Summer 2020 - Solstice Literary Magazine

BEST OF THE NET 2023; Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2018;
(cited in BAE 2015, 2016, 2020, 2022); PUSHCART poetry finalist

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Summer 2020

Even in the midst of a pandemic, literature and the arts can challenge us to act out of our better selves. At Solstice, we are taking a stand for social justice and against disinformation. In that mode, I am honored to announce our annual Summer Contest Issue with pieces that speak truth. This year, we received more submissions than before and send our gratitude to all the fine writers who submitted.

Many thanks also to our distinguished judges: In fiction, A.J. Verdelle selected Aimee LaBrie as the recipient of the $1,000 Fiction Prize for her story “Rage.” Aisha Hassan is the Runner-up for “Brothers in Arms.”

In poetry, Adrian Matejka selected Tina Zafreem Alam’s poem “& it’s hiding in plain sight” as the winner of the $500 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize.

In Nonfiction, Megan Marshall chose Anne-Marie Ooman as the winner of the $500 Michael Steinberg Prize for her essay “Four Winds.” The Runner-up is Herb Harris for “To Belong in a Garden.”

Click on the TOC and go to the individual EDITOR’S NOTES to learn more about these fine authors and the fabulous FINALISTS, EDITORS’ PICKS, as well as SELECTED WORKS.

Also, many thanks to LOU JONES, for the cover image, “Dance Recital 4,” from his new series pandemicboston.

Lee Hope, Editor-in-Chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editors' Notes

Fiction

Fiction contest winner
Rage
by Aimee LaBrie
Runner-up
Brothers in Arms
by Aisha Hassan
Finalist
Novel Excerpt: Inklings
by Tracy Robert
Finalist
Weeks Away
by Jedah Mayberry
Finalist
Metonymy
by Andrew Tonkovich
Editors' Pick
Your Head is Older than Your Feet
by S.K. Brownell
Editors' Pick
Blindside
by Diane C. Kessler
Selected Fiction
Chuligáni
by Kevin St. Jarre
Selected Fiction
Migration
by Kari Middleton

Graphic Lit

Spite
by Robert Sergel

Interviews

Interview with Robert Sergel
by Andrai Whitted

Nonfiction

Winner
Four Winds
by Anne-Marie Oomen
Runner-up
To Belong in a Garden
by Herb Harris
Finalist
Most dear in the Double Realm:
The Poetry of Jean Valentine
by Michelle Blake
Finalist
On Apology
by Steve Fellner
Finalist
Pendulum
by Helen Fremont
Finalist
Sensitivity
by Carol D. Marsh
Finalist
Of Needles and Kindness: My Filigree Heart
by Ashley Memory
Finalist
Make That Cunt Sing
by Kimberly Tolson
Editors' Pick
Unexcused Absence
by Anne P. Beatty
Editors' Pick
Legacy
by Cindy Carlson
Editors' Pick
The Uprooting
by Tatiana Johnson-Boria
Editors' Pick
I Just Hope He Can Breathe
by Vanessa Lewis
Editors' Pick
Wife
by Alyssa Marshall

Photography

pandemicboston
by Lou Jones

Poetry

Winner
& it’s hiding in plain sight
by Tina Zafreen Alam
Finalist
Unfathomed
by Hari Alluri
Finalist
Awake in Elizabeth City
by Tatiana Johnson-Boria
Finalist
No Matter How
by Jennifer Martelli
Finalist
Alinea
by Aaron Wallace
Editors' Pick
In Which the Second Sex Scene of Moonlight Makes the Cut
by Dmitri Derodel
Editors' Pick
The World According to Alpheaus
by Vernita Hall
Featured
Spotlight on Ukraine
Child in a Lightbulb
by Oksana Maksymchuk
Featured
To Crop, to Thresh
by Seth Tucker

Poetry in translation

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