Opening Letters > From the Editors

For the past three years, we have had the honor of sharing incredible literary works each quarter with readers all over the world.  This spring, while so much in our world has changed, now, more than ever, we feel so fortunate to be able to continue doing so. Providing a dynamic and free platform for readers like you to encounter the outstanding work of our featured writers is an overflowing fountain of joy, and we're so thankful you chose to join us.

While so many of us are staying close to home these days, what strikes me most about this current issue is the geographic mobility it offers.  Throughout Issue 12, you are invited into the minds and hearts of writers all over the map. In the first five pieces alone, you can start in the Northwest Territories of Canada and then immediately cross land, sea, and sky to Egypt.  You can settle into a piece from Florida, traverse the United States to Arizona, and then head to straight New York. If you are looking to be transported: transported intellectually, transported emotionally, then you undoubtedly came to the right place.

Before signing off I'd also like to introduce a special project we have been working on for the past several months.  In conjunction with our 13th issue, coming out this summer, we will release Voices from the Sky: A Companion Podcast to Sky Island Journal.  In the program, we will feature writers published in the journal and talk specifically about a certain piece that we've shared in a previous issue.  While each conversation is a little different from the last, there are three main goals for each episode: 

1). To provide unique insights that will enhance the reader's experience. 

2). To give well-deserved exposure to these writers and their tremendous work.

3). To offer advice and encouragement to fellow writers.

I started recording episodes with writers over the phone right about the time that my wife and I decided to fully commit to self-isolation with our pups (nearly two weeks before our state's governor made the Safer at Home Order).  Talking to writers about literary works that I respect and love has been an opportunity I've looked forward to for a long time; what I did not expect out of this experience was how much my spirit would be rejuvenated by making these connections and getting to know them as artists and as human beings.  After each conversation I come away feeling energized, grateful, and filled with admiration. I come away with a new friend, and I hope they feel the same way. We cannot wait to share their keen observations and reflections with you this summer.

For now, please settle in, and enjoy Issue 12.  We’re so glad you're here.

Respectfully,

Jeff Sommerfeld, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

Reading for Issue 12—every single day—from January through April was an experience that we will not soon forget. In some ways, I think we are still processing it. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that there are very few things we know for sure. One of those absolute truths, however, was bolstered simply by this living though this experience—this ongoing pandemic—with our readers and our family of contributors around the world.

The absolute truth is this. Resistance, renewal, and resilience are all made possible by hope, and hope’s weapon of choice is art.

Language—the brave, beautiful, elegant, selfless utility of the word—is the art that we keep strapped in our collective holster. The hope that manifests from wielding this weapon decisively and compassionately is what Sky Island Journal lives for. Nobody gets the drop on us because we believe, with all our hearts, that literature can provide the hope that our world so desperately needs right now. We believe that the resistance, renewal, and resilience—all made possible by this hope—will ultimately become the keys to our survival.

By design, each published piece of writing in Sky Island Journal opens as a protected Word document for an authentic, focused, and immersive experience that encourages a close, intimate, distraction-free reading of the work. Readers, 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. With no advertising on our website, you can fully engage with the works our contributors have so carefully created for you. With no subscription fees, you are welcome to read and enjoy whenever you like. We understand this is a radical departure from how many 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, to savor, to gather strength, and to reflect.

Of the 1,413 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 12, we found these 33 to be the finest. Welcome to Sky Island. Welcome home.

Respectfully,

Jason Splichal, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

Aldona Dziedziejko > Poetry > Northwest TERRITORIES, Canada

Aldona Dziedziejko is a first-generation immigrant poet and educator. Her writing has appeared in Antithesis, Juice, CV2, subTerrain, Poetry is Dead, BAD Dog Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Northern Appeal, Humble Pie and others. She has received the Lina Chartrand Poetry Award for an emerging poet in celebration of writing by women. She holds an MA in Art History and a BA in Education as well as History. Recently, she's been studying Poetry and Creative Nonfiction at the Stanford Writer's Studio. She is currently living and working in a hamlet in the Tlicho region belonging to the Dene people of Canada. 

Amirah Al Wassif > Poetry > Egypt

Amirah Al Wassif’s poems have appeared in several print and online publications including South Florida Poetry, Birmingham Arts Journal, Hawaii Review, The Meniscus, The Chiron Review, The Hunger, Writers Resist, Right Now, and others. Amirah also has a poetry collection, For Those Who Don’t Know Chocolate (Poetic Justice Books & Arts, 2019), and a children’s book, The Cocoa Boy and Other Stories, published in February 2020.

