Stone Soup Magazine: September 2020

 Stone Soup Magazine, September 2020. Volume 48, Issue 8. 32 pp.

 Editor’s Note 

This year, we began publishing nonfiction in the magazine. In this issue, I am excited to finally share the winners of the Personal Narrative Contest we ran with the Society of Young Inklings last fall. These three narratives give us a sense of the scope and range of narrative nonfiction. In “Locked Out of Kindergarten,” Kateri Escober Doran recounts a single, indelible memory from kindergarten, blending thoughtful reflection on the social world with detailed, poignant scenes. In “Swirling Arabesques,” Zoe Kyriakakis demonstrates the poetic possibilities of prose. And, finally, in “Gratitude,” Alicia Xin shares the lessons she learned after spending a summer immersed in a different culture. I hope by reading these narratives, and the ones we have been publishing in the magazine this year, that you are beginning to understand that nonfiction can be just as “literary”—as strange, as beautiful, as descriptive, as interesting—as fiction! And that it certainly need not end with a clear “lesson” or “moral.” 

I also hope you will enjoy the art, poetry, and two very fictional stories in this issue—both of which, in contrast to the nonfictional narratives, focus on human-animal relationships. 

Welcome to fall!

Emma Wood

Contents

personal narratives 

5 Locked Out  of Kindergarten  by Kateri Escober Doran

20 Swirling Arabesques  by Zoe Kyriakakis

26 Gratitude  by Alicia Xin

stories 

15 Yellowstone, a Fresh Start  by Emily Carver

23 The Schnitzelbird  by Elaina Heinitz

poetry 

12 Our Blanket 

by Leila Lakhal 

31 Everything I Love  by Liv Baker

art 

Cover:  Woodsy Owl  by Paige Smith

4 Self Portrait  by Alyssa Wu

14 Rainbow Lake  by Sage Millen

18 McArthur Lights 

by Oskar Cross

25 A Man’s Friend 

by Hanna Gustafson

27 Wrinkles 

by Claire Jiang

32 Honor Roll