Articles

The Martian Invasion: (Ch. 2) Travel Morons

By Brian Fawcett | June 19, 2023

In Ch. 2 of “The Martian Invasion,” Brian Fawcett, a coming-of-age young Canadian, is on the Grand Tour of Europe in 1963. The “Rover Boys” (Brian and a pal) are driving a 1953 Opel through a blizzard in the Alps, eventually ending up behind the Iron Curtain in Belgrade, Serbia. The adventures of “travel morons.”

Read More

SENTENCE: LIFE HAPPENED

By Mikhail Iossel | June 18, 2023

Mikhail Iossel is in Kenya, being interviewed by a Young Writer for a Nairobi-based publication, who, upon being shown some photos of Iossel in his youthful 20s, asks, “But… but… what happened?” SENTENCE: LIFE HAPPENED is the latest in Iossel’s series of stories-in-one-sentence.

Read More

Scribbles from Italy: Men Who Know How, Hurt Words, Permission, Meta Metaverse, A Pressing Time

By Vian Andrews | June 17, 2023

Vian Andrews’ journals from Italy’s Umbrian countryside include woodpiles, competent workers, words that hurt, bureaucratic permits, Sunday theme-parks, and lots of olives, harvested and pressed, and olive oil drizzled on hot grilled bread.

Read More

The Martian Invasion: A Love Story: (Ch. 1) An Incident in an Alley

By Brian Fawcett | June 12, 2023

Brian Fawcett relates an incident in an alley in Brighton, England in 1963 that involves dope, Rockers, switchblades, and books. But how to tell a story that doesn’t violate the principles of the Creative Writing Department Manual or the fact that there is no fiction in the real world? “The Martians are always coming,” as one writer once said.

Read More

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 15) Nightingales, and a Short Journey Through the Darkness

By Brian Fawcett | June 5, 2023

In the concluding chapter of Brian Fawcett’s “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars,” the young Canadian acquiring an “education” on an English pig farm in 1962 is still learning about the birds and the boars. “Nightingales, and a Short Journey Through the Darkness” features robins, starlings, nightingales and a deadly dangerous boar.

Read More

Scribbles from Italy: The Garden of Innocence, Bird Song, Fate of the Chicken, Going Cold, Doing Stuff, Winds That Blow.

By Vian Andrews | June 3, 2023

Passages from Vian Andrews’ journals about life in the Umbrian countryside. Taking the kids to the park, the Thanksgiving lunch, a bird song of pain, farmers ploughing their fields, cold houses, and the wind in the olive groves — the settings in which a little wisdom might be found.

Read More

Last April

By Gloriah Amondi | May 31, 2023

Gloriah Amondi’s narrator arrives back in Nairobi. A friend has died, her ex-lover has moved in with the Love of their Life, there’s a memorial mass to attend, and she has dreams of the dead friend. She writes on stickers and puts them up on the walls: “Death has a lot of time. It will wait, it will wait.”

Read More

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 14) The Rules of Life and War According to Ronald Surry

By Brian Fawcett | May 30, 2023

Brian Fawcett learns the rules and wisdom of life and war, at least according to Ronald Surry, on a pig farm in England in 1962. Yes, a coming-of-age story but, more important, a story of coming-into-intelligence, which belongs to the world, not to the individual. Ch. 14 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

Read More

Making Light of Love in the Moon.

By John Harris | May 29, 2023

He lives in the basement. His ex-wife lives upstairs. He has a new girlfriend. She has a young child. He has a psychiatrist. He has kids. John Harris’ “Making Light of Love in the Moon.”

Read More

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 13) Doom

By Brian Fawcett | May 22, 2023

Brian Fawcett, coming of age on a Sussex pig farm in 1962, is trying to secure the facts in a world that seems doomed by nuclear weapons and a population explosion. Ch. 13: Doom, of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

Read More