Ben & Winslow
Burdensome
I would argue that you shouldn’t be Winslow in this comic, but you should try to avoid being Ben, too. The Bens of the world know far too many Winslows, and they’re slowly being crushed by them.
Recent Posts
- Burdensome
- “Showdown at Widow’s Creek, an Eyewitness Account,” by Alexei Kalinchuk
- A New Year Rises
- “Drinking With, And Punching Out, Famous Writers,” by Bill Kitcher
- “Cookie Monster Guest Edits the New York Times’ ‘What to Cook This Week’ Newsletter,” by Miriam Jayaratna
- “You thought Ledger had it bad,” by Pete Zipf
- “Your Submission Needs a Plot,” by Shira Musicant
- “My Hallmark Holiday Movies Addiction,” by Keith Manos
- Defenestration: December 2022
- “Rumplesynopsis,” by Iris. J. Melton
Featured
Defenestration: December 2022
It’s hard to believe we’ve already arrived at the last issue of the year, but here we are, folks. It’s December, 2022 is coming to a close, and the latest issue of Defenestration has arrived!
Once August’s issue came out, a bunch of weird stuff started happening. Bigfoot bought a hat, but that’s hardly noteworthy. Was IS noteworthy was that, someone, well, noteworthy, gave a shoutout to Defenestration, which caused a deluge of submissions for a month and a half. This isn’t an exaggeration, either. Normally we get a steady stream of submissions, but it got to a point where it was a struggle just to keep the inbox at 50 submissions or less. We’re a small operation with meager crew, most of whom are fictional, so that was a lot of stories and poems to read. I want you to keep that in mind as you read this month’s issue, because the stories and poems below were chosen from among the hundreds Eileen and I read over the past few months. It’s quite the badge of honor to be among the few chosen from the multitude.
Defenestration: August 2022
Prepare yourselves, people of the internet, for the August 2022 issue of Defenestration! How are you all doing? Good? Staying hydrated?
This month’s issue is totally weird. I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems like writers are all part of the same strange zeitgeist during each of our reading periods, and Eileen and I see very clear themes and subject matter in many of the poems and stories submitted. Sometimes you can chalk that up to what the market’s doing; some magazine or anthology might have just concluded its selections for a themed issue, and now everyone’s trying to find a home for the very niche story they wrote. That’s only sometimes, though. More often than not, writers and poets are just breathing the same inspirational air.
Defenestration: April 2022
Welcome, welcome, to the April 2022 issue of Defenestration! It might be spring, but the weather has gotten cold and wet and miserable around Defenestration HQ, which means we all had to dig our sweaters out of storage and made the tough decision to burn our charming wooden deck furniture for warmth. Nature is against us, friends, but that hasn’t stopped the latest issue from dropping right on time.
Nonfiction
“My Hallmark Holiday Movies Addiction,” by Keith Manos I’m addicted to the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. I’m not kidding. One weekend, I watched six of them in a row. That’s 12 hours, including commercials, if you’re doing the math. I’ve viewed sixteen overall, and their cheesy, predictable plotline is outstanding.
Fake Nonfiction
“Showdown at Widow’s Creek, an Eyewitness Account,” by Alexei Kalinchuk A mob of angry mimes gathered. They seemed to be sharpening swords or loading pistols, I couldn’t tell. Also, they weren’t really good mimes. But there they were amassed outside the city, so we called an emergency meeting with the police and city manager and a retired guy who loitered at all these events.
Fiction
“Rumplesynopsis,” by Iris. J. Melton “I don’t care if you have to lie down in a fucking coffin like Edith Sitwell,” Beelzebub says. “Get me some pages!”
This is my agent speaking. His name is not really Beelzebub—that’s just how I have him listed in my phone contacts. He’s very professional and he’s never spoken to me like this before. It’s just that I’ve pushed him to the end of whatever tether good agents are connected to their writers by. OK seriously—that sentence I just wrote? That is nothing like my usual high-quality prose. But just now, something really bad is happening to me.
Poetry
“Hera,” by Marianne Gambaro In a golden palace on Olympus
she soaks in her alabaster tub
and looks disdainfully at her tummy
Ben & Winslow
Burdensome I would argue that you shouldn’t be Winslow in this comic, but you should try to avoid being Ben, too. The Bens of the world know far too many Winslows, and they’re slowly being crushed by them.
