its own distinct flavor and mission. Here’s my weekend walking tour:

A Writing Tip by Michelle Reale
MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK

Temporal
Breakneck
Monologue
Axis
Countenance

The above list of inscrutable words — inscrutable at least in how they appear together — represents a deposit that I made in my word...

Nonfiction by Heide Island, PhD, reviewed by Jo Ann Zimmerman
ROMP! A JOURNEY THROUGH THE NATURAL HISTORY OF OTTERS AND WHY THEY MATTER (Tarcher)

a creative book review in the form of a reddit thread

r/Pennsylvania

A Writing Tip by Amy Beth Sisson
DO THE WRONG THING

In an acting workshop I attended recently, the director urged us to perform the scene “wrong” — to inhabit our character in a way that made no sense, that would be absolutely inappropriate. One student played a job applicant in an interview. He performed as if he were trying to hit on the interviewer. It ...

Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle
FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE
(Spiegel & Grau)

A traditionally formatted, text version of this review is available