Issue 34 (2012)

In this issue, we welcome back some previous authors, namely Dag Rossman, with further adventures of Faragrim the Draug, and Ryder Miller, with a new exploration of “magical” realism with a Halloween setting. David Sparenberg also returns with more variations on their poetic themes. Returning also, after a longer space, are Joel Zartman, Lee Clark Zumpe and Gwenyth Hood, with their short poems in various styles. Tim Callahan, our seasoned and faithful illustrator, once more shows his versatility, doing spooky justice to “The Golem of Bidosz” and rendering of “Francis and the Mouse-King” with great sensitivity. L. C. Atencio, with us for the first time, provides our cover and illustrations for his poems, as well as three other striking images. Philip Reuss also makes his debut here as an illustrator, with an effective evocation of a scene from Rossman’s Faragrim series. With us for the first time are storytellers Mark Mellon, with a tale of battle and magic amid the Turkish-Hungarian wars, John Mabry, with a fiction about the life of a famous peacemaker, Raymond Falgui, exploring politics, evolution and ecology in modern mythic times, and C. R. Wily, venturing into the poetic theology of the domestic economy. For new poets, we have Robert Franz, Nancy Enright, and L. C. Atencio, exploring nature, myth, and philosophy over a wide sweep of time. We hope the readers enjoy this selection.