Winter 2015: Prose

Introduction

From the planned burning of brush in Zambia to a forest fire that yields fourteen pint jars of honey to the “sensual heat of skin on skin,” these five prose pieces – four of narrative non-fiction, one a short story – are alive with the fire of risk and transformation.

In “Bless Our Great Nation, Zambia! Zambia!” a fifteen-year-old missionary leaves everything she knows to work in a small Zambian village where she often feels out of place. Back home, she longs for “the smell of a brush fire and the beating of distant drums.”

In “Liminal,” a woman in her forties seeks the fire and freedom of her younger self by attempting to seduce a fellow writer after a decade with a husband she adores.

The narrator of “The Tomorrow Fire” tells the story of fighting “fire #8 near Hammaker Meadows,” where the crew discovers that the top third of a sugar pine lying on the ground is filled with honeycomb.

The speaker in “Ablaze” stalks fire in all its forms, finding it kin to the fire that burns within her and manifests itself in both pleasure and pain.

In “Left As It Was, It Would Come Apart,” a woman examines teenage years spent as top student, prom princess and “slut,” and the family dynamics that contribute to these divergent roles.

Each of these pieces is told by a narrator who not only takes risks, but also examines the gifts risk-taking brings to her life. The gifts are not simple, just as the stories we create as adults cannot be the simple “and then” stories we tell ourselves as children. As we reflect on their stories, they show us the shadows and light of a dancing fire.

Michelle Fredette
Helen Sinoradzki
Prose Co-Editors

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