One of our most diverse and eclectic issues of fiction yet, featuring established writers and new voices from Lagos, South Korea, the Ukraine, the Middle East, and the U.S.A. In vastly varying styles, each piece reveals outsiders clashing against, and sometimes accommodating with, their cultures.
Read eminent Ukrainian author Vaskyl Makhno’s deeply quirky tale of angels visiting an oldster in New York City; followed by an original young new voice, Adeola Adeniyi, and his vital, sardonic story of two African Americans running a “Send Us Back to Africa” scam in Brooklyn. Flip from a scam to a thriller about two ex-cons by another new young talent, Laura Dzubay; proceed to Shola Olowu-Asante’s ominous piece about marginalized housegirls in Lagos; from there move to the much published Frances Park and her story of a new South Korean bride’s disillusionment when arriving in the States; then to Leah Danski’s haunting yet healing tale of ritual cleansing in the Old City; then ponder acclaimed author Nahid Rachlin’s somewhat surreal story of an American alienated in North America.
Read these nationally and internationally diverse pieces and investigate the human unity within complexity.
Lee Hope, editor-in-chief
Lee Hope, is the author of the novel Horsefever, a finalist in the Midwest Book Awards. She is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, and a Maine Arts Commission Fellowship for Fiction. She has published stories in numerous literary journals such as Witness and The North American Review. She founded and directed a low-residency MFA program and has taught at various universities. She also teaches for Changing Lives Through Literature, which serves people on probation and parole.
