Opening Letters > From the Editors
I am a hunter. Whenever someone mentions the word, “October,” my posture straightens and my eyes narrow; my body yearns for the woods, for the fields, for the mountain ridges and the canyons. I am also a reader, and whenever someone mentions the word, “October,” my mind cannot help but conjure the cover of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country. I am thrust backward in time—my 6th grade self, accidentally knocking over the book on display in the junior high school library I had been banished to during recess, for one infraction or another. Joseph Mugnaini’s illustration pulled me in, and Bradbury’s stories created a gravity from which I simply could not escape. Such are the ways of autumn, and my mind yearns for its stories like my body years for the hunt.
Whether in New Mexico or Wisconsin, fall always finds us, and, when it does, we tend to find ourselves again. We wrap the blankets tighter at night; the stars shine a little brighter, and our dreams seem to take us farther. We always dreamed of creating a free-access international literary journal that put the experience of its readers first. We dreamed of a journal that responded quickly, respectfully, and with great care, to every writer who submitted. We imagined a journal that provided its readers with a powerful, focused, advertising-free literary experience that actually transported them: one that challenged them intellectually and moved them emotionally. We've made that dream a reality 10 times now—publishing accomplished, established authors side-by-side with fresh, emerging voices in the process.
As editors, we respect writers enough to experience their writing on its own merits; this is why we don’t allow bios or cover letters to be submitted with work for consideration in our journal. As a result, one of our greatest joys is discovering—much like our readers do—who our contributors are, and what they’ve accomplished, after we’ve accepted their work for publication. This fall found me discovering yet another contributor’s good work on other platforms. Aekta Khubchandani, the contributor who opens Issue 10, is an Indian author. Discovering her spoken word masterpiece, “The Red Bus,” on Youtube, and her blistering TED Talk, “Fiction is Truth Sold as Lies,” changed me. They could not be more different from the flash fiction we accepted for Sky Island Journal, and they pulled me in the same way The October Country pulled me in when I was a boy. Like Bradbury, Khubchandani’s language crafts a gravity so strong, my mind simply cannot escape it. My posture straightens, my eyes narrow, and my body yearns for more. Her voice brings fall to every digital doorstep, and it transcends time, space, and culture in the process. Similar things can be said of all our contributors, and this is why Jeff and I continue to give our heart and soul to this publication’s success.
Whether you're new to Sky Island Journal, or you're already one of our 50,000 readers in 145 countries, Jeff and I hope that the extraordinary contributors of Issue 10 will help fall find you.
While social media certainly has a place in our lives, we've elected to leave the "scroll-through experience" and pop-up ads to other literary platforms. Our readers deserve a more mindful approach. Each piece of writing that we publish opens as a protected Word document for an authentic, focused, and immersive experience that encourages a close, intimate, distraction-free reading of the work. We want your experience with each contributor's work to be singular: just as it would be on the printed page, with crisp white paper between your collective fingertips. We understand this is a radical departure from how most literary journals present writing to their readers online, but we think it's a refreshing change for the better. It's okay to slow down. It's okay to take your time. It’s okay to simply be present and savor the worlds our contributors have created for you.
Of the 1,393 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 10, we found these 43 to be the finest. Welcome to Sky Island. Welcome home.
Respectfully,
Jason Splichal, Founder and Co-Editor
My favorite way to experience a new city is on foot or on a bicycle. I know others who feel the same way, and I believe I’m able to get a better sense of the place, encountering the personalities of each unique neighborhood as I move a little bit slower than I would if speeding by in my car. Lately, I’ve been exploring the city of Milwaukee and its adjacent suburbs while walking my dogs, just strolling, but keenly aware of my new surroundings and delighted when we stumble upon new parks, streams, ponds, bakeries, local breweries, coffee shops, cigar shops, and used bookstores. I take pictures and make mental notes to return to these places that intrigue me and bring me joy.
When I go biking, I do tend to plug a final destination into my Google Maps app, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum or Lakeshore State Park, looking to find the safest route on two wheels away from busy streets and highways. Once I start riding, however, my path follows my whims. I can almost hear the exasperation in the automated voice as she continually reroutes my trip. Showing mercy, I’ll often turn off the GPS altogether. I’ll just ride and ride until I am totally lost, discovering so much that I would have missed had I taken the direct route. I always find my way home and am grateful for the experience with all the unexpected turns.
