Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2018;
(cited in BAE 2015, 2016, 2020); PUSHCART poetry finalist

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Spring 2021

Cover art by Binh Danh

Dear Valued Readers,

We are immersed in a split, fragmented time. As we receive vaccines and emerge from our burrows into the spring air, we see mass shootings, AAPI racism, systemic racism and voter suppression. Yet we will continue to protest, in writing and action, against oppression and in support of diverse people and causes.

In that spirit, Solstice Magazine continues to move forward. We are so pleased to announce again, Brenda Prescott as Co-Editor-in-Chief, beginning in April.  Please check out her new novel Home Front Lines at https://brendaprescott.com.

Also, we are thrilled to present two new major editors: Anjali Mitter Duva as Fiction Co-Editor.  (Please see Anjali’s and my Editors’ Notes in Fiction for details.) And Oliver de la Paz as Guest Poetry Editor.  He is author of five collections of poetry. Please see his Poetry Editor’s note. 

This Spring Issue represents our values in all our genres, including our new addition, Graphic Lit.  Delve into this wide array of multicultural, multiracial, gender-and-class-conscious writing, and also into our photography.  Click on the cover image to access the series “One Week’s Dead,” images from the Vietnam war, by the distinguished Vietnamese American artist Binh Danh.  And please read our Interviews, including “Black Men Speaking about Survival in the Arts,” with the photographer Lou Jones and quilter Michael Thorpe, on the cover of our Winter Print Issue.

We also congratulate Rosann Tung, a Solstice nonfiction reader, on her piece “In ‘Minari,’ I Saw my Family. But Hollywood Has Made Asian Americans Outsiders, Once Again.” In Cognoscenti on WBUR radio this month.

Also, special news: SOLSTICE: A Magazine of Diverse Voices (The Best American Essays 2018, Best of Net) announces ANNUAL LIT CONTEST: $1,000 Fiction Prize, judge: TBA. $500 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize, judge: Tim Seibles. $500 Michael Steinberg Nonfiction Prize, judge: David Mura. Submit: April 5-May 25!  Solsticelitmag.org/contest/

And many thanks yet again to our loyal, ongoing staff editors: Robbie Gamble, Richard Hoffman, Jill Johnson, Barbara Siegel Carlson, Ewa Chrusciel, and Andrai Whitted; also to Dzvinia Orlowsky, and to Managing Editor Amanda Todisco, and our intern Deidra Dallas, and to all our staff and readers!

Promote us on social media and subscribe for free.  Join our diverse community in the spirit of protest and reconciliation.

Lee Hope

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editors' Notes

  • Note from the Editor-in-Chief
    by Lee Hope
  • Reviews & Interviews Editors’ Note
    by Amy Yelin, Deidra Dallas and Lee Hope
  • Guest Poetry Editor’s Note
    by Oliver de la Paz
  • Poetry in Translation Editor’s Note
    by Barbara Siegel Carlson and Ewa Chrusciel
  • Nonfiction Editor’s Note
    by Richard Hoffman
  • Fiction Co-Editors’ Notes
    by Anjali Mitter Duva and Lee Hope

Fiction

  • Twice
    by Sarp Sozdinler
  • My Almost Date With A Serial Killer
    by Jaimee Wriston Colbert
  • The Young Gay Man’s Guide to Crying All the Time
    by Sean Littlefield Chumley
  • Key of Lightning
    by María DeGuzmán
  • The Silk Brocade, the Satin
    by Priscilla Long
  • By the Pricking of Thumbs
    by Abby Provenzano
  • Then You Were Gone
    by Gina Troisi
  • An Empty Night
    by Sadi Muktadir
  • Rambling House
    by Trudy Lewis

Graphic Lit

  • Gloucester’s Eyes
    by Norman MacAfee

Nonfiction

  • The Still Point of the Turning World
    by Natalie Hodges
  • Trains
    by Charter Weeks
  • A Human Presence
    by Alexis Lathem
  • My Past Behind the Wall and My Present in the Land of the Free…
    by Aaron Sosa
  • The COVID Sunday Drives
    by Debra Monroe
  • Open Carefully
    by Kathy Davis
  • The Incredulity Response
    by Meg Senuta
  • Diane
    by Joseph Cuomo

