The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during the month of June 2023. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb (if available) if the publication is a book, along with a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.
Please join me in celebrating our members who published in June 2023!
Congratulations to Chloe Noland, whose short story “The Visit” appeared in Action, Spectacle.
He often pretended that his aunt was his mother. In fact, by the time he was twelve or so he half-wondered if it were true. He didn’t know what the game was about, why they refused to tell him the truth. He was clearly her son.
But then, Dorian would think, sitting at the kitchen table, trying not to muss the crinkly blue paper on top, did that mean Mateo was his father? He hoped not. He hated Mateo, who stomped through the kitchen on his way out to the garage, squeezing through the narrow room to glare contemptuously at him and Aunt Ruth, where they sat in a pale triangle of sunlight at the table, drinking coffee out of Christmas mugs.
Congrats also to Lois P. Jones, whose poems “In Search of Rilke’s Ghost” and “She Visits Her Last Life at Muzot” appeared in Mslexia Magazine.
Kudos to Lisa Eve Cheby, whose poetic essay “Perfect Dark” appeared in Exposition Review.
I am forced to speak the language
of men. They study the craft of violence
in film, rate movies
in explosiveness, celebrate the artistry
of war. I resist
history lessons that discard the frames of Alice Guy-Blaché’s pantomime,
plucking babies from cabbages seven years before the great train robbery…
A shout out to Gerda Govine Ituarte, whose poetry appeared in It Rains in Southern California: The Poetry of Weather and in These Black Bodies Are…A Blacklandia Anthology edited by Romaine Washington and published by Inlandia Books.
Congratulations to Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, whose flash fiction “Not So Easy Anymore” appeared in Lost Balloon.
You’ve been making this trip more than 25 years. Christmas before last, though, it wasn’t like always. You drove out alone despite protests from your kids. Had to reduce risk for aging parents. You didn’t pack a suitcase.
You slowed down at Broadway so you can make the turn onto Easy Street. It’s a gravel road not a real street. The post at the corner says, “not as easy as it used to be.” Now you know this to be true.
In addition, Tisha’s short story “Beer & Butter Sauce” appeared in New Delta Review.
“Take this to Gramps. Careful. It’s hot.” Granny wraps the green and gray hot pad around the broken handle and hands me the tiny silver pot. “And don’t go drinking it. I know how much you love butter.” She cackles and turns her attention to the biscuit dough.
“I won’t drink it.” I stop in the doorway. “All the beer’s burned off now.”
Granny clicks her throat and flicks some of the sticky dough from her fingertips at me.
Congrats to Donna Spruijt-Metz, whose poem “Dear Ghost,” appeared in Harbor Review.
Sarah Returns to Me as Kirkland Culinary Parchment Paper
I’ve got Adele blasting on repeat, my earbuds in,
even in my own studio. They seem better at blocking,
better than surround sound at drowning
it out, drowning out your absence. But it’s no use. It’s the fifth month
of noise. By now I know the signs, yet it always catches me
off guard. My peripheral vision
shimmers slightly right before you
show up…
Kudos to Laura Sturza, whose article “How a Meditation Retreat Inspired Me to Claim My Disability Status and Why That’s a Relief” appeared in The Mindfulness Bell.
I always thought the term disabled referred to a person severely or obviously hampered by their condition. I certainly never thought of myself as disabled…that is, until I attended a meditation retreat and discovered my own invisible disabilities—chronic migraines and severe anxiety. I don’t mean the occasional bad headache or the kind of worries one has on the first day of a job. What I experience are ongoing conditions that have long kept me from living life to its fullest.
In addition, Laura’s article “My Action Partner–A Thoughtful Witness” appeared in Author.
While I have never birthed a human baby, I often benefit from the practices taught in birthing classes: breathe, push. I spend much of my time pushing to be read, published, known, welcomed. I breathe between pushes, sometimes because I’m about to pass out.
Among the things that have carried me through my pushes to write, publish, support other writers, and teach has been the support of having an action buddy (aka action partner). We’re both goal-oriented people, full of visions with the chops to carry them out. It happens with greater ease by having a consistent partner who serves as a reminder of our progress.
A shout out to Ashton Cynthia Clarke, whose essay “The Miseducation of a Negro Girl” appeared in These Black Bodies Are…A Blacklandia Anthology edited by Romaine Washington and published by Inlandia Books.
Congratulations to Andrea Auten, whose essay “Widowed Words” appeared in Emerge Literary Journal.
Any time I visit the Pacific northwest, I think of my leathery Theatre Movement professor.
With her long, straight Alexander-method limbs, arms stretched forward, bent like a footballer ready for the snap, she once told our class a tale. How she lived here on some water trimmed land, tended crops, performed A Moon for the Misbegotten and raised goats. One night, screaming called her to the water’s edge. A wolf had ahold of a goat. Dr. Mary stormed the beach, grabbed it back from great jaws, and delivered the goat to safety. She stared us down, dramatically paused, and said, “I really loved that goat.”
I’m baffled by what stays in our minds— a rolodex of recall.