In many ways, this approach to discovery is also what I love about our format at Sky Island Journal. We’re not aiming to guide you step-by-step to any specific narrative or poem. There is no clear trajectory or theme from issue to issue other than hoping you’ll find joy in being moved emotionally and challenged intellectually no matter which piece you choose to read or the order in which you select them. Without a doubt, there is wonder and beauty within each one.
Welcome—we are so glad you are here to explore with us. Lace up your literary boots, and get your mental chains churning. Lose yourself, find yourself, and enjoy!
Respectfully,
Jeff Sommerfeld, Founder and Co-Editor
Aekta Khubchandani > Flash Fiction > India
Aekta Khubchandani is a writer and poet from Bombay. She believes that everything is temporary. Today, she wants to be a cat lady with a wand that grows flowers. Her work has been featured in The Aerogram, Narrow Road, The Bangalore Review, Bengaluru Review, Scroll, Verse of Silence, Warehouse Zine, and Quail Bell Magazine among others. Her work is also published in print in the anthology, Equiverse Space by WE, Best of Mad Swirl: 2018, and in Map Called Home, by Kitaab, Singapore. Her works have been long-listed twice for Creative Writing in English by TFA (TOTO Funds the Arts)- 2018 and 2019. Her poem, “Hand Over” is long listed for Half and One Prize, soon to be in print. Her spoken word poetry has traveled in India and Bhutan. She is the winner of the slam at Arcs-of-a-circle Artists' Residency's event (English) moderated by Rochelle Potkar. She secured the first place in Mumbai Regional Qualifier and the second place in the National Slam at Waves fest conducted by BITS Pilani Goa, in 2018.
Andrew Schwartz > Poetry > California, USA
Andrew Schwartz’s poetry, fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Catamaran Literary Reader, Columbia Journal, Confrontation, NER/BLQ, The Sun and other publications.
Ariana Turner > Poetry > Illinois, USA
Ariana Turner is a writer and doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at Northwestern University. When she is not writing stories, she is conducting research on the psychological significance of how people tell their stories. Her poetry and prose have been featured in The Meadow, The Fictional Café, and Voice of Eve. She lives in Chicago with her cat, Apollo.
Caroline Mahala > Flash Fiction > Nepal
Caroline Mahala is an aspiring writer, and Sky Island Journal is her first publication. She is currently living in rural Nepal as an agricultural volunteer, working primarily on mushroom and fruit tree cultivation. Her writing is inspired by the natural world, dreams, and daily life in a Nepali village.
Christopher X. Ryan > Flash Fiction > Finland
Born on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Christopher X. Ryan now lives in Helsinki, Finland, where he works as a writer, editor, and ghostwriter. So far in 2019 his stories have appeared in 13 journals, and in past years his work has appeared in venues such as Pank, Copper Nickel, and Matter, among many others.
Cynthia Trenshaw > Poetry > Washington, USA
Cynthia Trenshaw has served as a hospital chaplain and a midwife to the dying. For five years she provided skilled massage therapy and compassionate presence to homeless people on the streets and under the viaducts of San Francisco. Her non-fiction book, Meeting in the Margins (She Writes Press), won the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Award gold medal in Social Issues. Her first book of poetry is Mortal Beings, (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Maine Review, Soul-Lit Journal, Main Street Rag, Soundings Review, and the anthology In the Words of Womyn International have published her poetry. She now lives on Whidbey Island, Washington, where she serves as a Medical Advocate, writes poetry, collects fascinating friends, and regularly posts essays from her website.
