Black Kettle — Jason Leclerc

Picking up where the fragmented narrative of Momentitiousness left off, Black Kettle explores the many manifestations of hope and deceit in the human experience. This is a novella collection--sweet, sensual, sadistic, and sullen--where independently complete stories burst forth with playful vigor, featuring heroes and antiheroes alike.

Using the true story of Black Kettle--a peaceful Cheyenne Indian chief, who was gruesomely slaughtered in the 1860s--as a metaphorical backdrop, the text builds on the ambivalence inherent in hypocrisy. More than blood and guts, sex and postapocalyptical musing, Black Kettle derives its power from an understanding of both the human mind and the human soul.

In the novella Black Kettle, witness the moments immediately preceding, during, and after two galactic earth-shattering events. In Trayvon, observe young men as they discover the shifting tangents connected by sexuality, love, and family. Finally, in The Nola Trilogy, watch carnal pleasure morph into sentimentality, heartbreak, and eventual rebirth.