Various philosophies of mind frequently claim that the mental supervenes on the physical; or, in other words, that there is no change in our mental state without a corresponding change in biology. Sheku, the protagonist of William McCauley's story "Mister Henry's Trousers," illustrates this principle in extremis. In fact, Sheku's elephantiasis-infected testicles could be posited as the real protagonists of the story, for they are among only a small handful of explanations for the tragic overreaching with which Sheku conducts himself.

"Quichè Lessons" was a piece that was discovered by a first-semester intern here at The Missouri Review through our thousands of mail and online submissions. This keen eye for good writing is one of the many reasons why we at TMR pride ourselves on maintaining a high quality internship where interns are selected through a vigorous screening process for their ability to pick out and discern writing that is acceptable for publication, backing up their decisions with close analysis of the works in consideration. Molly McNett's work was chosen to receive the Peden Prize for this year's best fiction piece featured in The Missouri Review. She will be honored with a reception on Monday, October 20^th at 6:00 PM in Columbia, Missouri.

A troubled teen is the focus of Cynthia Morrison Phoel's "A Good Boy," published in TMR Volume 26, number 3.  We follow Dobrin, the young man struggling with his parents' silence. Ever since his father purchased a satellite dish instead of saving money to heat their home, Dobrin's mother has refused to speak to her husband. Set in Bulgaria, the story explores poverty, marital issues, and one boy's attempt to become a man despite his father's shortcomings.

From start to finish, David Ohle's "'06" seems set in a familiar landscape, but one is immediately at a loss to account for that familiarity.  For only in the sense that its characters speak English and gradually reveal themselves to be unmistakably human does this tale, at first glance, retain any vestige of a known reality.  But Ohle's scope is broad, and on the whole satirical, giving us leeway to read parallels between the social structures we know and the social warps and fissures we find on the page.  "‘06" belongs to that select group of highly literate science fiction stories that are able, miraculously, to speak to us about our lives in our own language on wildly unpredictable and fantastic terms.

Gender benders have a rich history in literature. Most notable might be Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with its comical swapping and confusion that occurred. In today's society gender portrayal has become even more prevalent, as fashion and science allow us to blur the lines more than ever before. In his short story, "Birdie," Mark Wisniewski uses women's basketball to show how his characters define themselves sexually and as skilled athletes.

Animals figure prominently, even disturbingly, in Diza Sauers' story "Roan."  Not content to fixate only on the way humans deal with death at an emotional pitch, "Roan" employs a harsh naturalism that reduces death to its biological, or animal, level.