What is home to you? Is it a specific place—a whole country, state, or city? Is it a whole house or just a room? Is it being with certain family or friends? Or is it simply a feeling you get—of comfort and belonging—regardless of where you are? For me, home is not just one of […]
Letter From the Editor
Editor’s Note
What unites these pieces of writing and art is their close, careful attention to the natural world: to migrating birds, to trees we see outside our window even if we live in a city, to the stark beauty of a desert sunset and the tragedy of changing weather patterns, to snowflakes and cut flowers, and […]
Editor’s Note
This is an issue that looks at relationships from many different angles. The poems and stories (and many of the images too) explore what it means to be a friend, a sibling, a child, and a student. You will notice many of these pieces are set at school. The start of school every fall can […]
Editor’s Note
You’ll quickly notice this issue is more than a bit different than our other issues. There are no stories, artworks, or poems—only reviews! (I talk about the value of critical reading and reviewing in a longer note on page 4.) The other thing that makes this issue different is the way we put it together: […]
The Value of Critical Reading
In addition to being Editor of Stone Soup, I am also a university instructor. When I teach creative writing, I like to tell my students that the most important part of the class is not writing but reading because reading will you teach you how to be a writer. As you sit there, eagerly turning […]
Editor’s Note
This is an issue about potential, possibility, and change. In Isabel Swain’s story “Innocent but Dire Words,” a young poet dreams of a better future for herself, while in Vandana Ravi’s short story, a girl dreams of simply another place. In Grace Jiang’s poems, nature comes to life again, after its seasonal death and hibernation, […]
Editor’s Note
Often, the work in our issues is just as concerned with animals and the natural world as with humanity and civilization—not by choice, but by necessity: it reflects our contributors’ interests. But, in this issue, people and civilization (cities! cars! castles!) are the main subjects. Patrick Lusa’s poem “Numbers” captures the hustle and bustle of […]
Editor’s Note
Often, the work in our issues is just as concerned with animals and the natural world as with humanity and civilization—not by choice, but by necessity: it reflects our contributors’ interests. But, in this issue, people and civilization (cities! cars! castles!) are the main subjects. Patrick Lusa’s poem “Numbers” captures the hustle and bustle of […]
Editor’s Note
It’s spring! The season of blooming flowers, blue skies, and baby birds cheeping in their nests. So, in this issue, in honor of spring, I wanted to celebrate the visual in all of its mediums. In addition to the romantic Parisian painting, with its dreamy golds, pinks, and blues, that graces our cover, this issue […]
Editor’s Note
It’s spring! The season of blooming flowers, blue skies, and baby birds cheeping in their nests. So, in this issue, in honor of spring, I wanted to celebrate the visual in all of its mediums. In addition to the romantic Parisian painting, with its dreamy golds, pinks, and blues, that graces our cover, this issue […]
Editor’s Note
This issue includes the winners of our concrete poetry contest; the winning poems are both beautiful visual works in their own right and inventive, singular texts. However, it is the combination of both shape (the form) and text (the content) that made these poems stand out. I hope when you sit down to write any […]
Editor’s Note
This issue includes the winners of our concrete poetry contest; the winning poems are both beautiful visual works in their own right and inventive, singular texts. However, it is the combination of both shape (the form) and text (the content) that made these poems stand out. I hope when you sit down to write any […]