Brendan Walsh > Poetry > Florida, USA

Brendan Walsh has lived and taught in South Korea, Laos, and South Florida. His work appears in Rattle, Glass Poetry, Indianapolis Review, Baltimore Review, American Literary Review, and other journals. He is the author of five books, including Go (Aldrich Press), Buddha vs. Bonobo (Sutra Press), and fort lauderdale (Grey Book Press).

Courtney Brooks > Poetry > Arizona, USA

Courtney Brooks is an MFA candidate at Northern Arizona University, as well as the web editor for Thin Air Magazine’s online journal. She read and writes fabulism and horror and is a sucker for an all-black outfit. When not buried in her work, you can probably find her in the woods somewhere, thinking about monsters.

David Galloway > Poetry > New York, USA

David Galloway is a writer and college professor of Russian. Born and raised in Maryland, for the past twenty-five years he has lived in upstate New York. His poetry and essays have most recently appeared in Watershed Review, Comstock Review, Atlanta Review, the American Journal of Poetry, Typehouse, and Permafrost.

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. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Coffin Bell Journal, Sky Island Journal, West Trade Review, Apricity Press, and Peculiar. Her first chapbook, Help Me to Fall, is the winner of the Moonstone Arts Center 2019 Chapbook Prize.

Heather Diamond > Creative Nonfiction > Hong Kong

Heather Diamond is an American expat living in Hong Kong.  She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawaii, and her previous lives include bookseller, folklorist, community college teacher, and museum curator. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Memoir Magazine and Sky Island Journal, and she is working on two memoirs.

Ifeoma Nnewuihe > Creative Nonfiction > Nigeria

Ifeoma Nnewuihe is a writer and visual artist living and working in Lagos, Nigeria. Ifeoma has a Master of Arts degree in Literature from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Her works have been published in The Jellyfish Review, The Kalahari Review, Irin Journal, and Green Black Tales, amongst others. She is the winner of the April 2019 Loose Conversation "Everyone Has A Story" Literary Commission, the 2018 Paula Chinwe Okafor Prize for Creative Nonfiction, and she was longlisted for the 2018 Writivism Short Story Prize.

Jeff Ewing > Poetry > California, USA

Jeff Ewing's poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Crazyhorse, Southwest Review, ZYZZYVA, Willow Springs, Subtropics, upstreet, and Saint Ann's Review, among others. His short story collection, The Middle Ground, was published by Into the Void Press in 2019. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Jeff McLaughlin > Flash Fiction > France

Jeff McLaughlin was born in Nebraska, grew up in the Carolinas, went to college in Minnesota, and now lives and work in Paris, France. His short fiction has appeared in the Kenyon Review Online, December Magazine and most recently in the forthcoming issue of the Southern Humanities Review. In between editing his first novel, he serves as a reader for the Raleigh Review.

Joanna Johnson > Poetry > Spain

Joanna Johnson is a poet and Spanish-English bilingual educator. Originally from Seattle, she holds a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education from the University of Washington. Her poetry can be found in Midway Journal, Wasafiri Magazine and Sheila-Na-Gig Online Journal. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Wasafiri Queen Mary New Writing Prize. She lives with her partner in Córdoba, Spain where she teaches and writes.

Joshua Silavent > Creative Nonfiction > Georgia, USA

Joshua Silavent is an award-winning journalist and educator based in the greater Atlanta area. He was named Beat Reporter of the Year in Georgia by the Associated Press in 2016 for his extensive reporting on homelessness and affordable housing shortages. Silavent also writes lyrical, narrative and "reportorial" poetry and short fiction. His poetry most recently appeared in the January 2019 edition of Driftwood Press and will appear in the Spring 2020 issue of New Plains Review. His fiction was most recently featured by Prometheus Dreaming in October 2019.

Kendall Poe > Flash Fiction > New York, USA

Kendall Poe is a writer and competitive cyclist originally from Duluth, Minnesota. Her work has appeared in Tin House and Pamplemousse. She received the Charles M. Hart Jr. Writers of Promise Award and interned at both The Paris Review and BOMB Magazine. If she's not writing, she's riding in Central Park. 

