A Blue Hour, by Joel Tomfohr

Prose, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

A Blue Hour is a meditation on love and loss, grief and solitude. The unnamed narrator explores the kinds of violence that erupt between sons and fathers and brothers. In one story, following the death of his father, the narrator encounters him at the foot of his bed. In another, his older brother drowns him in a river. They haunt his dreams and occupy his home.

These stories reject conventional forms of storytelling. They eschew plot. Instead, they are driven by language, tone, recurring themes, and imagery. They are meant to be read slowly, to be picked up and put down as the reader wishes.

Joel Tomfohr is a writer living in the Bay Area. His work can be found in Short Beasts, Bending Genres, Joyland, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, X-R-A-Y, BULL, Hobart, and others. He teaches English to immigrants from around the world at Fremont High School in Oakland, CA.