We have changed things up a bit this round and we are very excited to present you with our first attempt at making books without glue or jigs.  This issue was handmade with a Japanese Stab Binding that we learned at a workshop given by MC Hyland at the Midwest Small Press Festival in June.  We were scrambling to put this guy together at the last second and Kris Ange came through with a remarkable cover design just in time to ensure a July release. 

 RCR won't stop changing.  Progress: it's not just the ironically eponymous theme of the opening piece of issue 4, in which Aaron Anstett imagines a sort of nightmarish community college night class in self-improvement.  While Greg stayed up late learning how to stitch the new binding, Robin accidentally sewed an underlining seam of progress throughout the collection.  But progress comes with the baggage of nostalgia and regret for the past. And always present, the never-ending question "What next?" Dillon J. Welch drops in unexpectedly on the tenants of his old house in "Bienvenue." Emma Ramey realizes "I have always wanted, yet what do I have to dream?" in  "Tenant." Mercedes Lawry wonders what would have happened "if only the out-of-control truck wouldn’t hit the pedestrians" in "Tabloid Fodder or Simply Life." In Billy Howell's "Remains," an obsession with a benign cysts leads to the assumption of a past life as Alexei Romanov.  Richard Boada revives ghosts on the Mississippi.  Sally Molini warns us of "another long spell of Curious Choices" up head.  Progress requires the moments of reflection and observation that occur in many other pieces in the issue.  But it does not necessarily ask "Is it better? Are we right?" 

Issue #4 is a short, but focused issue.  We are lucky to have had the opportunity to publish such a talented group of people.  The list of contributors is as follows:
Aaron Anstett
Richard Boada
Scott Ditzler
Billy Howell
Mercedes Lawry
Sally Molini
Joseph Mulholland
Katie Jean Shinkle
Emma Ramey
Dillon Welch 

Also we would like to say a special thanks to:
MC Hyland
Robert J. Baumann
Jenna J. Rolle
Krista Callahan-Caudill
The Morris Bookshop
The Midwest Small Press Festival
Eric Casero's Table