Author: Chelsey Clammer

I don’t want to be all playing into stereotypes here, but I’m on my period and everything is pissing me off. From my dog who selectively understands English and won’t stop whining at the squirrels to my long-distance boyfriend/affairmate who I haven’t even talked to today because I’m getting frustrated ... Read More

"I don't want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally." - Zelda Fitzgerald  On July 24, 1900, the woman would become known as the eccentric wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald was born. Zelda Sayre grew up in Montgomery, AL and was part of the affluent southern society ... Read More

Kathie Bergquist teaches young people how to write. Aside from learning craft and technique, Bergquist teaches youth the necessary--and perhaps most difficult--writing skill of believing in yourself as a writer. This summer, Bergquist is teaching a 7-week young writers program in Chicago in which the youth are paid for their involvement ... Read More

"Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, my side, and the truth." --Joseph Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski, born July 17th, 1954, is known for screenwriting—most notably the scripts for Thor (2011) and World War Z (2013). On top of turning comic books and novels into screenplays, Straczynski is also ... Read More

Described as brilliantly gorgeous and a much-needed offering, Amber Dawn brings a poetic voice to her socially-aware writing. Traversing issues such as sex work and queer sexuality, feminism and class, as well as identity and literature, Dawn brings attention to pressing social concerns in an accessible and literary way. Here, Dawn discusses writing ... Read More

In 1990, Julia Seko and Brian Allen led a resurgence of interest in the book arts. In particular, they were interested in the mechanics, meanings and preservation of the Eaves pressroom. A Denver physician, Dr. John Evans, and his wife Thelma had a love and appreciation of Persian art and ... Read More

Chicagoan Jac Jemc’s writing has been described as haunting and heartbreaking, intimate and extraordinary, and also familiar yet strange. She reveals her characters through quirks and inner flaws, and brings a humble sense of clarity to the page as she portrays human relationships. Jemc was recently named by The Guild ... Read More

Sandy Ebner's essay "Jesse Lee" is a powerful story about friendship and loss. Unfortunately, the main character in her essay passed away before the publication of her piece. We were interested in seeing how she considered her essay after this tragic event, and how an essay about the different ways one can lose a ... Read More

Released in March by Counterpoint Press, Molly Caro May’s Map of Enough is an eloquent memoir that details her journey of figuring out what home is, where it is, and how she fits within her own concept of it. May moved around a lot when she was growing up, and ... Read More

Publishers Weekly, familiarly known in the book world as PW and “the bible of the book business,” is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business. It is targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents, authors and the media. It offers feature articles and news on all ... Read More

Publishers Weekly, familiarly known in the book world as PW and “the bible of the book business,” is a weekly news magazine focused on the book publishing business. It is targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents, authors and the media. It offers feature articles and news on all aspects ... Read More

This is how I learned what abuse looks like: I’m sitting at the bar with Jesse. Nineteen years old, sipping my Jack and Coke, I think I know everything, so sure I have the world figured out. “So,” I ask her, “why did you and Ronny get a divorce?” Marriage, ... Read More

Why write a collection of literary essays centered on trees? In Angela Pelster’s debut collection of essays, Limber, she presents fascinating stories that are, in various ways, about trees. But more importantly, Limber is about how people from many different generations and time periods relate to one another through both ... Read More

With her recent win of the Minnesota Book Awards for YA literature, Carrie Mesrobian has greatly contributed to the themes and emotional content found within Young Adult literature. Here, Mesrobian discusses different conceptions of what YA literature is and can be, how to bring emotional truths to the genre, what ... Read More

On Tuesday night, fans, staff, and writers for The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review gathered at the KGB Bar in New York City for a night of literature and camaraderie. Posters of socialist propaganda, some written in Cyrillic, hung on the walls of the one-room bar where we mingled on the ... Read More

Hannah Heimbuch is the assistant nonfiction editor at The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. Here she shares how the journal has expanded her world of nonfiction reading and writing.    Question: How did you learn about or become involved with Eckleburg? Hannah Heimbuch: I met managing editor Chelsey Clammer at our ... Read More

Two or three things we know for sure, and one of them is today is Dorothy Allison's birthday. Born in Greenville, South Carolina on April 11, 1949, Dorothy Allison is an accomplished writer and speaker who is not shy when it comes to talking and writing about the hard things ... Read More

