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Archived Issue: Summer 2014


Header Image-Featured Artwork for Summer 2014 Issue

Letter from the Managing Editor

When we launched VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices & visions in Fall 2012, we never imagined that over 16,000 first-time viewers would visit our first four editions. While we all love books we can hold in our hands, we are now awe-struck with the reach of online publications.

We are also amazed how every issue has been a miracle of collaboration. Since we rotate guest editors, our volunteers have to quickly master Submittable, Dropbox, and Excel spreadsheets. In addition, they have to adapt to each other’s working styles and establish guidelines for communicating with their team members and with authors and artists. And they have to accomplish all this within a three-month timeframe!

By the time this current crop of editors finished learning, reading, pondering, rating and editing, we discovered we had a very strong field of 14 poets, 6 prose writers, 5 young voices and 5 artists. In addition, our poetry and prose editors wrote feedback letters to 29 authors who requested further insights into their work. Going this extra mile adds hours to our editors’ commitment, but it’s one they embrace enthusiastically issue after issue.

We finally delivered our chosen voices and visions to Deb Scott, our intrepid designer, who worked her magic to produce another edition that fills us with pride and takes our breath away.

Since the job of a managing editor is not merely to support, but to cheer on our journal volunteers, I’d like to shout out four cheers for the following women:

Our Guest Poetry Co-Editors Emily Pittman Newberry, Pattie Palmer-Baker and Wendy Thompson who met face-to-face as well as communicated via email as they made their selections. When it came time to edit the work of accepted poets, they not only made email contact, but spoke by phone or met in person. And, probably a first for VoiceCatcher, when email failed to reach a poet whose worked they loved, the husband of one editor hand-delivered a letter to the author’s home mailbox. Message received. Contact made. Poems accepted.

Guest Prose Co-Editors Michelle Fredette and Tiah Lindner Raphael who worked seamlessly over the phone and via email. Their in-depth comments about each piece of fiction and non-fiction opened my eyes to more astute ways of reading prose. They were mentors not only to one another and to authors, but to me.

Helen Sinoradzki, our Prose Line Editor, who lent another set of expert eyes to ensure each selection was as accurate as possible. Just when we thought we had every comma and subject/predicate agreement correct, Helen taught us otherwise.

Sarah Fagan who played her role as Guest Art Editor while participating in a month-long art residency in Leavenworth, WA. Her outreach to local artists introduced VoiceCatcher to visions we hadn’t seen before. Her artistic intelligence, so apparent in this issue, offers us a diversity of media as well as visions that energize this issue.

Deb Scott, the designer of all five of our editions, who worked with Sarah to ensure art translated effectively to our online format and who created another issue that itself is another unique work of art. Deb’s eye for design and her technological expertise make browsing this fifth edition a rich experience. It is no exaggeration to say that without Deb’s commitment to VoiceCatcher, our journal would not be as visually appealing or as easy to navigate as it is.

Donna Prinzmetal who completed her third issue as Youth Editor by taping five young women from four different high schools. She is an expert at guiding talented young authors through the revision process and teaching them how editing can make their pieces stronger.

Working with these high-energy women has been a rich learning experience for me, and I know I speak for everyone in the VoiceCatcher community when I thank them for their time, dedication and talent.

On their behalf, I invite you to celebrate their work in this issue and to meet our contributors as our reading series continues throughout 2014.

Warmest regards,

Carolyn Martin
Managing Editor




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Poetry Thumbnail Art   Prose Thumbnail Art   Artwork Thumbnail Art   Young Voices Thumbnail Art   Contributors Thumbnail Art
Poetry

Sweet, evocative, haunting: Delight in 19 poems to please every palate.

 
Prose

What does it take to be a woman, sister, mother, child, lover and friend? Share the struggles six non-fiction writers have with these roles.

 
Artwork

Five local artists, a variety of media, and new insights into our world. Enjoy the unique visions of these extraordinary women.

 
Young Voices

Savor the poetry and prose of five talented young authors whose voices you will want to hear again and again.

 
Contributors

Meet the 25 authors and 5 artists whose voices and visions enliven the fifth edition of our journal.

Table of Contents Button
LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

POETRY

        Out of Eden by Melanie Green

        Under the Tongue by Cindy Stewart-Rinier

        it wasn’t the rain by Ann Sinclair

        And the King Was in the Counting House by Geraldine Foote

        Aurelia Aurita: Moon Jelly by Lois Rosen

        What Cape Alava Was Like Then by Linda Strever

        ʻAʻā by Burky Achilles

        Still Life With Cabbage by Margaret Chula

        Mother of the Drowned Child by Penelope Scambly Schott

        Summer, When Green Turns by Cindy Stewart-Rinier

        Relic by Jennifer Foreman

        From the yes column of “is there a god?” checklist by Jennifer Foreman

        Binders Full of Women by Shawn Aveningo

        Even in February Every Woman Wants to Be a Feast by Claudia Savage

        Weddings I Have Ruined by Tanya Jarvik

        Thicker Than Water by Claudia Savage

        Weekend Wayfarers by Elizabeth Stoessl

        Wordscape by Tanya Jarvik

        Talking Herself into Onward by Melanie Green

PROSE

        Tribes by Thea Constantine

        Carnage by Heidi Beierle

        Owyhee Barbie by Marylynne Diggs

        Permeable Divide by Kamala Bremer

        Pepper Anderson Meets the Amazon by Linda Ferguson

        The Day I Stopped Typing by Kate Comings

ART

        Brooke by Oriana Lewton-Leopold

        Elizabeth by Oriana Lewton-Leopold

        Silence Considered by Carole Murphy

        The Egg Sisters by Carole Murphy

        Garden Gate by Koka Filipovic

        Purple Shade in the Garden by Koka Filipovic

        Untitled with a Flamingo by Amy Robinson

        It's My Party by Amy Robinson

YOUNG VOICES

        A Work of Art by Leilani Garcia

        What the Bees Did to Me by Colette Au

        Things I never said by Molly Benson

        Wabi-Sabi by Janet Webster

        Foresters by Sophia Mautz

CONTRIBUTORS