Kristin Berger > Poetry > Oregon, USA

Kristin Berger is the author of the poetry collections Refugia (Persian Pony Press, 2019), Echolocation (Cirque Press, 2018), How Light Reaches Us (Aldrich Press, 2016), and For the Willing (Finishing Line Press, 2008). Her long prose-poem and collaboration with printmaker Diane Sandall, Changing Woman & Changing Man: A High Desert Myth will be published in 2020 by Nightjar Press. Kristin lives in Portland, Oregon, where she co-hosts the Lents Farmers Market Poetry Series, which has brought over 40 local emerging and established poets to Outer Southeast Portland.

Linda Petrucelli > Creative Nonfiction > Hawaii, USA

For most of her adult life, Linda Petrucelli has lived on islands—Taiwan, Manhattan and Hawaii. Being surrounded by water suits her. Her story, “Figure Eight on the Waves,” won first place in the WOW! Women on Writing Fall 2018 Flash Fiction Contest. Her fiction and personal essays have appeared in KYSO Flash, Flash Fiction Magazine, Islands Magazine, HerStry, and the Stardust Review, among others. Linda writes from her tin-roofed ranch house on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island.

Linnea Boice > Poetry > Washington, USA

Linnea Boice is a storyteller and poet from Boise, Idaho who does her best to fall in love with every place she calls home. Her current home is Bellingham, Washington where she is studying Creative Writing at Western Washington University. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the 56th edition of Jeopardy magazine, Western’s undergraduate literary journal. Her work has appeared in previous editions of Jeopardy, and her poem “Kestrel” was shortlisted for Into the Void magazine’s 2019 Poetry Prize. When not writing, she can be found playing Dungeons and Dragons, exploring the forests of the PNW, or enjoying a cone of rose flavored ice cream at her favorite scoop shop.

Lisa López Smith > Poetry > Mexico

Lisa López Smith is a shepherd/mother/alchemist making her home in Mexico. When not wrangling kids or rescue dogs or goats, you can probably find her in the garden. Recent and forthcoming publications include Helen Literary Magazine, Jabberwock, Mom Egg Review, Mothers Always Write, Bluestem, Tiferet, and Sky Island Journal.

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.

Melissa Buckheit > Poetry > Connecticut, USA

Melissa Buckheit is a queer poet, activist, dancer/choreographer, photographer, English Lecturer and professional Bodywork Therapist. She is the author of Noctilucent (Shearsman Books, 2012), and two chapbooks: Dulcet You (Dancing Girl Press, 2016), and Arc (The Drunken Boat, 2007). Her poems, translations, photography, essays, critical interviews and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in EOAGH, The VOLTA, Denver Quarterly, The Feminist Wire, HerKind, MayDay Magazine, Sinister Wisdom, The Drunken Boat, Bombay Gin, Spiral Orb, Shearsman Magazine, Waxwing, and The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide (University of Arizona Press, 2016), and Sky Island Journal among others. Jocelyn Heath, in a review in Lambda Literary, noted of Noctilucent that, “Buckheit pairs earthly longings with writings of celestial delicacy to show us what we can see when we look beyond immediacy. Her collection, like the noctilucent cloud that shares its name, lingers long in the atmosphere.” Buckheit translates the poet Ioulita Iliopoulou from Modern Greek and is a recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from Naropa University and a B.A. in English & American Literature, Dance/Theatre & French from Brandeis University. She founded and curated the innovative Edge Reading Series in Tucson, AZ from 2008-2016, and has taught at Pima College, University of Arizona, and Zuzi Dance Company. She lives in rural Northeast Connecticut.

Moira Walsh > Poetry > Germany

Born in Michigan under the first full moon of 1979, Moira Walsh has lived and worked on three continents – as a farmhand, baker, receptionist, cleaner, support person, and performing artist. She is currently based in southern Germany where she freelances as a translator and copywriter. Moira's poems have appeared in Wild Roof Journal and Pomme Journal. She is seeking a press for her first chapbook.

Olivia Kingery > Poetry > Michigan, USA

Olivia Kingery is a farmer of plants and words in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She is an MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University, where she reads for Passages North. When not writing, she is in the woods with her Chihuahua and Saint Bernard.

