After quite a bit of planning, testing, and replanning, we will be launching a new version of the website within the net couple months. We hope to re-engage our readers, contributors, and editors in robust artistic conversations about the work, our lives, and the situations we find ourselves in. We're still here. We're still working. … Continue reading New things are coming!
Halcyon Panacea
by Amanda C. R. Clark with Sophia Du Val Halcyon Panacea hal·cy·on| ˈhalsēən | adjective denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peacefulpan·a·ce·a| ˌpanəˈsēə | noun a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases doing okay strange and hard time thinking of you hope cope with the current situation The above erasure poetry came to be by removing words from the email sent to … Continue reading Halcyon Panacea
Being Wrong, Being Right, and Being a White Woman of Privilege
by Sara Whitestone In a small Virginia town I mistakenly make an illegal U-turn. A police officer immediately pulls me over. I immediately start crying. These are not crocodile tears; instead they flow from the mortification that I did something wrong and will have to (rightfully) face the consequences. And yet, there are no consequences. … Continue reading Being Wrong, Being Right, and Being a White Woman of Privilege
Where Learned Poems, Loved Books and Lost Friends Live
by Julie Riddle I miss Laura Bloxham. She died in November 2019, and even though she had coped with significant health issues for years, her death was still unexpected. After she had become homebound, I would visit her every few weeks. Our wide-ranging discussions would always include books: what we were reading and planned to … Continue reading Where Learned Poems, Loved Books and Lost Friends Live
Landslide
by Sara Whitestone January 21 “Well, Mom, it’s been 14 days, and Zhi and I have no symptoms,” my daughter tells me over the phone. This is the first I hear of the coronavirus. Rachel met Zhi while he was finishing his masters degree in Chicago, but Zhi grew up in Yichang China. As they … Continue reading Landslide
Perennial Loves: The Book and the Academic Library
by Amanda C. R. Clark Available for purchase is a perfume named “Paperback,” another called “Replica: Whispers in the Library” (which claims to smell like paper and waxed wood), and an oil titled “Library,” which claims to allow you to “Indulge in a cozy day cuddled up in a nook of bookshelves. The smell of … Continue reading Perennial Loves: The Book and the Academic Library
Make it New: Discomfort Zones
by Ann Marie Bausch I must confess: just the idea of writing about discomfort made me, well, uncomfortable. We live in a frightening world. Many of us walk our days carrying the traumas of the past and our fears for the future just under our skin, and the platitudes offered up for how to deal … Continue reading Make it New: Discomfort Zones
Make It New: Unresolved
by Susannah Brister Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” I have always hated New Year’s resolutions. Every year I faced January 1st full of stolid determination, ready to jog more miles, go to bed earlier, be more generous, eat less sugar. My list of “shoulds” and … Continue reading Make It New: Unresolved
Make it New: Crossing the Fence
by Liz Backstrom There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man someone standing with a hammer, continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people. -Anton Chekhov About three years ago I went to church. It was shortly after the election of 2016. I didn't know it, but that … Continue reading Make it New: Crossing the Fence
Make it New: Mending
by Karen Bjork Kubin The fact is, the jeans found you. Or, technically, your husband brought them home in a pile of thrift store denim and one pair fit—but not just fit, they fit well: slim in the right places, forgiving in the right places, not too short or too long. They turned out somehow … Continue reading Make it New: Mending
Rock & Sling 