What We’re Talking About in Issue 0301 (September 2018)
The complete table of contents
as it appears in the September 2018 (2ND ANNIVERSARY issue of Blank Spaces.
from the editor - Happy Birthday, Blank Spaces: You’ve Made Me a Believer!
shameless - Down a Thumb by Zeba Crook looks at the pivotal childhood experiences that helped shape the way he views his step-father and their relationship.
- Two Divisions by Emily Fata is a vulnerable testimony of a life thrown into self-destructive disarray after a painful break-up.
flash fiction - Tweet by Jessica Kluthe uses the death of a pet bird to allow one women to contemplate the differences between generations and their technology.
- Monday Afternoon by Stephanie Tamagi provides a heartbreaking glimpse into the pain of losing a loved one to a disease like Alzheimers.
different strokes - Idoloization by Karen Grosman looks at the mythical story of nymphs and the current conversation about rape culture to create a feminine expression of fertility, aging, metamorphosis, and sexual desire.
red solo cup - In Enlightenment, Susan Siddeley explores the process of aging.
- Yelibert Cruz shares one piece from her larger collection, Letters to My Oppressor, which is a reworking of soliloquies spoken by women in Shakespeare’s plays, with a feminist twist. Using a “erasure by crowding technique”, where every single letter in the original soliloquy is still a part of the poem and in order but with letters flooded in between to make up the words, Cruz brings us her poem, Lady Macbeth.
- In her poems, Defence/Offense, and Lupé, Hanorah Hanley writes about being haunted by a new partners past relationship, as well as learning how to pull back her claws while dealing with PTSD.
fiction feature - Romantic Canada by Mark Halpern uses the experience of businessmen living abroad to make arguments for whether Toronto or Calgary is the most romantic city in the world.
more than words - In Further (West), photographer Samuel Choisy brings us onto the streets of Toronto to view the sites through a broken camera.
food of love - In The Bar on the Hill, east-coaster, Kim Losier, invites us into the dim interior of a familiar bar, where we are reminded of the rejuvenating power of music and the nostalgia it can stir within.
make art not war - When clouds started appearing in all of MJ’s work, she decided to explore them further by dedicating an entire series titled Mindfulness to that discovery.
write prompt challenge winner - His Farm by Sarah Gardier takes the provided write prompt image to areas of pain, catharsis, and the ultimate hope of healing.
between the lines - Gail M. Murray shares her thoughts about The Home for Unwanted Girls by Canadian author, Joanna Goodman.
final word - Somnificance by Sheri Falconer is a fictional story of retirement and new life
