This issue is full of storms—actual storms that strike trees with lightning and shipwreck brothers and cause huge waves to crash onto the deck of a beach house—as well as metaphorical ones: “I am a thunderstorm” Pauline McAndrew writes in a poem about being mixed race. A number of characters experience internal storms as well: […]
Letter From the Editor
Editor’s Note
Have you ever wished you could be someone or something else? “Ivy’s Return,” the short story by Clara Gluzdov that opens this issue, perfectly captures this longing through the character of Ivy, the cat who yearns to become a human girl so she can play the piano. When Ivy’s wish is granted, however, she realizes […]
Editor’s Note
Readers! Today marks FIFTY YEARS of Stone Soup! Reaching this milestone is an incredible achievement and a testament to the importance of this project for young readers, writers, and artists. Thanks to each one of you for continuing to make Stone Soup possible. The art, poetry, and prose in this issue explore climate change. It […]
Editor’s Note
In this issue, we welcome spring—with spring poems and spring art. Look again at that cover image—the wash of blue sky! The meadow full of blue, orange, and yellow flowers! That perfectly contented longhorn, gazing off into the distance! The grass is too green for it to be summer—it is still spring, and I can […]
Editor’s Note
In this issue, things go missing. There is a woman who has lost her husband and is now losing her mind. There is a girl whose best friend goes missing. There is a boy who is rushed to the ER after hitting his head at the playground and momentarily forgets where he is and why. […]
Editor’s Note
“Snow-sleet coming down / Like alabaster flowers raining / down on me.” “Seagulls struggled to fly against the wind. They were like kites getting flung around, as flimsy as rag dolls.” “Realization sets over me, / Like the winter sun over the countryside.” “I climbed up the ladder then paused, positioning myself as if I […]
Editor’s Note
As you may have noticed just from holding it in your hands, this issue is longer than usual. That’s because in addition to the regular forty-eight pages of writing and art, you’ll find an extra ten pages of art in this, our new art edition of the magazine. We’ve decided to make a special art […]
Editor’s Note
Memoir has the spotlight in this issue. In these pages, you will find Georgia Marshall’s interview with her grandfather, which is at once a tribute, a biography in miniature, and a thoughtful reflection on what makes a good life. You will find two personal stories, Louise Johnson’s “Unconditional” and Misha Joksic’s “The Deadly Pain”—both difficult […]
Editor’s Note
What is home? A sanctuary, a place of rest, a feeling, a family, a specific house or town or state or sky. Home is the way you feel when you feel “at home”—relaxed, comfortable, open. It is in our homes where we are most physically vulnerable—taking showers, getting dressed, going to the bathroom, eating—and also […]
Editor’s Note
Every October, I aim to bring a tiny bit of spookiness to Stone Soup. We tend to think spooky means ghosts and witches—and there is one witch in this issue!—but it is also so many other, subtler things: shutters banging against the side of a house, a lone owl on a branch in a silent […]
Editor’s Note
“‘What’s the point of always wanting to do something more? It’s all going to disappear when we die, anyway. Why can’t I just be happy as I am?’” asks Simon, the main character in Phoebe Donovan’s story “Delay.” Simon is an adult, but he doesn’t (much to his mother’s chagrin) have a career or a […]
Editor’s Note
And the flies were dancing and buzzing, and joining in, and there was some sort of silent party with no music, because the only sounds were the birds and we wanted that. We never wanted it to stop, just wanted to stay, my mother and father with their wine, laughing, me, running, slipping in the […]
