This month, I would like to draw your attention to the art by Ashley Jun that you can find both on our cover and throughout the issue. Except for one digitally altered photograph (Trace, on page 35), all of Ashley’s artworks are abstract watercolors. Bloom, the cover image, is peaceful and uplifting—the colors remind me […]
Letter From the Editor
Editor’s Note
Leaves turning red, orange, and yellow as they dry out and fall off the branches. Days getting shorter, the air turning cold. Like spring, fall is a season of transition. When we are in winter and summer, we are in them. But we are never truly in the transitional seasons; the weather is constantly shifting, […]
Editor’s Note
After featuring long-form fiction in our summer issue, in this issue, I decided to focus on poetry and super short personal narratives. Although I love the way a good story can pull me in and away from the world, reading a novel can also be an exhausting experience—especially if you get caught up in marathon […]
Editor’s Note
I am so excited to share two long-form works of fiction with you this summer! The first piece featured in this issue is Get Myself A Rocking Chair, a novella by Nora Heiskell that was submitted to our 2020 Book Contest. Nora seems to have an old soul; she writes with a wisdom and maturity […]
Editor’s Note
We don’t often talk about politics in the print magazine of Stone Soup. This is in large part because we work so far ahead on each issue that any attempt to speak to current events will inevitably be outdated by the time the magazine arrives at your door. Instead, we publish more timely and topical […]
Editor’s Note
When I saw Emma Tian’s photograph Majesty (this month’s cover image), I immediately knew that it had to be on a cover—not only because it’s an excellent photograph but because its power lies partly in its size. It is a photograph that wants to overwhelm you, to make you aware of the weight of time […]
Editor’s Note
In her story “The Bright Yellow,” Ella Kate Starzyk describes a character whose world has turned completely yellow: people, food, streets, and stores—all yellow. Her mother takes her to the eye doctor: “After the eye exam, the doctor said I was colorblind, and the only color I could see was yellow. I had a yellow […]
Editor’s Note
I know March is winter still in most places, but I couldn’t wait to celebrate spring and all it symbolizes—new life and new beginnings. As I write this from the end of 2020, I don’t know what the winter will hold for all of us, but I feel sure that we will all be in […]
Editor’s Note
One of the main defenses of literature today is that it makes you empathetic—that reading and writing help teach you how to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes, in the case of a personal narrative, that “someone else” is even a different, earlier version of yourself. The writing in this issue explores many perspectives […]
Editor’s Note
One of the stories in this issue is called “A Place in the World,” and that phrase perfectly captures how I see the pieces in this issue cohering. How do you—do we, does anyone—find their place in the world? What happens if your place has already been determined or selected for you? What if you […]
Editor’s Note
My first day of English class, sophomore year of high school, I walked into a classroom dark except for a single candle flickering on my teacher’s desk. He stayed quiet, writing, as we all filtered into the room, nervously laughing and whispering to each other. Eventually, we took his cue and began to write too. […]
Editor’s Note
Living in isolation, often with just our families, has meant that many families have spent more time together than ever. I have experienced this on both ends—as a parent and as a daughter. This summer, we braved the flight out east to stay with my parents in Connecticut for six weeks. It was the most […]
