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Jonathan Gibbs

Jonathan Gibbs was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize 2013. He has since published a novel, Randall or the Painted Grape (Galley Beggar Press).



Articles Available Online


Jessie Greengrass’s ‘Sight’

Book Review

February 2018

Jonathan Gibbs

Book Review

February 2018

Jessie Greengrass’s debut story collection caught my eye with its delightfully extravagant title, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to...

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May 2016

Cinema on the Page

Jonathan Gibbs

feature

May 2016

Film is a bully. It wants to make its viewers feel, and it has the tools to do so....

AT NIGHT, THE WIFE MAKES HER POINT   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s legs I haven’t spent my life walking down runways in fashion shows, dazzled under the glaring lights of photographers My legs broaden as they reach the hip and in spite of my multiple efforts to don aerobic gear, work out and sweat, I  can’t control their tendency to widen like pillars ready to support a roof   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s waist nor her perfectly smooth and slightly concave tummy with the flawless navel at the center I might have had it once Once I  was even proud of that part of my anatomy That was before my son´s birth, before he decided to be born in haste and come into the world feet first, before the C-section and the scar   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s arms tanned, sculpted, each muscle shaped by the right exercise, the precisely balanced weights My slim arms have no more muscles than what are needed to type these characters, carry my children, brush my hair, gesticulate when I envision the future, or embrace my friends   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s breasts ample, round, C or B cup Mine are not so appealing in low cut dresses in spite of my mother’s assurance -a mother’s words- that breasts like mine, with no cleavage, had the classical beauty of Milo’s Venus     Ah! And the face How would I dare say I have a face like Cindy Crawford’s! The beauty mark just at the corner of the mouth Such impeccable features: the big eyes, the arched eyebrows, the delicate nose Out of habit, I’ve come to like my face: the elephant’s eyes, the nose with its flaring nostrils, the full lips, sensuous nevertheless All is spared with the help of the mane In this department, I can even beat Cindy Crawford I wonder if this affords you any consolation   Last, but not least, -and this is the weightiest piece of evidence- I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s behind: small, round, each half exquisitely outlined Mine is stubbornly ample, big, amphora or clay vase, take your pick, there is no way to hide it, all I can do is not to be shy about it use it to my advantage to sit comfortably and read, or be a writer   But tell me, how often have you had Cindy Crawford at your feet? How often has she given you

Contributor

August 2014

Jonathan Gibbs

Contributor

August 2014

Jonathan Gibbs was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize 2013. He has since published a novel, Randall or...

The Story I'm Thinking Of

fiction

April 2013

Jonathan Gibbs

fiction

April 2013

There were seven of us sat around the table. Seven grown adults, sat around the table. It was late. We had eaten, and we had...

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Art

November 2012

7 1/2 mile hike to Mohonk Lake via Duck Pond

Patricia Niven

JA Murrin

Art

November 2012

Notes on a Walk Never Taken by JA Murrin   As a writer I like to visit the places...

fiction

May 2016

See Inside for Holiday Special

Joanna Quinn

fiction

May 2016

We are not tourists. We are journalists. We fly out from Heathrow, Bristol, Glasgow and Newcastle to foreign airports...

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Issue No. 15

Translation in the First Person

Kate Briggs

feature

Issue No. 15

IT IS 1 JUNE 2015 and I am standing outside no. 11 rue Servandoni in Paris’s sixth arrondissement. I...

 

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