What We’re Talking About in Issue 0702 (December 2022)
The complete table of contents
as it appears in the December 2022 issue of Blank Spaces.
from the editor—Notes from Nature
shameless — Rose Camara’s vulnerable essay, There Is No Time, is an exploration of processing a sibling’s diagnosis, their impending death, and the challenges of connecting with someone who is dying.
Celia Richard takes a bold deep dive, dissecting the lessons learned in an ill-fated relationship in No Business Caring About.
In All The Things We Didn’t Say, Sarah Cheng examines her relationship with her father: the distance that holds space for love, the regrets, and the things left unsaid.
red solo cup — Tom Reynolds presented The Heart and Choosing as “brief, in prose, sometimes quote-worthy, hopefully interesting, creative snatches of writing on love and humans.”
Through the poems In The Absence Of, I’m Sick of Hurting People, and Full Moon Fate, Owen Day opens themself up in order to spill the truth inside that is often hard to admit.
Pauline Shen shares a collection of 4 Haiku poems with a focus on choices made or chances given.
flash fiction — Persona non grata by Véronique Aglat explores dragonflies and their utility in our world.
We all rise, we all fall. What if that's the point? What if that was your only purpose? What if your destiny is not of this world? Would it be a blessing or a curse? Deanne Deschamps asks some of these important questions in her short piece, Phoenix.
Straddling the line of existential non-fiction and transgressive fiction, Craig Clark uses his own experience with cancer to inform the actions of his protagonist as he begins to move on from the lowest point in his life in Free Thrift Store Bibles.
The Dogs Who Played Poker by Anthony Clarke is a brief satirical piece on the infamous painting.
fiction — Lisa Jones’s Forages follows a strong-willed woman with dementia through the loss of her brother.
Shepherd’s Pie Friday by Bob Mann is the story of a woman bearing the weight of a secret grief and the toll this takes as she continues trying to meet what she believes are her family’s needs.
John Van Rys brings some dark comedy to Parking Spots, a story about the dizziness associated with facing a diagnosis.
different strokes — Rita Thorp’s abstract series FREEDOM was inspired by her exploration of the changes forced on herself and the world throughout the pandemic.
story matters — Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt, critically acclaimed memoirist, examines what she learned about the art of writing in her essay, Words for my Father: Making Peace with the Peacemaker.
more than words — Sahil Alurkar invites us to slow down and marvel in the quiet of still-life photography with selected pieces from his Thoughts In Light collection, offering the reminder that “the beauty of nature is mesmerizing down to the macro level.”
between the lines
Gail M. Murray brings us a review of Hemingway’s Widow by Canadian biographer Timothy Christian.
write prompt challenge winner — Write prompt winner Desiree Kendrick presented a strong contest entry with her story Turbulence, one that the judges called “captivating” and “vivid.”
final word — Elvira Berezowsky reminds us what’s important in her prose poem What I Know About Love (for Carter).
