CHRISTOPHER BOWEN
Christopher Bowen is the author of the chapbook, We Were Giants; the novella, When I Return to You, I Will Be Unfed; and the non-fiction, Debt. He blogs from Burning River and has traveled throughout the U.S. You can learn more about Christopher’s work at buriningriver.info.
Title: The Farmers of Shangri-La
First Line(s):
We are farmers. We are grown from a blackest dirt to be found above a clay table that’s there below the ground in Ohio. Black means rich; black means vitality to us because we are farmers. We plant trees, we grow them. When years pass us by, by the old oak tree and the swing from its limb we used to climb, it will still be here to whisper secrets only children and our hollow ghosts know.
Genre: Fiction
Journal: Stirring
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Title: I Speak Spanish From The Tops of Pyramids
First Line(s):
Miguel speaks Spanish and I speak Spanish and Miguel has no idea I do. He lays block while I bring block and still he has no idea. Calling me a perro. He laughs and jokes with the other migrant workers.
Genre: Fiction
Journal: Hobart
FRANCIS HABERLE
Frank Haberle’s short stories have won awards from Pen Parentis (2011), Beautiful Losers magazine (2017) and the Sustainable Arts Foundation (2013). They have appeared in more than 30 magazines including the Stockholm Literary Review, Inwood Indiana, Necessary Fiction, the Adirondack Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Melic Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Cantaraville, and Hot Metal Press. A professional grant writer with nonprofit organizations, Frank is also a volunteer workshop leader for the NY Writers Coalition. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
Title: The Snow Catches Up
First Line(s):
So, do you remember how it felt like the snow was going to catch up with us?
It was getting around mid-September, I remember, and we had gone down to Seward looking for work. Somebody told us there was work down in Seward after the tourists left and the fishing boats came in—scraping and repainting boats, fixing fishing nets, cleaning the cannery machines. But when we got there, all the jobs were taken.
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: Fall 2018
Journal: The Baltimore Review
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Title: Everything Comes Together
First Line(s):
IT’S A MONDAY NIGHT IN OCTOBER, and the snow has started again. Walking up the icy dirt road, you see an old man in a big wool coat standing in the glowing light from an open front door. The old man is searching for something, first deep in his pockets, then in the snow around him. Snow has gathered on his hat and shoulders.
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: October 2018
Journal: The Willisden Herald
ROGAN KELLY
Rogan Kelly is a writer and educator. His poems have been featured or are forthcoming in Bending Genres, The Cortland Review, The Citron Review, Diode, Edison Literary Review, formercactus, Hobo Camp Review, Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, Mojave River Review and Shrew Literary Zine. He was a finalist for the 2018 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize. His first chapbook, Demolition in the Tropics, is forthcoming from Seven Kitchens Press.
Title: Demolition in the Tropics
First Line(s):
All week, I watched her try on other men with her eyes. We were at a couples’ resort, no longer a couple. She was on a path of self-discovery, and I was blocking her view of the sea.
Genre: Poetry
Publication Date: May 2019
Journal: The Penn Review
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Title: The Corner Store
First Line(s):
Nicole works the morning shift at the counter: pours coffee for the carpenters and landscapers, the mechanics and drivers, Fire and Police, the county road crew that has Hanover Avenue all backed up this morning. This guy in business attire walks in.
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: September 25, 2018
Journal: The Citron Review
Photo Credit: © chonticha / Adobe Stock