Artist Statement Heather Ryan Kelley __________ The image of a single object can succinctly communicate an idea; and when that object is a book cover, a host of associations- invisible on the painting’s surface- can be embodied. The book covers I have chosen to paint are those with which I…
Read MoreBudding Jianqing Zheng __________ After Yasunari Kawabata’s “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket” __________ Kids are catching bell crickets,their colorful lanterns are floating everywhere on the riverbank.Soon, a boy jumps up shouting, “Anyone wants a grasshopper?”Some boys run toward him, but he keeps shouting until a girlemerges, murmuring she wants…
Read MoreAbby Manzella __________ Photos by Abby Manzella __________ At a Highway Seventy-Five fields blur after harvest corn is scythed hay bales sag Stop. Thoreau yourself with a pause and a pace. Take in the fading light. Dried grass and setting sun speak of endings and death or nature appreciation. The choice is yours. __________ Between the…
Read MoreZebulon Huset __________ Written as part of the Exquisite Cento project with Jessica Huset __________ [Only lines from Robert Lowell, Robert Frost, and Script for The Lost Boys] They are speeding along a moon-lit beach(ocean air!)redolent and roly-poly as a sperm whaleHey, dude. My beach. My wave—it is speckled with…
Read MoreJessica Huset __________ Written as part of the Exquisite Cento Project with Zebulon Huset __________ [Only lines from Lord Byron, Thomas Lux, and the script for The Princess Bride] (or I’ve hired you to help me start a war) To mingle with the quiet of her sky the quicksand pits they…
Read MoreSweeney Among the Alley Cats James Enelow __________καὶ εἶχον τρίχας ὡς τρίχας γυναικῶν, καὶ οἱ ὁδόντες αὐτῶν ὡς λεόντων ἦσαν.Rev. IX:8 Tonight old Sweeney sits amazedat sex and food he cannot taste.As king of cats he starts his watchto judge the thin and meekly chaste. The stars out back have…
Read MoreSolomon and the Cheese Arm Eli S. Evans __________ An adaptation of a story from Le Petit Nicolas series, by René Gosciny, with input from Eli Evans’s son __________ We didn’t have school this morning, but that wasn’t any fun because instead we had to we had to go to…
Read MoreWhen in Rome: Nov ’25 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Taryn White Guest Editor: Jade Turner Associate Editor: Leah Joseph Assistant Editors: Robbie Hess Interns: Margaret Brantley Heather Ryan Kelley, “Aesop’s Fable,” oil on canvas. Letter from the Guest Editor by Jade Turner Fiction “Outlook Good!” by Mikki Aronoff…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ October has flown by with a frightening speed, and I haven’t even carved or painted a pumpkin yet. This picture popped up the other day, reminding me of a slower Halloween, our pandemic Halloween five years ago, and the many hours I…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Abbie Skinner __________ Time flies and it crawls. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it simply slips away. If your year has been anything like mine, every month has begun with a perturbed, “How is it already April… August… October?” Time, ever present in our lives…
Read More