Paul Brooke > Creative Nonfiction > Iowa, USA

Paul Brooke has published five books including the soon-to-be released Jaguars of the Northern Pantanal: Panthera onca at the Meeting of the Waters. He has four full-length collections including Light and Matter: Poems and Photographs of Iowa (2008), Meditations on Egrets: Poems and Photographs of Sanibel Island (2010), Sirens and Seriemas: Photographs and Poems of the Amazon and Pantanal (2015) and Arm Wrestling at the Iowa State Fair (2018). His writing has been published internationally in Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, and England in The Brobdingdagian Times, Litspeak, Magma, and Takahe, respectively. In the United States, his work has been featured in such journals as the North American Review, Rocky Mountain Review, Flyway, International Poetry Review, Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, and the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature and the Environment. He was trained as an undergraduate as an ornithologist and later completed his Bachelors and Masters at Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Brooke is a Professor of English at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he teaches Advanced Creative Writing, Introduction to Creative Writing, Creative Photography, Major Authors, and Literary Theory. 

Ronald Okuaki Lieber > Poetry > New York, USA

Ronald Okuaki Lieber is the son of a Japanese mother and Jewish American military man. He lived in fourteen different places in the first fourteen years of his life as an army brat. He has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, earned a MFA from Columbia University's Writing Program, worked as a waiter, cook, laborer, editor, and adjunct instructor before becoming a tenured professor at SUNY Nassau, while simultaneously undertaking psychoanalytic training, eventually becoming a licensed psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. His chapbook, From Loss, was one of six finalists for the Kingdom in the Wild Chapbook Contest, and a poem, "Christ Carrying the Cross" was selected as one of ten finalists out of 1200 submissions for the Knightville Poetry Prize and will be published in an upcoming issue of The New Guard Literary Review. Poems have recently appeared in The Tishman Review, The Blue Mountain Review, and Bang! In years past, his poems have appeared The Nation, The New England Review, The Colorado Review, Hayden's Ferry, Passages North, and other literary journals.

Shannon Tsonis > Creative Nonfiction > Pennsylvania, USA

Shannon Tsonis lives in York, Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter, where she works as a marketing director by day and writer by night. You can find her nonfiction previously published in Little Patuxent Review, Buddy, Memoir Magazine, Crack the Spine, and anthologized in The Ocotillo Review. She was recently named a finalist in the 2020 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize, and permanently retired her clear high heels after obtaining an M.B.A from University of Baltimore.

Stephanie Greene > Flash Fiction > Vermont, USA

Stephanie Greene’s fiction has appeared, or is soon to appear, in Nostoc Magazine, Green Mountains Review, and The New Guard. Her first novel, Normal for Beginners, is safely locked in a drawer. The second, A Perm for Mrs. Medusa, makes her laugh out loud as she conjures ways to ruin her characters’ lives. She lives on the family farm in Vermont with her husband, also a writer, and down the road from her son and his seven chickens, who race to meet her, hoping for their favorite handout, old hot dog rolls.

Stephanie Kraft > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Stephanie Kraft grew up in the Indian River region of Florida and never has enough time to spend around water—swimming in it, hiking around it, or simply contemplating it. She was a journalist for forty years, is now a Polish to English translator, and has somehow found news writing, translating and struggling with poetry necessary complements to each other. She and her husband, a retired psychiatrist, live in Amherst, Massachusetts in a Victorian house without central air. As climate change warms the summers, she and her husband spend a lot of time at the local
pond, where in years gone by their children also spent many happy and mischievous hours before the town's insurance company had the oak tree with the rope swing cut down.

Susan Slocum Dyer > Poetry > Alaska, USA

Susan Slocum Dyer is an elementary teacher who works in remote, high needs villages across Alaska. She spent most of three years living and teaching hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle. She is the great-great granddaughter of Joshua Slocum, the first person to solo-circumnavigate the world and author of the international classic, Sailing Alone Around the World.  A solo adventurer herself, Slocum Dyer captures her travel experiences in both prose and watercolor paintings.

Wilson Koewing > Flash Fiction > Colorado, USA

Wilson Koewing is a writer from South Carolina. He received an MFA in creative writing from The University of New Orleans. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado. He has work published or forthcoming in Pembroke Magazine, Running Wild Press, New Pop Lit, X-Ray Literary Magazine, Borrowed Solace, The Fictional Café, and Five on the Fifth. He was a November 2019 resident of The Vermont Studio Center.