What We’re Talking About in Issue 0803 (March 2024)
The complete table of contents
as it appears in the March 2024 issue of Blank Spaces.
from the editor—We Are All Philosphers
shameless — In his personal essay, Bullseye, Terence Young recounts the agonizing tale of a childhood bully and how it took an anonymous game of darts to finally move on from the trauma of that long ago encounter.
The House of Phyllis offers a darkly humorous glimpse into Michael McGrath’s childhood as he and his mother butted heads over conflicting style sense.
In a poetic snapshot of the passage of time, Kelly Mary McAllister speaks to the volatile emotions, lack of responsibility, and fondly remembered friendships that are hallmarks of the teenage experience in Palm Tree Pilgrimage.
flash fiction — Ian Fisher presents a first-person account following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as a father updates his seafaring offspring in Letter to Son Aboard Star of Alaska.
In Fallen, Frances Koziar proves that a brevity of words can pack a punch of meaning and a loud call for change.
food of love — Follow Milly as she retraces her steps and actions in a bittersweet memory of her childhood friend in Glycerine, a fictional story by Pauline Shen.
fiction — Andrea Bernard presents Bingo, a story about a long-standing rivalry between two elderly women and how they see themselves, each other, and the world around them.
Told in the first-person, Nick Perry’s story, The Profile follows Declan Murphy, an atheist who wants to become a priest, as he struggles through the creatively bland task of writing his LinkedIn bio.
1944, From Canada to Normandy by Kevin Clancy is set during WWII, where the camaraderie, bravery, and horrors of war are explored.
red solo cup — Ripped from the Canadian headlines, some of the issues that have become part of our national consciousness struck Debra Bennett deeply, resulting in heartfelt poems like Little Girl and Young Woman in a Red Dress.
Through her poem, Will That I Still My Body, India Das-Brown offers a psalm for humanity and a cry for introspective peace. Read it aloud to capture the powerful rhythm.
Salvatore Difalco asks big questions of purpose from a small stage in his poems Philosopher Chair and Buon Giorno, Stupid.
Served up as a set of four, Olivia B. Li details different forms of love in her poems, A Letter to My Grandfather, The Philosophy of Love, Routine, and camera.
different strokes — Artist Gillian Lowry embraces the use of soft colour to capture the beauty and movement of nature in her series of Untethered landscapes.
story matters — Amy Byers extols the bliss of writing for the joy of it and how by removing the pressure of an audience you can unlock a rich freedom seldom found elsewhere in her prose piece, Writing for Myself.
between the lines — Gail M. Murray brings us a review of Authorized Cruelty by Janice Barrett.
write prompt challenge winner — Three-time write prompt winner Finnian Burnett presented a strong contest entry with their short fiction Adam’s Side of the Gate, one that the judges called “stunning” and “satisfying.”
final word — Stephen Sinsi allows us to eavesdrop on him as he’s caught somewhere between a dream and a fantasy, having a conversation with the daughter he never got a chance to know in his vulnerable prose poem, You Would Have.
