Dream Dream (oil) by Sophia Zhang, 12; published in Stone Soup March 2023 A note from Emma Wood Hello, readers! I am sitting in the attic of our house with the wind blowing so hard that it is shaking the whole structure. It’s a cold, blustery day, and yet it has been raining not snowing—so not that cold. It has been a strange winter here in coastal Connecticut, in the village where we are living for the year. I can…
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The Bush Girl
Daisy discovers a dryad in a clump of lilac bushes in her backyard Daisy was four when she first met the Bush Girl. She had learned that her mother was making stir-fry for dinner and had decided to run away. Daisy liked the idea of running away. It sounded like something a character in a book would do. It sounded like an adventure. Daisy never really ran away. She just ran across the yard and hid for a while, but…
Spring Wakes
Spring is waking up I know And yet I’m not quite Sure For Sometimes In the Frosty-cold mornings Winter Sneaks back And plays Until Spring runs across The yard And Winter Disappears.
Saturday Newsletter: January 21, 2023
Refugee Project-Untitled Portrait 1, by member of the “Group Portrait Workshop,” run by Hands On Art Workshops, at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya A note from Laura Moran Hello, I sit to write this week’s newsletter after having just submitted a book review I wrote for an academic journal. The book was about people living in immigration detention centers in Australia—people who are seeking refuge in Australia but have not yet been recognized as refugees by the Australian government. Australia…
Flash Contest #51, January 2023: Write a story/poem in which the protagonist/speaker struggles with their New Year’s resolutions—our winners and their work
Our January 2023 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #235 , which asked that participants write a story/poem in which the protagonist struggled with their New Year’s resolutions. We received a dazzling array of submissions, with pieces ranging from a meta-fictional epistolary log of a writer’s inability to write their Flash Contest submission on time to a story told from the perspective of a helplessly sleepy cat to a story about foul-tasting vegetables on a fictional planet. As always, thank…
Poetry Soup Ep. 6 – “The Motive for Metaphor” by Wallace Stevens
Ep. 6 : “The Motive for Metaphor” by Wallace Stevens Transcript: Hello, and welcome to Poetry Soup! I’m your host, Emma Catherine Hoff. Today, I’ll be reading “The Motive for Metaphor,” by Wallace Stevens, which is a poem about poetry itself. Wallace Stevens was born on October 2, 1879, in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was both a lawyer and an insurance executive, but above all, he was an amazing poet. Some of his most well-known poems are the haunting, “The Emperor…
Saturday Newsletter: January 7, 2023
Bicycle, Elevated (Canon EOS Rebel T7) by Joey Vasaturo, 12; published in Stone Soup January 2023 A note from Emma Wood Hello all, I can still remember the first story my daughter, Margot, told: “Once upon a time, Sawyer [her brother] went to sleep.” That was back in June and now, at two years and nine months old, her stories have grown increasingly complex. Last night, she was telling me an incredible tale about a bunny-frog who couldn’t find its way…
Wood Oysterlings
Quiet in the wood. Robins hop from branch to branch. Gently, the branch sways— up down—again—up down and stops. The breeze weaving around the trees pushes plants over. Leaves jostle together. My footsteps odding out of the sounds. Above, raucous rooks haw and caw while landing on branches. Ever so suddenly they take off— each a flapping ink blot across winter’s gray sky— coughing out their caws. Below, little ears listen. Growing and spreading with all the sounds they hear….
Editor’s Note
In this issue, things go missing. There is a woman who has lost her husband and is now losing her mind. There is a girl whose best friend goes missing. There is a boy who is rushed to the ER after hitting his head at the playground and momentarily forgets where he is and why. There’s a bowl of light that loses its light when brought to Earth, and an ode to the beauty of the simple eraser. This theme…
Saturday Newsletter: December 31, 2022
Imagination (watercolor) by Ivory Vanover, 12; published in Stone Soup December 2022 A note from Emma Wood Dear friends— First, I hope you’ve been enjoying December, and all of the lights, sugar, family time, and festivities it brings. I write to you from the sofa in a house that has the distinct, palpable feeling of emptiness which the departure of a houseful of family members creates. Conner is already in Ecuador, where he is spending the first few weeks of…
