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Front and Back Covers by Hanlyn Davies
Brynteg Lights/Calennig (front), 2007
ACRYLLIC ON CANVAS, 82 X 64 Inches

Brynteg Lights/ The Chorus (back), 2000-07
OIL ON CANVAS, 82 X 64 Inches

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Volume 48, Issue 3

THESE DAYS, THE BUZZARDS who sit on the telephone wires just outside the offices of literary quarterlies seem plumper and more numerous than usual. Some fly down at night and nibble the subscription database. Some perch on mailboxes and raise the rates. Some descend to pick at the Promethean livers of editors, staff, and interns, feasting on their vital energies. Others have the glassine faces of taxation and bookkeeping. Edgar Allan Poe, assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, wrote "The Raven" about these birds, changing the species so as not to piss them off.

The current state of affairs has caused many editors to reconsider the role of our magazines in the cultural future. Adapting to the digital universe has not been enough. We have saved production costs, but require more in-house labor. And there's hardware and software to be bought, and stronger eye glasses. And a jungle of issues about rights and remunerations as published material circulates in novel ways.

Rationales are offered: we are the AAA farm team for book publishers; we have no financial prospects, and so are free to print innovative and controversial things. But what matters most is simply the process of collecting thoughts and dreams from a diversity of verbal and visual artists, and doing so for four issues a year—for almost half a century in our case. It is a chronicle of consciousness. Go to our archives and grab an issue from your favorite year-to-remember. It is like breathing the atmosphere of then.

In this issue, bones and war, critical oneirologies, a stranger comes to town, a person makes a journey. . . .What will happen if we ever wake up? Who will feed the vultures?

David Lenson
for the editors


Entries

fiction

The Bone Spa

By Lisa Vogel

poetry

On the Death of a Next Door Neighbor

By Billy Collins

nonfiction

Kar'oush: What Grows in Hard Places

By Margaret MacInnis

poetry

Ballistic

By Elyse Fenton

fiction

The Survivor

By Jessica Lang

nonfiction

On Being Asked If I'm Related to Alice Munro

By Jennifer D. Munro

fiction

Skitter

By Anca Szilagyi

fiction

The Gods Are Waiting For You

By Richard Harvell

poetry

Winter Prarie

By Kate Northrop

fiction

Pints & Quarts: An Oral History Collected and Conveyed

By Brian Baldi

poetry

[Statue of Liberty]

By Ann Killough

nonfiction

Paper Route

By Shaun O'Connell

poetry

Centralia, PA

By Dawn Lonsinger

fiction

The White Bird

By Daniel Menasche

poetry

Action

By William Delman

poetry

Love in the Time of the Serial Dater

By Andrea Werblin

fiction

Martin Hellinger

By Ashley Clifton

poetry

21st Century Lecture

By Ralph Black

nonfiction

Suzan-Lori Parks' Hester Plays

By Rena Fraden

poetry

Bathing

By Christina Clark

fiction

Getting By

By Robert J. Nelson

poetry

Letters to the Husband, #23

By Mary Koncel

nonfiction

Mussels, Muskrats, and Juncos: Instability in Sylvia Plath and Robert Frost

By Mike Freeman

poetry

On a Sonnet by Leah Goldberg

By Anna Kamienska, Translated by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon

fiction

The Story

By Ian Miller

poetry

Hello Earth

By Stephanie Johnson

Cover art

Brynteg Lights/Calennig

By Hanlyn Davies

Cover art

Brynteg Lights/The Chorus

By Hanlyn Davies

translation

On a Sonnet by Leah Goldberg

Grazyna Drabik

translation

On a Sonnet by Leah Goldberg

David Curzon

Table of Contents

Introduction, by David Lenson

The Bone Spa, Fiction by Lisa Vogel

On the Death of a Next Door Neighbor,
Poetry by Billy Collins

Kar'oush: What Grows in Hard Places,
Non-Fiction by Margaret MacInnis

Ballistic, Poetry by Elyse Fenton

The Survivor, Fiction by Jessica Lang

On Being Asked If I'm Related to Alice Munro,
Non-Fiction by Jennifer D. Munro

Letters to the Husband, #23, Poetry by
Mary Koncel

Skitter, Fiction by Anca Szilagyi

The Gods Are Waiting For You,
Fiction by Richard Harvell

Winter Prarie,
Poetry by Kate Northrop

Pints & Quarts: An Oral History Collected and Conveyed,
Fiction by Brian Baldi

[Statue of Liberty],
Poetry by Ann Killough

Paper Route,
Non-Fiction by Shaun O'Connell

Centralia, PA,
Poetry by Dawn Lonsinger

The White Bird,
Fiction by Daniel Menasche

Action, Poetry by William Delman

Love in the Time of the Serial Dater,
Poetry by Andrea Werblin

Martin Hellinger,
Fiction by Ashley Clifton

21st Century Lecture,
Poetry by Ralph Black

Suzan-Lori Parks' Hester Plays,
Non-Fiction by Rena Fraden

Bathing, Poetry by Christina Clark

Getting By, Fiction by Robert J. Nelson

Mussels, Muskrats, and Juncos: Instability in
Sylvia Plath and Robert Frost,
Non-Fiction by Mike Freeman

On a Sonnet by Leah Goldberg,
Poetry by Anna Kamienska, Translated from the
Polish by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon

The Story, Fiction by Ian Miller

Hello Earth, Poetry by Stephanie Johnson

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