These Books Will Change Your Life - the fierce crackle of fragile wings and Salt Creek Anthology by Jason Fisk.

A double-dose of Fisk? For real? Yes, totally, like going to Friendly's or something if said experience was actually life-changing. It should be said upfront, that Jason Fisk is not only a TBWCYL, Inc. favorite, but one of our favorite writers period. Which is to say, well maybe it isn't, that his new hyperfiction CCLaP project Salt Creek Anthology is a triumph, but not just a triumph because of its goodness, though it is quite good, or it's hyperfictionness, though it is hyperfictional, but because it arguably represents a culmination, or gathering, of the many themes Fisk has so beautifully illustrated over the years, small town life, small problems, as compared to the world's problems anyway, but not small to his characters, themes of loss, children and parents, the everyday joys, yet tenuous state of marriage, even happy marriages, the impacts of alcohol and substance abuse, how something as minor, seemingly, as annoying neighbors are such a drag on our day to day existence, aging, community and neighborhood, and connectedness, and all of this, and always, with a touch of pain, and a knowingness, because these characters, the protagonists anyway, aren't confused about where they're at or how they got there, they are just limited by the limitations we all feel in relationships, how to communicate with each other and how to say things well, and in a way that expresses what you really want to say to people who just may not be hearing it. All of which is to say, that Salt Creek Anthology captures all of this so well, and hence touches on another element of the Fisk that we so appreciate. His work has always straddled the worlds of poetry and fiction, and he once told us during his award-winning appearance on This Podcast Will Change Your Life that he didn't want to be labeled as a poet, just as a writer, and that's here as well, that desire to have poetry and fiction mashed together into something else, that something being in contrast to the also fierce and crackling the fierce crackle of fragile wings, a collection of yes, actual poems, including Terry which we are thrilled to remind you first appeared in This Zine Will Change Your Life, and fiction, flash and otherwise, much of which thematically and conceptually finds its way into the Salt Creek, and in many ways when read together as we have done, becomes almost a survey of Fisk's early work, exposing you to what is in many ways the foundation and early threads for what Salt Creek came to be, a culmination as it were, and look at that, we've gone full circle. And fiercely at that.