The Art of Tetman Callis

Tetman Callis

[Read more →]

“Not since Watership Down has there been such a whimsical, original take on humanity in the form of beloved members of the animal kingdom. Franny & Toby is a gorgeously rendered tale of love.” – Suzy Vitello, author of The Empress Chronicles series http://silkyoakpress.com.au/?p=433

[Read more →]

Identity Theory has published my story, “What Coy Said,” from my collection, Cocktails. http://www.identitytheory.com/what-coy-said-tetman-callis/

[Read more →]

Gravel Magazine’s November 2014 issue has been published, and includes one of my stories — “Guys Come in Three Sizes.” http://www.gravelmag.com/tetman-callis.html

[Read more →]

Today I posted “Abrumpo” to the “Previously Published Stories” sidebar. It was originally published in NOON last March. Diane Williams, NOON‘s editor, provided the title, tightened up the last two paragraphs, and provided the final two lines.

[Read more →]

It’s called Franny & Toby http://silkyoakpress.com.au/?p=433

[Read more →]

A story of mine called “A Dog by the Ears” was published last October in Robot Melon Issue 13. I have posted it slightly to the right as you face your computer monitor, in the sidebar called Previously Published Stories.  

[Read more →]

Pif Magazine has published one of my very short pieces. http://www.pifmagazine.com/2014/03/desserts-for-the-reading-of-the-k-j-v/  

[Read more →]

Trailer Park Quarterly Issue Four has been published. It contains one of my poems (“Supermarket”) and can be found at: http://www.sundresspublications.com/tpq/TPQ4.pdf  

[Read more →]

alice blue review published one of my stories, “The Tellings,” last June. I’ve added it to the Previously Published Stories sidebar.  

[Read more →]

Fourteen degrees Fahrenheit at daybreak. The stairwell smells of dirty diapers and stale cigarette smoke. A man dressed several levels below stylish picks through the garbage bin behind a business. Three blocks away at three o’clock this morning, a man was shot to death on the street. The subjective impression of his last moments are […]

[Read more →]

The clouds relax, the snow shakes loose. Icy dandruff coats the shoulders of the roads. The sky is gray, the lake is green and still. Gulls threaten each other for scraps. A man stands on the breakwater, shouts at the lake, “Jah! Allah! Motherfucker Santa!” A commercial truck backs up on the street, its beeper […]

[Read more →]

Whenever a litmag/journal/site/publication/entity publishes one of my stories, I wait at least three months then post the published story to this site. In July, Knee-Jerk Magazine published “Dropping Back to Punt.” Now it is included in the Previously Published Stories sidebar.  

[Read more →]

The joggers and joggettes of Evanston gather in packs on grizzly November days and run south into Oniontown. At their head is the crier who clangs his bell and calls, “Stand aside! Stand aside!” The joggers and joggettes are young and slender and beautiful, their faces unlined, brows unfurrowed, their clothing new and unfrayed, well-styled […]

[Read more →]

When you are young and you move to a new place, you know you are going there to live. Everything there is fresh and very important. When you are older, past the mid-point of your life, and you move to a new place, you know you are going there to die, and you know it […]

[Read more →]

Mansions for sale up Evanston way Along Edgemere Court private drive three-point-five million a pop Thirty-five thousand a year to heat and cool Servants’ quarters around back Never been any slaves up here

[Read more →]

Squirrels in West Rogers Park are fat. Skin ’em and gut ’em and stuff ’em with cloves of sauteed garlic. Sprinkle with black pepper. Wrap ’em in foil. Set ’em to baking in the coals. They come out all juicy, the meat melting off the bones. The skulls can be dipped in clarified butter and […]

[Read more →]

Nine out of ten doctors will tell you that the crazy guy who gathers sopping newspapers off the sidewalk in the rain while talking to no one you can see about all the reading he now has to do is a crazy guy. He stops talking when people draw near, he’s not that crazy. He […]

[Read more →]

Issue 13 of Robot Melon was published today. It contains one of my stories, “A Dog By the Ears.” Here’s the link: http://www.robotmelon.com/issue13/tetmancallis.html  

[Read more →]

Usually, when a piece of mine is first published someplace else, I post a notice here on my blog, with a link to the someplace else. I also post the notice and link on Facebook. Then, about three months later, I add a copy of whatever it was to my previously published works on this […]

[Read more →]

Hell in a very small place is directly beneath my feet. Las Hermanas de Las Dolorosas live if you want to call it living in the apartment below my soles. Their bickering ends only when one or both of them lose or loses consciousness. O to sleep and not to scream. They are up and […]

[Read more →]

A woman sat in a canvas folding chair by the lake. The day was still and water calm. Mist in the sky blurred the horizon. She held her wallet in her lap. She opened it and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, unfolded it, looked at it, a copy of her birth certificate. She […]

[Read more →]

The downstairs neighbors are having a bad day. Last night they had a bad night. Yesterday, at least during those parts of the day when I was at home, they were having a bad day. The night before last, etc. I try not to listen. (I want to listen!) I try not to press my […]

[Read more →]

Memo in the inbox at opening time today. From Divisional Headquarters, Department of Intimate Affairs: There will no longer be any fucking between the husband and the wife. Forms have been submitted, a closed-door hearing has been held (to preserve the privacy of all involved), and the decision has been reached. What little has been […]

[Read more →]

High over the lake on autumn afternoons gulls flutter flutter? They fly in lackadaisical manner, not in any formations or groups The angels this afternoon have been having a party and threw confetti Gulls flutter and soar and glide above the lake sidelighted by the afternoon sun, lifted by the breeze What do angels eat […]

[Read more →]

The city has flocks of big fat finches A factory on the far South Side that turns out Scottie-dogs dog after dog after dog The forges blaze through the night Fresh-cast dogs clatter onto the factory floor Released into the parks by vested City workers the Scottie-dogs chase finches pecking in the grass The big […]

[Read more →]

The police knocked on my door last night. I was pleased they weren’t looking for me. The doorbell rang and I got up and looked through the peephole. I told my wife, It’s the cops. I opened the door and they identified themselves. Hello, we’re Chicago Police. They wore uniforms, badges, guns, and bulletproof vests. […]

[Read more →]

I’ve lived my entire life afraid to live and afraid to die How does that become a poem? It doesn’t contain any metaphor No imagery No beautiful language It’s No, it’s not even that There’s a man in a room and a light is on.

[Read more →]

Things happened at night and I don’t remember which of them was real and was happening outside my head. Someone was trying to break in through the back windows or the front door. I got up in the dark and went to my closet and pulled my rifle out and walked down the hallway in […]

[Read more →]

You don’t have what they want to buy. You’re reading Thomas Aquinas on the corporeality of angels, spiritual substance made manifest through form, and not even you will buy that. It goes in the back room, with the boxes of used quill pens, and the jars of cold and hardened phlogiston. Crowded back there. Arson […]

[Read more →]