Photography

  • One Week’s Dead
    by Binh Danh

Poetry

  • Two Who Are Mostly Good
    by Alexis V. Jackson
  • Slideshow: My Father’s Faith
    by John F. Buckley
  • After Sabbath
    by Meira Kerr-Jarrett
  • Swarm
    by Kent Leatham
  • when she died
    by Lilian Caylee Wang
  • Braided
    by Oak Morse
  • Blueprints
    by Suphil Lee Park
  • Rome, in Hindsights
    by Suphil Lee Park
  • Interview featuring girl in hanbok
    by Gary Jackson
  • The Invincible Woman goes viral
    by Gary Jackson
  • Elegy for Little Richard
    by Steven Cramer
  • Making Out on a Hill Overlooking the Hudson
    by Patrick Rosal
  • The Hanged Ghost
    by Patrick Rosal
  • Where the Ocean Ends
    by Patrick Rosal
  • Slipshape
    by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
  • Absent from the Body
    by Cedric Tillman
  • The Fish and the Refugee Camp
    by Mosab Abu Toha
  • We Are Looking for Palestine
    by Mosab Abu Toha
  • planting seeds and tasting flowers during the end of days
    by Kai Coggin

Poetry in translation

  • Two Poems
    by Giuseppe Ungaretti and Wally Swist
  • Prague Poem
    by Aleš Mustar and Manja Maksimovič
  • Four Poems
    by Wojciech Bonowicz and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese
  • Two Poems
    by Natalka Bilotserkivets, Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky

Reviews & Interviews

  • Review: I Wish My Father by Lesléa Newman
    by Lo Galluccio
  • Two Black Men Speak on Survival in the Arts
    Interview with Lou Jones, photographer, and Michael Thorpe, quilter

    by Michael C. Thorpe, Lou Jones and Lee Hope
  • Mother Heart — An interview with Patricia Ann McNair
    by Alex Poppe and Patricia Ann McNair


Contributors

Avatar photoAaron Sosa
Avatar photoAbby Provenzano
Avatar photoAleš Mustar
Avatar photoAlex Poppe
Avatar photoAlexis Lathem
Avatar photoAlexis V. Jackson
Avatar photoAli Kinsella
Binh DanhBinh Danh
Avatar photoCedric Tillman
Charter WeeksCharter Weeks
Avatar photoDebra Monroe
Avatar photoDzvinia Orlowsky
Avatar photoElżbieta Wójcik-Leese
Avatar photoGary Jackson
Avatar photoGina Troisi
Avatar photoGiuseppe Ungaretti
Avatar photoJaimee Wriston Colbert
Avatar photoJohn F. Buckley
Avatar photoJoseph Cuomo
Avatar photoKai Coggin
Avatar photoKathy Davis
Avatar photoKent Leatham
Lee HopeLee Hope
Avatar photoLena Khalaf Tuffaha
Avatar photoLilian Caylee Wang
Avatar photoLo Galluccio
Avatar photoLou Jones
Avatar photoManja Maksimovič
Avatar photoMaría DeGuzmán
Avatar photoMeg Senuta
Avatar photoMeira Kerr-Jarrett
Avatar photoMichael C. Thorpe
Avatar photoMosab Abu Toha
Avatar photoNatalie Hodges
Avatar photoNatalka Bilotserkivets
Avatar photoNorman MacAfee
Avatar photoOak Morse
Avatar photoOliver de la Paz
Avatar photoPatricia Ann McNair
Avatar photoPatrick Rosal
Avatar photoPriscilla Long
Avatar photoSadi Muktadir
Avatar photoSarp Sozdinler
Avatar photoSean Littlefield Chumley
Avatar photoSteven Cramer
Avatar photoSuphil Lee Park
Avatar photoTrudy Lewis
Avatar photoWally Swist
Avatar photoWojciech Bonowicz

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We experiment.  We publish fine work, of course, from published established writers to emerging writers, whether formal or informal, traditional or experimental. We also publish underserved writers, or writers on the margins. We publish writers of diverse nationalities, races and religions, and also writers from diverse cultures within our culture.
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The articles, poems and stories and photographs we publish do not necessarily reflect the points of view of the magazine.

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