Sharon Hoffmann

Sharon Weightman Hoffmann is a writer based in Atlantic Beach, Florida. She is a former managing editor of Kalliope, a journal of women’s art. Publications include The New York Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Spoon River Poetry Review, Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives (Harvard University Press), and Isle of Flowers (Anhinga Press). Previous awards include fellowships from Atlantic Center for the Arts and Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. 

In Longineu’s Kitchen

In Longineu’s kitchen at 3 a.m., the famous jazzmen crowd around the table, eat turkey, dressing, squash casserole, drink CC&7, wait on coke. The older musicians stand in the clean-swept garage, smoke weed and inspect the drums played by the horn man's five-year-old son. The boy’s mama leans against the dishwasher, tells everyone who’ll listen how he drums on everything, the tabletop, the TV, how he's worn a hole through the couch cover keeping time. How his teacher complains he can’t keep still, shuffles his feet under his desk, rocks forward, feels for the backbeat. Five young sidemen sit in a row on a white ‘50s sofa, listen to Coltrane, talk about phrasing. They gesture with one hand, unconscious that the other is fingering sticks, valves, frets, keys.

Sharon Hoffmann

In Longineu’s Kitchen

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