Diane Raven > Creative Nonfiction > Michigan, USA
Diane Raven is a naturalist, therapist, and illustrator/writer. She holds a Masters of Education in Counseling with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Northern Michigan University. She co-founded Headwaters Environmental Station in the Keweenaw Bioregion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she taught environmental /ecological education. Her column, Field Notes, ran in Minnesota and Wisconsin newspapers throughout her career as a naturalist. She co-produced the radio program Journeys into a Sense of Place for Minnesota Public Radio affiliate WGGL. Raven worked as a therapist developing/directing the art therapy program for an adolescent residential behavioral health agency. Most recently, she authored the chapter “Hidden Voices: Creative Art Therapy Interventions for Adolescents with Dissociation” in The Fractured Child: Diagnosis and Treatment of Youth with Dissociation, by Frances S. Waters (2016, Springer Publishing Company). She is currently working on writing/illustrating a book on the development of an ecological conscience in children. She and her husband continue to live at Headwaters.
Elisabeth Harrahy > Poetry > Wisconsin, USA
Elisabeth Harrahy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, where she teaches courses in ecology and conducts research on the effects of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems. In her spare time, she likes to drive her 1967 Plymouth Satellite muscle car and write poems and short stories. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Journal of Gender and Cultural Critiques, Wisconsin People and Ideas, Gyroscope Review, Bramble, and Blue Heron Review.
Ella Rachel Kerr > Flash Fiction + Poetry > Washington, USA
Ella Rachel Kerr lives in currently lives in the Pacific Northwest but spent a good portion of her life in East Africa, which is the inspiration for much of her writing. Her first novel, Sugar and Dust, which came out earlier this year, tells a story of adventure and uncertainty in prose. Ella has been featured in several magazines, including Elephant Journal, The Write Launch, and Sivana East.
Emma Wynn > Poetry > Connecticut, USA
Emma Wynn received her Master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and teaches Philosophy & Religion at a boarding school in rural Connecticut, where she lives with her partner and two children. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Coffin Bell Journal and West Trade Review.
Finn Janning > Creative Nonfiction > Spain
Finn Janning is a Danish novelist and philosopher. He has studied philosophy, literature and business administration at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and at Duke University. He earned his PhD in philosophy from CBS. His work has been featured in Epiphany, Under the Gum Tree, South 85 Journal, and Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, among other publications. His most recent publication is the book, A Philosophy of Mindfulness - A Journey with Deleuze. He lives in Barcelona, Spain with his wife and their three children.
Helen Beer > Flash Fiction > North Carolina, USA
Helen Beer sells for a living. She’s had success in short story contests, with multiple placements in both Moondance Film Festival and the Screencraft Cinematic Short Story competitions. She also had a screenplay reach the quarterfinal round at Scriptapalooza. Her work has appeared in Literary Potpourri, FRiGG, and Typishly, with a forthcoming piece in Flash Fiction Magazine. When not working or writing, she enjoys the Zen-like tranquility afforded by time spent riding her horse and mucking stalls.
James K. Zimmerman > Poetry > New York, USA
James K. Zimmerman is a frequent Pushcart Prize nominee and award-winning poet – most recently the Edwin Markham Prize and the Pat Schneider Award. His work appears in Pleiades, Chautauqua, American Life in Poetry, Vallum, Nimrod, and Reed, among others. He is the author of Little Miracles (Passager, 2015) and Family Cookout (Comstock, 2016), winner of the 2015 Jessie Bryce Niles Prize.
Jay Udall > Poetry > Virginia, USA
Jay Udall’s latest book of poetry, Because a Fire in Our Heads, won the 2017 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in such publications as North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Verse Daily, and on “The Slowdown,” U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s podcast on American Public Media. When he’s not teaching at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana (a.k.a. Cajun Land), he lives in Virginia with assorted other animals including his beloved wife, daughter, dogs, cat and rat.
Jeri Griffith > Creative Nonfiction > Vermont, USA
Writer and artist Jeri Griffith lives and works in Brattleboro, Vermont after stints in Boston and Austin, Texas, but her childhood was spent in Wisconsin. These disparate places each feel like separate countries to her, with landscapes, seasons, and ways of being that influence both her art and her identity. Jeri has published stories and essays in literary quarterlies, most recently in The Antigonish Review, Hunger Mountain, Quarterly West, and Sky Island Journal. She is currently working on a memoir and a collection of short stories, as well as organizing exhibitions of her art.
