NAP 2.1 Lives

                NAP 2.1 almost didn’t get here. You should be thankful of all Chadwick Redden went through to bring you this tremendous piece of literature. It amazes me the trouble Chad overcame to roll out NAP 2.1. His laptop caught aflame, unwilling to support fine writing. The internet failed. The cops arrested Chad, jealous of his NAP literary magazine compared to their cop-focused literary journal ‘The Douche Beat’. 

                Chad is a successful writer, one of the most successful ones this side of the Mississippi. I reckon he collates online literary magazines in his sleep, hence the name “NAP”. Yep, it starts out quite nicely, with a gobstopper shaped as a wolf. I wonder why jawbreakers are always shaped as balls, never as animals. There is a huge, untapped market candy manufacturers are missing there. Just as an aside, ending a jawbreaker with lime seems a bit mean-spirited. If I made a gobstopper wolf-shaped candy, I’d probably have cherry in the center. 

                Oliver Lee Bateman begins the collection, mentioning his specialty in navel-gazing coming-of-age stories set at prestigious New England preparatory academies. So Mr. Bateman is the Wes Anderson of flash fiction. It is pretty funny. Pillowface Jones is definitely one of the best names to give an ugly child too. The story revolves around growing up, and being an unattractive, stupid child. 

                Marit Ericson probably goes to one of those prestigious New England preparatory academies Oliver writes about. The first poem of hers deals with fate and love. My favorite line is in the second though. ‘So your body is a stand-up routine’ is pretty fantastic, and works on multiple levels. Actually most of Marit’s work has an odd humor to it. 

                David Greenspan will appear soon in that life-changing blog ‘this zine will change your life’ fairly soon. Look out for it. I am surprised Alan Greenspan’s son writes literature. That seems better than working on America’s monetary policies. ‘I have just fallen off my bicycle to fuck concrete’. Um, yes please. Shame he only has one piece in here. Good thing David’s piece is positively bonkers. Freaking brilliant insanity is all over this amazing piece. 

                I have written about Meghan Lamb before. People publish her everywhere. Mostly this has to do with her work being uniformly excellent. I am always happy reading her work, no matter how dark the content. ‘Sunflowers’ continues her modus operandi in style. 

                Who is Rob MacDonald? Apparently his poetry is everywhere, even the reputable/hated site HTML Giant. Glad to hear authors start out as bears and evolve from there. Or perhaps that explains the sudden rash of beards amongst the literary elites. Someday I hope my doppelganger will get into my pants. Perhaps by then I’ll have a second pair of pants. 

                Emily O’Neal resides in Providence, RI. I almost went there this summer but didn’t. Maybe next summer I’ll go. “Last Gasp” shows the sadness in watching a natural born killer die. “Rust Storm” is even bleaker, despite the lack of death, perhaps due to the birth of a storm. “Torn Ticket” ends Emily’s section. Her work seems dark to me. 

                Lam Pham creates Grim. Grim is amazing. Each morning Grim eats disgusting food. A mother figure tells him to take care of himself. People think he is really weird. He is. I hope I can read more about Grim love of life, love of the weird. Life is weird. 

                  Michelle Reale accomplishes a lot. Her bio blurb talks about all the cool stuff she does all the people who nominate her for stuff. It sounds pretty excellent. Glad her poem discusses the Messiah and his patient nature. I like the Messiah now that he doesn’t set us on fire. For a while the Messiah totally enjoyed setting people on fire. 

                Daniel Romo reminds me of those caramel candies called ‘Rollos’. They have nothing in common probably, though I wish they did. ‘Formal’ remembers a long lost poem to a prom date. Apparently Daniel is cooler than me. I never went to prom, a decision I’ve never regretted once in my entire life. 

                My favorite lion tamer is here, David Tomaloff. I always enjoy his work, and his last chapbook ‘A Soft that touches down & removes itself’ ruled. While I do not know what a ‘lady place’ is, it does sound sort of hot. ‘Isles and Aisles’ reminds me why I hate shopping anywhere and avoid it whenever possible. 

                Meredith Weirs ends NAP 2.1. Apparently she lives in my state. Otherwise I know nothing about her. ‘you burn my calories I pass the match’ is my favorite line out of all her pieces. Her work is sparse, stark, and a bit strange. I sort of enjoy the minimal quality however. 

                I’m proud of Chad. He beat the odds and put out this uniformly excellent collection. With his help I slowly learn more about this great online literary community. See it here for free.