No Evil is Wide is the linear and violent story of an unnamed narrator, the prostitute he is tasked to “find,” and Carpenter Wells, the man that makes that return impossible. The remembrances of the narrator revolve around sexual awakening, family distance and dissolution—how they crumble to common and inevitable animalism. It is filled with philosophical epistles to the reader that concretize the themes of the work. The narrative that allows the reader purchase within the text begins with the narrator locating the unnamed girl while the world devolves into a chaotic madness of bombings and destruction not dissimilar to contemporary existence. This chaos serves as an uncanny reminder of the everyday violence we overlook.

About the author

Randall Watson’s first book, Las Delaciones del Sueño, was published in a bi-lingual edition by the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico. His The Sleep Accusations received the Blue Lynx Poetry Award. He is also the editor of TheWright of Addition, An Anthology of Texas Poetry published by Mutabilis Press. No Evil is Wide is a revised version of Petals, (as Ellis Reece) which received the 2006/07 Quarterly West prize in the novella, Judged by Brett Lott.