John Landretti > Poetry > Minnesota, USA
John Landretti has written numerous poems and essays that explore the relationship between place and spirit and how our perception of both shapes who we are. John lives in Minnesota where he works as an adult education instructor in a state prison. When not working, he enjoys reading and wilderness backpacking. He recently made the 2019 Pushcart "Best of the Small Presses" for the essay.
Jose Oseguera > Poetry > California, USA
Jose Oseguera is a Los Angeles-based writer of poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction. Having grown up in a diverse urban environment, Jose has always been interested in the people and places around him and the stories that each of these has to share. His work has been featured in Sky Island Journal, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review and Authorship by The National Writers Association.
Julie Weiss > Poetry > Spain
Julie Weiss received her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from SJSU. She´s a 44-year-old ex-pat from Foster City, California, who moved to Spain in 2001 and never looked back. She works as a telephone English teacher from her home in Guadalajara, Spain, where she lives with her wife, 4-year-old daughter, and 1-year-old son. Her work has been published in Sky Island Journal, Santa Clara Review, Barren Magazine, Random Sample Review, and Poetry Quarterly, among others, and she has work appearing or forthcoming in several anthologies, as well.
Katherine Szpekman > Poetry > Connecticut, USA
Katherine Szpekman writes poetry and memoir from her home in Collinsville, Connecticut, where she lives with her husband, two cats and a golden retriever. She has raised three children to various stages of separation and adulthood. She finds inspiration in the everyday and nature. Themes of loss, family, and place are central in her poetry. Her work has appeared in Red Eft Review. When not writing, or when she gets stuck, she bakes–preferably with chocolate.
Kody Ford > Flash Fiction > Arkansas, USA
Kody Ford is the founder of The Idle Class Magazine, a publication focused on the creative life. His work has appeared in Fiction Southeast, Down in the Dirt, Prometheus Dreaming, and Flash Fiction Magazine.
Larry Schug > Poetry > Minnesota, USA
Larry Schug is happily retired from a lifetime of various kinds of physical labor including farm worker, forest fire fighter, junk yard and factory worker and recycler. He currently volunteers as a writing tutor at the College of St. Benedict/ St. John's University writing centers and as a naturalist/maple syrup maker at Outdoor U. He has published eight books of poems, has had poems nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize and is a Loft-McKnight Fellow. He lives with his wife, dog and two cats beside a large tamarack bog in St. Wendel Twp., Minnesota.
Laura Perkins > Flash Fiction > Wyoming, USA
Laura Perkins is a writer living in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Her work has previously appeared in The Mighty Line.
Linda Joy Pulliam > Creative Nonfiction > California, USA
Linda Joy Pulliam is a writer, solo performer, and sociologist with a PhD from Northwestern University. She grew up in a small beach town north of San Diego. Using improvisation, she creates scripts for her solo shows that have been performed at The Marsh in San Francisco, Stagebridge in Oakland and venues in California, Arizona and Washington. In 2018 she was commissioned to create a show, On the Brink, for a grant-funded festival at The Marsh. She has been a newspaper op-ed columnist and authored many academic articles while at the same time writing poems and short stories never submitted for publication. She is currently working on a memoir about leaving academia after 16 years as a professor, trading good shoes that no longer fit for a life as a barefoot storyteller. After living in 16 states in every region of the U.S. in her adult life, Linda resides now in rural Northern California. Favorite activities include hiking anywhere she might spot a mountain lion (at a distance), plucking juicy blackberries from wild vines to make jam, listening to roosters crow before sunrise, and having stimulating and wide-ranging conversations over afternoon tea.
Lorrie Ness > Poetry > Virginia, USA
Lorrie Ness lives in Virginia. On weekends she can be found hiking through Shenandoah National Park, birding and writing outdoors. Nature is a refuge and source of inspiration for her. She has past or forthcoming publications at Sky Island Journal, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Barren Magazine, FRiGG, Crack the Spine, SOFTBLOW, The Maryland Literary Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Rosebud, and others.
Mariia Muzdybaeva > Poetry > Russia
Mariia Muzdybaeva is an emerging writer and poet from Saint Petersburg, Russia. She holds an MA from Yale University, where she studied Comparative Literature and Film, and now works for The Calvert Journal. Her poetry has appeared in Willawaw Journal.
