Archived Issue: Winter 2015

Letter from the Managing Editor

We did it again! Nine editors cheerfully collaborated to create this content-rich, visually- unique sixth edition of VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices & visions. From the opening of the submission window on September 1 through their final deadline of November 25, they debated selections, engaged in revisions with accepted authors, and wrote the type of helpful feedback letters that have distinguished VoiceCatcher for the past nine years.

Here are five facts about this issue that may interest you:

1. Our new designer, Shawn Aveningo, has created a new platform that will make navigating this issue, as well as all our archived issues, much easier. Look for new features – like a list of every contributor from every edition with a link to her work.

2. Our featured artist, Brittany Chavez, is 23 years old. We are proud to present her extraordinary photography, and we greet her at the beginning of a promising career.

3. In the Young Voices section, we broke our own rule: We published a piece by a pre-high schooler. Wait until you read Lily Boyd’s “Elegy for Christy.” You’ll understand why we couldn’t resist including this talented eighth grader in this issue.

4. All of our prose writers, artists and Young Voices are first-time VoiceCatcher journal contributors as are 16 of our 20 poets. This tells us there are many yet-to-be-tapped writers and artists in greater Portland/Vancouver whom we’d love to see and hear in future editions.

5. By the time we gather the final statistics on first-time readers of this edition, we predict we will have attracted over 30,000 visitors since our inaugural issue in Fall 2012. Not a bad track record for a local online publication!

To every editor who has participated in creating our six issues and to our brilliant original designer, Deb Scott, I express the gratitude of the entire VoiceCatcher community for your vision and persistence. It’s been a joy to work with each of you and share this creative adventure.

Finally, to our readers: The novelist Catherine Coulter reminded us that, “It’s an editor’s job to be the reader’s representative and thus make the manuscript better.” As you read each piece in this edition, we hope you agree that we did our job as your representative.

Warmest regards,

Carolyn Martin
Managing Editor

Poetry Through the magic of language, 20 poets challenge us to write and live bravely.		Prose Five risk-taking voices burn with the fire of transformation.		Artwork Four artists share their diverse sensibilities as confident mark-makers.		Young Voices With clear eyes and articulate voices, five young women confront terrifying aspects of human experience.		Contributors Meet the authors and artists – from first-timers to well-established – who grace our sixth issue with their voices and visions.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         A Great Wild Goodness by Annie Lighthart         Going South by Christine Gray         a welcome week by Hannah Sams         Ophelia, at Fifty, in a Blue Blow-up Canoe by Deborah Dombrowski         A Passing Music by Barbara LaMorticella         Girl Fishing with Grandpa by Helen Kerner         Perimeter by Amy Schutzer         Two Poets in the Weight Room by Tricia Knoll         Skeletons by Christa Kaainoa         A Poem for Dany by Suzy Harris         Lineage by Amy Schutzer         The Bucket by M.K. Moen         Bernier River by Christine Dupres         Silence by Margie Lee         Advice by Donna Prinzmetal         Sometimes at Night by Jennifer Pratt-Walter         Fissure by Elizabeth Moscoso         Whale by Cathy Cain         In the Modern World by Annie Lightheart         Love poem to an acquaintance by Allegra Heidelinde         Dialogue between Magician and Tattooist by Christine Gray         Under the sign of the water bearer by Jennifer Kemnitz         city spacious heart by Pearl Waldorf PROSE         Bless Our Great Nation, Zambia! Zambia! by Gypsy Martin         Liminal by Stephanie Golisch         The Tomorrow Fire by Kelly Coughlin         Ablaze by Heather Durham         Left As It Was, It Would Come Apart by Jackie Shannon-Hollis ART         Sibling 1 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 2 by Michelle Latham         Sibling 3 by Michelle Latham         Totem by Kelly Neidig         Stratum by Kelly Neidig         Swift by Kelly Neidig         Breaking Free by Erin Leichty         Capture Threads by Erin Leichty         Hardware by Erin Leichty YOUNG VOICES         Visions on the Playground by Meghana Mysore         Chasing Thunder by Berkeley Franklin         Elegy for Christy by Lily Boyd         Social Media by Maya Coseo         A Hundred Acre Wood by Audra McNamee CONTRIBUTORS