Honouring Comrade
The brass band sounded the bugle call — the final roll call to signal ‘lights out’ for a man who will never die.
Out of the Silent Planet: The Sci-fi Series No One is Still Talking About
The book brings out theological issues like the concept of falling from grace, and the impact of a planet’s god on the entire world. Sometimes genre fiction can fall flat when it comes to deeper meanings, but Out of the Silent Planet is not one of those novels.
Radiance
I had to find a place
for the pigment painted elephant
from India who wanted me to be part
of the Holi festival so we could all
splash each other with the bright colors
of knowing more
A Twist In The Tail
We’ll put the audiences onstage,
Hamlet, a romantic comedy now.
Macbeth on rollerblades and naked.
Mama’s Prayers
I’m gonna boldly speak the truth.”
She’s worried, “You know you can’t trust the system.”
I shrugged, “I don’t plan to be a victim of the system
Quarterly & Special Issues
Submissions next open from June 1 to August 31 2024
September 3, 2023
As Development Director for an animal sanctuary, I wrote about fragile cats for ten years, bootlegging in sermons on sturdy grace. I was obsessed with the work, for good and for mad. My unkempt, unorthodox congregation clamored for more…
September 2, 2023
September 1, 2023
I haven’t spoken to my sister in ten, fifteen, maybe twenty-five years — it depends what you count as ‘spoke’, I suppose — but still I wonder nearly every other day where she put the gun. The one we got from the unicorn.
August 27, 2023
You sit there in your room, that shrunken world, surrounded by trinkets; an attempt to anchor the tides of your ebbing memory. I have been told that you dislike visitors but I have come nevertheless, before I lose my nerve.
August 26, 2023
August 25, 2023
Twenty-five years of no meeting up or communication. It wasn’t intentional; she couldn’t remember how it happened. It was an argument, she thinks. But it didn’t matter to her anymore.
August 21, 2023
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I signed up for my class about leadership in ministry settings. However, I quickly fell into the intense depths of the first book assigned, My Grandmother’s Hands. It’s all about healing from racialized trauma and not just for folks with skin darker than my pale European descent.
August 19, 2023
August 18, 2023
You weren’t in the casual class pictures that we took from time to time, or so I thought. You were not friends with my friends. I don’t think you had any, really. But I was at the front each time. And yet, somehow, I met you one day.
August 16, 2023
As a history fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the honest, in-depth historical setting, details, and experiential ways of life depicted in the book. Other history fans, particularly of the medieval period, will enjoy these elements as well. These historical pieces come into vivid clarity through Swanson’s writing in ways that non-historians could never offer.
August 15, 2023
May you find encouragement to face your own trials, commiserate in your own struggles, and generally just enjoy these works by the gifted authors and artists the world over.
August 12, 2023
August 11, 2023
Laid on the cold ground, eyes upon the stars, she held still.
If she didn’t exhale that breath and inhale another, everything could end....
August 10, 2023
…I was concerned about anyone in my department seeing my child anywhere near my classroom, but I hoped that I was close enough to the parking lot that no one would notice the late exchange…
August 7, 2023
Some books on these topics are dry, others difficult to read because of the intense content. However, Arthur Riley helps the reader welcome the discussion on these challenging topics through the beautiful wording and deeply personal, but somehow not overwhelming, insights of her own.
August 5, 2023
She lived in a street opposite “the cliffs,” which when I’ve been there since, weren’t cliffs at all…
August 4, 2023
Opening the classroom door, thirty pairs of wary eyes watched her quietly walk over to the teacher to introduce herself. Her gaze focussed on the floor. She wished she were invisible. Who is this stranger? Is she a new girl?
July 30, 2023
Dots align in constellations. Meaning makes its way out of my maelstrom and onto the page, legible and lithe. I believe I was hand-placed in this particular sky. I believe I will never forget again.
July 29, 2023
But perhaps it was the same with the dinosaurs everything going but without our knowing…
July 28, 2023
Vishnu knew that the prolonged pandemic had changed everything. His favourite – and the city's best – football grounds had now become a den for poisonous reptiles and insects.They easily hid within the thickets of three-feet-high barnyard- and spear grass, and the tiny white-flowered parthenium.