Checking in with Moon Milk Review

Rae Bryant. Taking over.

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): What it do, Rae. What it do? You have a Moon Milk Review group going on here at Fictionaut. Please tell us all about MMR.

RB: MMR is the canvas between the lines. A salon collective of literature, art, comedy, performance, essays…. We like what we like and tend to bristle at the idea of being labeled as this or that. If the story or the poem works, it works. If the visual grabs, it grabs. Surprise us, make us squirm, enlighten, dig, make the reader continue reading with gripping moments, crisp beautiful prose and lines. We are an eclectic group, and I would be lost without Will Grofic, Poetry Editor, and Gabriela Romeri, Associate Editor. They are amazing and talented and dedicated editors/writers. We’ve also been blessed to have fantastic mentors–Richard Peabody, Gargoyle Magazine, and the Barrelhouse Boys–Dave Housley, Dan Brady, Aaron Pease, Mike Ingram, Joe Killiany.

What sort of work does MMR look for in its authors?

We tend to enjoy the quirk. Realism with twists, magic realism, surrealism. We’re not a genre market. We’re all about the story. Anchor us into characters we want to know, we need to know. Characters we will not forget.

Did you know that it is predicted that Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the moon may last up to another 10 million years?

I was going to say 9.5, but if you say so… I’m so glad you brought this up. We had sent Armstrong a contract and a big check to do a promotional video for us, from the moon, wearing a thong over his spacesuit. MMR written on his Johnson. We’ve not heard back yet. Neil, if you’re reading, the offer is still good. Whenever you can get up there, again, buddy. No rush.

Please tell us more about you, your projects, your boogie, Rae. What runs your boogie?

I’ll tell you a secret. Sometimes I run my boogie when no one’s looking. I’ll put on some Lightnin’ Hopkins (“Coffee House Blues” is my fav) or Stevie Ray Vaughan, and sway through the house like a dance hall girl. Good for the soul. Honestly, my family makes my boogie run. My husband, Patrick, and two children, Tyler and Maddie, are the foundation and bones and blood of my every day. My boogie also likes to wine and dine and read a good story about unlikely quirks in very real and optimistically tragic settings. I’m lavishly re-crushing on Nabokov right now. Lolita is one of my favorite novels, optimistically tragic. This is what generally fuels my own writing, the optimistically tragic. Currently, I have several short stories out at such places as Blip Magazine, kill author, decomP, Foundling Review, Annalemma, The Medulla Review, Bartleby Snopes, and Caper Literary Journal, among others. More to come at PANK and Gargoyle Magazine and other venues. I’m really very surprised and honored that a few stories have been nominated for Dzanc’s Best of the Web 2011 and Sundress’ Best of the Net 2010. Just finished a review of Gary Percesepe and Susan’s Tepper’s novel, What May Have Been, for Puerto del Sol. In my spare time, I’m writing a novel about an accidental Manson family who owns a knock off Wal-Mart store (because that’s just good wholesome fodder there), finalizing the print issue for MMR, guest editing at Smokelong Quarterly, revving up for thesis at JHU in the Spring. I’ll be out and about reading at KGB bar in NYC on November 24th and a few readings at AWP in February including A Capella Zoo and Literary Death Match. Other than that, I plan to sleep and cook elaborate meals for my family, because we all like to eat when we’re hungry.

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday.