November was another banner month for Women Who Submit publications! Congratulations to all the writers.
From Ryane Nicole Granados‘ “Helping Out in L.A.” at L.A. Parent:
My children have taught me that, if you look close enough, you’ll see tiny flowers breaking through their concrete and waving their tenacious petals in the breeze. That’s the beauty of children: they can see brilliance in the bleakest situations. With guidance, they can also harness their vision and use their innocence to change the world. As we embark on these holiday season, here are some family-friendly organizations making a difference…
From Désirée Zamorano‘s “Austin” at Moria:
After two weeks of a dull rage, the rage turned into despair, then confusion, then transformed gloriously into a plan.
Things made no sense, they made no sense, and sometimes it was up to the individual to turn the inside out all right side out again. That’s what Austin would do.
Make it all right.
Congratulations to Désirée who also had her story, “Unconditional Love,” published in Tiferet Journal.
From “Summer Stalking” by Roz Weisberg at Drunk Monkeys:
News broke in the spring of 1985. In Rosemead, California, twenty-two year old Maria Hernandez raised her hands to protect herself when someone followed her car into the garage with a gun. He shot her in the face, but the bullet ricocheted off her keys. Her roommate, Dayle Okazaki heard the shot. Keeping the lights off, she went to investigate. As she moved through the house to the side door her roommate normally entered, she ducked behind the kitchen counter when the door opened, the assailant entered, and shot her in the head.
From “You Care More About Me Being Black Than I Do” – Reflections on an Interracial Marriage” by Mahin Ibrahim at Amaliah:
“Where are you from?”
As a first-generation Bangladeshi American, when people ask me this question, it has different weight based on who is doing the asking. If it’s a fellow minority, it’s a way to address our mutual struggle and is perfectly fine. If it’s a non-minority, it’s a total eye-roll, implying that I am not from here and never will be. But when Musa is asked this question, it’s a full-on war.
From “L’Appel Du Vide (The Call of the Void)” by Flint at Nailed:
Bad or good, the idea was mine. I courted the danger, hair spiraling down to my waist, thighs flashing beneath a skirt tight as a hand on my hip, and those boots he’d commented on in his office, after class, years before anything would happen between us. That was the thrill, the hairpin turn on the seaside cliff, the held breath and his hand on my cheek, wind-slapped and stinging.
From Mireya S. Vela‘s “Doctores” at The Nasiona:
In [my grandmother’s] practice as the local healer, she didn’t offer operations or invasive measures, but she was what the neighborhood of El Monte had available if they couldn’t go to American doctors. She had herbs and syringes. To those people, she was a relief. Poverty is an amazing stressor. While mainstream people can go to doctors or even a free clinic, marginalized people have to find alternative methods to cope. There’s scant money, and if families are also undocumented, this takes its toll in fear and anxiety. Most often, families use illegally prescribed drugs, expired drugs, or drugs other family members discarded or didn’t use. They also buy drugs at the Swap Meet.
Congratulations to Jay O’Shea who published her book, Risk, Failure, Play: What Dance Reveals about Martial Arts Training!