Welcome Jasper’s 2016 Summer Interns
My name’s Ony Ratsimbaharison and I grew up here in Columbia, and studied Writing for Print and Digital Media at Columbia College, where I graduated in 2014. I play bass in a band called fk mt. and have been playing guitar for almost 10 years. My favorite band is Unwound because they made me think of music in a totally new way when I first started playing electric guitar. Their music still resonates with me today, and they continue... Read More
ArtFields’ 2016 Call to Visual Artists – Why you Should Give it Another Try
We know that a lot of people are frustrated with ArtFields based on some of the better quality art they have denied and the lesser quality art they have accepted. It’s easy to say that someone doesn’t know what they’re doing — which is entirely possible. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind. One, everything has a learning curve — let’s give the folks at ArtFields the benefit of the doubt that they are trying and learning... Read More
More poetry from the fight for racial equality – Ed Madden’s “Confederates”
Ed Madden’s poem for the rally against the Confederate flag reminds us of his earlier poem “Confederates,” which appeared in Signals (2008). The poem is set just months before the 2000 removal of the flag from the South Carolina statehouse dome. “Confederates” offers a poet’s take on the historical and cultural context of the move of the flag then, and perhaps a comment on the issue now. The poem takes place between a MLK Day... Read More
Film Review: Love and Mercy
An effectively stylized glimpse into Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson’s troubled life composing what remains as the arguable pinnacle of the modern American popular music canon, in the brilliant Love and Mercy we find depicted his mid-1960s creative eruption as well as the sad, bizarre interlude twenty years later when the shattered Wilson, his work by then rightly venerated and admired, nevertheless found himself under the mental... Read More
Writing What He Knows — Spotlight on James D. McCallister by Kirby Knowlton
James (Don) McCallister grew up in Kershaw County, where he dreamed of one day writing big, literary novels. Now, a published author and teacher, McCallister has created an entire fictionalized world: Edgewater County, SC, where most of his writing is set. This summer, McCallister returns to his Storytelling Workshop at Midlands Technical College after a year-long hiatus during which he finished Dixiana, a three-book series. He brings to the... Read More
On Andy Warhol’s Jimmy Carter 1, by Ed Madden
His hand is a fist but it is not a fist. His watch is on the inside of his wrist. Doctors do that, and nurses. But so do farmers. It’s so you don’t scratch the crystal when you’re doing manual labor, doing something difficult. Is this a signal? He is about to do something difficult. Warhol’s image of Jimmy Carter takes me back to my childhood, but not in some kind of nostalgic way. When I look at this image, it... Read More
The Capote-Van Halen Hypothesis: Michael Spawn Talks Guitar Gods and Wordsmiths
A week ago, a friend and I were sitting in a local tavern, drinking Yuengling, talking literature. Next on his hit list, he told me, was Truman Capote’s landmark true-crime opus In Cold Blood. “It’s a great book,” I said. “You’ll like it. Capote’s got a really interesting style.” “What’s it like?” he asked. “I’ve never read him.” A tough question. How best to describe what makes any author’s style so thoroughly... Read More
Jasper Magazine – March/April 2015
Spotlight on Barry Wheeler
By: Grace Fennell Barry Brian Wheeler has always seen things a bit differently. His background in IT gives him a different perspective than many other artists, and he comes from a more cognitive, computerized mindset that sees colors as digital information. In his newest piece entitled “digit-eyes” (which he premiers at the Indie Grits festival on April 16th), he explores the natural perception of color to the human eye. The piece revolves around... Read More
A Certain Stretch of Road
By Ivan Young I held the V of a slingshot the length of the band, forearm tensed, eye closed. It seemed like all day I stood wondering about death, whether I could trust instinct, or had I failed already; in the ecstasy of release, I knew the truth. I set the stone tumbling, became an awkward periphery–the feathered body half in shadow, my boyish arms still stretched as if beseeching for something I couldn’t tell you even now. The rock... Read More
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