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 […]
Letter From the Editor
Editor’s Note
It is June. I feel like sighing with relief even writing those words. There is something about summer, even when you’re no longer in school, that just makes you relax. The heat makes everyone slow down, I guess—and people take vacation, which means the working world can’t move at its usual pace. Even though I […]
Editor’s Note
When was the last time you made a mistake? How did you react? In the first story in this issue, “A Leopard’s Spots” by Juli Hiramatsu, the leopard May makes a terrible mistake: she breaks a promise to an old, old friend, doing something that can’t be undone. While May can’t undo her actions, or […]
Editor’s Note
This issue has two central threads running through it: cats and . . . sports. When I am working on an issue, I always look for both obvious thematic links—like subject matter, like cats!—and then also something less tangible and easy to describe, something maybe about the energy of the pieces that seems similar, or […]
Editor’s Note
Ah, spring! Or as Grace Zhuang writes in her poem “Spring” in this issue: Winds are running around Telling everyone the good news, “Spring is coming!” “Spring is coming!” That stanza captures the atmosphere I tried to create in this issue—one of lightness, whimsy, excitement, and happiness. The writing and art here bubbles (sometimes literally—as […]
Editor’s Note
A rainy day, a classroom, a special hill, Mars, Ancient Greece—this is an issue that celebrates place. The stories and much of the art—especially Delilah Prager’s landscape paintings and Jay Nimchonok’s photograph Northern Ontario—all provide a vivid sense of being in a specific place, whether that’s a dry, lifeless planet or an idyllic forest. I […]
Editor’s Note
The stories in this issue (one of which is a play!) span a range of styles and subjects—from an old-fashioned gothic ghost story to a political allegory that helps us better understand our own politically divided times, a war veteran reminiscing on a lost friend , and the brave revolutionary uprisings of the Arab Spring. […]
Editor’s Note
A radio that thinks but cannot move or speak to help the humans around it. Mice who struggle with money and social acceptance. A dragon condemned to a harsh life. This issue is a celebration of perspectives. Seeing from the point of view of an animal or an object, or even from the vantage point […]
Editor’s Note
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 […]
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 […]