In 1977 he had a stroke in his home. The jarred electrical currents made his body crash down to the mountain cabin floorboards. The stroke did not cripple him, but it did make him take his body to a different home, one in an actual city, with a hospital really ... Read More

Eckleburg‘s NY Editor, Lisa Marie Basile, discusses her history with the Review, life in NYC and her goals as Assistant Editor and NY Coordinator. Q: How did you learn about/become involved with Eckleburg? LMB: In 2009-2010, I was writing both fiction and poetry. Heavily influenced by magic realism, after devouring everything by ... Read More

Sarah Arvio's night thoughts is a unique memoir  told through poetry and notes in order to come to terms with past crises. The poetry makes tangible dreams Arvio had about past trauma, and in the notes section she discovers the meaning of those dreams. Not only is her poetry stunning, but the ... Read More

"Penciled notes [in a text] indicate a curious mind, kind and meditative, one that grapples with ideas, links notions from one book to others….[making marginalia is] more like a way of seeing, a way of being in the world—or rather, of being not in the world, but in its wide-open, ... Read More

Barry Palmer, an intern for The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review discusses writing, characters, and what's not for your granny. Q: How did you learn about Eckleburg? Barry Palmer: I first heard about Eckleburg while looking over information for the Johns Hopkins MA in writing program some years back. It definitely ... Read More

Question: How did you learn about Eckleburg? Richard Perkins:  I took the intern class taught by Rae Bryant because I wanted a better feel for the editing process at literary journals and I wanted to sharpen my critical reading skills prior to setting out to finish a collection of connected ... Read More

Intern Debbie McCulliss describes how she became with The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review and her interest in writing. Q) How did you learn about Eckleburg? Debbie McCulliss: I took a class with Rae Bryant (Editor-in-Chief of Eckleburg) my second semester in the MA in Writing Program at the Johns Hopkins ... Read More

Eckleburg's Editorial Assistant, Peter Goodman, discuses his experience in the M.A. in Writing at Johns Hopkins University, what type of writing draws him in, and some of the pieces Eckleburg has published that his life would be incomplete without. Q: How did you learn about/become involved with Eckleburg? Peter Goodman: As I ... Read More

The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review now offers a wide range of workshops! From How to Write a Killer Essay to Magic Realism workshops, not to mention the Intelligent Eroticism in Literary Fiction, Flash Creative Nonfiction and Flash Fiction workshops, we've got some amazing opportunities for you to workout those writing ... Read More

“The Son of Rainy Mountain” is a piece I began just after I moved over a thousand miles north from Juneau, Alaska to my home now in Barrow. The contrast between Arctic Alaska and Southeast Alaska struck me deeply: Barrow has the stark beauty of endless tundra and a frozen ... Read More

Neal Kitterlin's poetry was featured on The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review earlier in the week. Here, Kitterlin discusses his approach to and process of writing. There is the map, and there is the territory. The two cannot be confused. In my most recent writing, I have been concerned with place and ... Read More

Queen B's real name is Bianca. But she likes to be called Queen B, and so that is what I call her. Queen B has a wife who is a lesbian stud and who likes to be referred to as “he.” Queen B calls him her wife. I do not ... Read More

Upon publication of her poem "Afternoon Chieftain" earlier this week, we asked for Sinta Jimenez to talk a little bit about this outstanding poem and her process of writing it. Sinta Jimenez says: Perverse attachments between mothers and sons have always had dire consequences, from Oedipus to Norman Bates. "Afternoon ... Read More

Small town. Texas. Cows. And a random Liberal Arts University in the middle of all those endless pastures. Southwestern University. Georgetown, Texas. You have never heard of it. Barely 1000 students and, to my delight, 750 of them are female. Move-in day. My mom and dad load up the huge ... Read More

I have a gay ankle. That is not a typo. It is not supposed to read as “I have a gay uncle.” I don't even have an uncle. So, no, there is no gay uncle. But my ankle is very, very gay. How this happened: I'm seventeen and know, like ... Read More

The lesbians surround me. Swarms of them come in every day through the heavy glass door and want to pick at my brain. “Are there any transgender books for children? “I want to introduce my sister to feminism, but she doesn't like to read. Is there a novel or something ... Read More