First, some updates.

Refugee art and writing. Work is coming in. As one would expect, graphic art is more common than written work. If any of you have any connections with refugee projects anywhere in the world, including on the southern US border, that you have not shared with us, please write to the project coordinator, Laura Moran: laura@stonesoup.com.

Facebook/Instagram advertising. We are going to start an advertising program at Facebook and Instagram. If any of you are whizzes at social media advertising and think you might be able to help, then write to me, William, at newsletter@stonesoup.com. Thank you.

Arch of Life. Arches are funny things. It is in their nature to suggest a passing through—a journey’s beginning or end. This photograph of the arch in St. Louis says to me, “possibilities.” What does it say to you? I want you to hold that thought, and then grab a phone or camera and take a photograph that expresses that same idea. If you like what you come up with a lot, submit it to Emma for consideration for Stone Soup.

Stone Soup bloggers. I am so proud of our Stone Soup bloggers. We started the blogs a couple years ago in order to expand the kind of writing we can publish. Stone Soup will always stay a literary magazine of fiction, art, and poetry. The blogs are where young writers can publish book reviews, essays, how-to projects, works on sports, science, etc. The blogs have no content or genre restrictions.

I’d like you to look through recent blogs. The recently published essay “What Can We Learn About History from Objects” by Mohan Li is a thought-provoking work. This particular post is probably more appropriate for our older Stone Soup readers and for adults, but you will all find writing in the Stone Soup blogs that will interest you.

Mohan’s essay discusses a really fundamental human problem: We live, we may do fabulous things, but then we die. What is left? Historians struggle with this. How can we learn about the past when most knowledge dies with people? As a practical matter, objects that can last, like objects made out of rock, are often all this is left from ancient times, even though those times were filled with interesting people doing interesting things. Historians often only have physical objects to use to try to understand what life was like in the past. Read this essay, and then I want you to look around your house, or outdoors, for an object that is solid enough to survive for a few hundred years, at least. This has to be something that doesn’t use electricity and isn’t made of anything that can rot or rust away.

Imagining yourself in the future. What story does that object tell? I think the flash fiction format would we appropriate for this writing project. See what you can do with 250 words.

If Mohan’s essay inspires your thinking, and you’d like to read more speculations based on objects, then I can recommend a book that Mohan is likely to have read: A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, a former director of London’s British Museum.

If you are age 13 and under, then you can blog for Stone Soup. Go to the submissions page and make a proposal.

Until next week,

Highlights from the past week online

Don't miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com!

This week, Abhi reviewed Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. “It changed my perspective not only about the genre of fantasy, but also about books themselves,” Abhi writes. Read the review to find out why Abhi was so affected by the book.

Bargain Back Issues!

Did you know that we reduce the prices of Stone Soup back issues in our online store?

Any issue published over six months ago is reduced by 25%—that’s $5 per issue, instead of $7.50. And issues over 12 months old are half price, just $3.75 each.

The cover date may be 2018 or 2019, but the content in Stone Soup never gets old, and you can’t beat the feeling of holding one of our beautiful magazines in your hands. Why not give the print edition of the magazine a try, or build up your collection of back issues, at a bargain price?

From Stone Soup February 2020