Summer 2013: Prose

Introduction

At VoiceCatcher, we don’t set “themes” for our journal, instead preferring to discover them among the wealth of submissions we receive. Themes tends to emerge on their own and feel like a gift wrapped in a Tiffany blue box when they do. Early on in the reading process, the theme that emerged among the prose entries seemed to be “roles” – women’s roles as daughter, mother, wife. But as I neared the end of the reading process, the theme shifted to “transformations” – illness, divorce, death, rebirth.

At first, I felt some sort of weird tension, like I had to decide between the two. Now it seems perfectly reasonable that they exist in this issue side-by-side. For we do not stay static in one role. We start as daughters and become mothers – where hope and pain are poignantly portrayed in “Your Hand at Your Throat.” Then we are lured back into our role of daughters as seen in “Black Sharpie.” “Something Permanent” and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” show us the trajectory of going from single to married life and then finding ourselves alone again. We are healthy and then not healthy, and – hopefully – become healthy again in “Diagnosis.” We yearn for a kind of rebirth that is ached for in “After the World Ends” and gloriously achieved in “Breathing Underwater.” These are all corporeal stories, stories of the body. Our bodies. Ourselves.

It was an honor and a joy to work with each of the prose authors featured in this issue. Reading their work taught me a little bit more about what it means to be human. I can’t think of any higher aim for literature.

Liz Prato
Guest Prose Editor

Poetry Rich, strong, poignant, humorous and inspiring. We’ve caught twenty never-before-published poems by sixteen unique voices.		Prose Seven talented women search for themselves in their bodies, their family, themselves.		Artwork Established dynamos and aspiring voices add colorful visions to our third issue.		Young Voices Language leaps off the page in the poetry and prose of five young authors who delight in sensory detail.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists who make this Summer 2013 edition a rich, varied and engaging experience.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS POETRY         Abandoned Church by Tanya Jarvik         Commencement by Kelly Running         Depoe Bay by Wendy Thompson         Directive by Cristina White         Hawk Moth by Wendy Thompson         How to Recycle Love Letters by Jennifer Dorner         I Swapped a '74 Mustang for This by Jennifer Fulford         Polaroid of My Mother by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         Lover, Molester, and Maidens (Haibun) by Margaret Chula         Savory by Pat Phillips West         Seascape by Marjorie Power         Suspended by Grace Kuhns         The Hand-Off by Pattie Palmer-Baker         The Ride by Linda Ferguson         The Ticking Shirt by Tricia Knoll         Three Facts about Sperm by Ursula Whitcher         Three True Stories by Penelope Scambly Schott         Today at the Library by Pat Phillips West         Trapped Birds by Grace Kuhns         You, who will be alive and reading after I'm gone by Penelope Scambly Schott PROSE         After the World Ends by Kait Heacock         Something Permanent by Ashley-Renée Cribbins         Your Hand at Your Throat by Karen Guth         Black Sharpie by Anne Gudger         Diagnosis by Helen Sinoradzki         For He's a Jolly Good Fellow by Laura Stanfill         Breathing Underwater by Valerie Wagner ART         Unity by Anne John         Rearguard by Anne John         Speculation by Anne John         Wire by Jocelyn White         Taitian Trio by Nani Chesire         Catch Your Breath by Nani Chesire YOUNG VOICES         We Will Read to You by Rebecca Cleveland-Stout         Strawberry Party by Natalie Lerner         A Young Night by Clara Beaumont         Beach Wanderer by Isabella Waldron         Light and Dark by Colette Au CONTRIBUTORS