Marilyn Hilton > Poetry > California, USA
Marilyn Hilton's work has appeared in Mid American Review, The Nebraska Review, Reed, Chariton Review, and Glassworks and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She's also the author of the award-winning novels Found Things and Full Cicada Moon. Marilyn holds an MA in English/creative writing and lives in Northern California.
Mori Glaser > Poetry > Israel
Mori Glaser has roots in Scotland and Israel. Her varied career included blogging and writing for non-profits. Over the decade since she turned 60, Mori’s poetry has appeared in a variety of journals including Eclectica, Eunoia Review, Unbroken, Vine Leaves, Between the Lines Anthology of Fairy Tales and Folklore Reimagined, and The Molotov Cocktail’s Shadow Award.
Phillip Sterling > Flash Fiction > Michigan, USA
Phillip Sterling’s books include two poetry collections, And Then Snow and Mutual Shores, a collection of short fiction, In Which Brief Stories Are Told, and four chapbook-length series of poems. Having served as artist-in-residence for both Isle Royale National Park and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, he is the compiling editor of Isle Royale from the AIR: Poems, Stories, and Songs from 25 Years of Artists-in-Residence (Caffeinated Press). New stories can be found in Pacifica Review, Permafrost, Fiction Southeast, Oyster River Pages, Cloudbank, Sky Island Journal, and The Best Small Fictions 2017. Sterling’s Amateur Husbandry, a collection of fable-like micro-fictions (starring a yellow horse), will be published by Mayapple Press in Fall 2019.
Robin Stone > Flash Fiction > New Mexico, USA
Robin Stone is a clinical social worker/psychotherapist who has worked with children and families for many years. She likes to write about the magical healing that happens in the high desert of the Southwest, where she lives with her two dogs, constantly sleeping cat (she is twenty), wild lizards, and beauty everywhere.
Sage Cooper Schick > Creative Nonfiction > Oregon, USA
Sneha Lata Mishra Vishwakarma > Poetry > India
Sneha Lata Mishra Vishwakarma is a young writer who primarily writes fiction and poetry, in both English and Hindi. Her writing typically focuses on ironies of lives and phases of relationships. She draws her inspiration from the people around her and their experience.
Stan Galloway > Poetry > Virginia, USA
Stan Galloway is the founder and director of the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival, held at Bridgewater College (VA), where he teaches writing and literature. He is the author of Just Married (Unbound Content 2013) and The Teenage Tarzan (McFarland 2010). Additionally, he has authored three chapbooks and edited five anthologies of poetry. His reviews of poetry can be found in such places as New Orleans Review, Callaloo, and Paterson Literary Review.
Steve Gergley > Flash Fiction > New York, USA
Steve Gergley is a writer and runner based in Warwick, New York. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in A-Minor, After the Pause, Barren Magazine, Maudlin House, Pithead Chapel, and others. In addition to writing fiction, he has composed and recorded five albums of original music.
Sudasi Clement > Poetry > New Mexico, USA
Sudasi Clement is the former poetry editor of Santa Fe Literary Review (2006-2016). Her work has appeared in Apalachee Review, Sierra Nevada Review, Slipstream, and Room Magazine, among others. She won the 25th annual Slipstream Press Chapbook Contest in 2012 with her manuscript, The Bones We Have in Common. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Tom Feulner > Poetry > California, USA
Tom Feulner is a poet, short-story writer, and former tech salesperson. He has also worked in warehouses, bars, and classrooms. Born and raised in Spokane, WA, Tom is a graduate of Gonzaga Prep and Stanford University. He’s currently based in San Francisco.
Will Reger > Poetry > Illinois, USA
Will Reger is the 2019/20 inaugural Poet Laureate for the city of Urban,
Illinois. He is a founding member of the CU (Champaign-Urbana) Poetry
Group, has a Ph.D. from UIUC, teaches at Illinois State
University in Normal, and has published most recently with Zingara Poetry
Review, Passager Journal, Eclectica Magazine, The Blue Nib Literary
Magazine, Broadkill Review, Cagibi, and the Innesfree Poetry Journal. His
first chapbook is Cruel with Eagles. He can be found on Twitter or wandering in the woods playing his flute.