The following authors represent five countries and two languages. We are graced to include their work in our inaugural issue. Some of them have been picked for their expertise, and others found us by submitting. Between our 147 submissions in two months from 8 countries and our editorial selections, we bring you some of the best authors writing and translating today.
Featured Poetry
Four poems from the forthcoming Frida Kahlo Monologues
Frida Kahlo's La Casa Azul
Frida Kahlo's Broken Column and Plaster Cast
Two Voices
The Guerilla
by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
About Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda served as Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2006-2008. She has published five books of poetry and co-edited two poetry anthologies. Her poems have been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and appear in numerous magazines and journals, including Nimrod, Hispanic Culture Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Antioch Review, Passages North and Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry. She has received four grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, a Council for Basic Education fellowship award, an Edgar Allan Poe first-place award and a Cultural Laureate Award for her contributions in poetry to the state of Virginia, among others. She received the first doctorate awarded by George Mason University, where she studied in the creative writing program. Carolyn also works as a visual artist, whose paintings have been widely displayed in solo and group exhibits.
Poetry in Translation
20th Century Ukrainian Poet Pavlo Tychyna's
Rupture
Gathering Cloud
The Beach
Crown
Kuznechna Street
translated by Stephen Komarnyckyj
About Stephen Komarnyckyj
Stephen Komarnyckyj is a British-Ukrainian writer and linguist whose literary translations and poems have appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, the influential poetry magazine based at the University of Salzburg, Vsesvit Magazine (Ukraine's most influential literary journal), The North, The Echo Room and Modern Poetry in Translation. He has been interviewed on Ukrainian television and by the Den (Day) newspaper, one of Ukraine's most important daily papers based in the capital, Kyiv, and campaigns to raise awareness of the genocide perpetrated by Stalin against the Ukrainian people and to improve the human rights situation in Ukraine. He is currently based in Huddersfield, a town that has been referred to as "the Poetry Capital" of the United Kingdom.
Article
Ecclesiastic: a Font Orphan
Typographer Ed Edman restores a Font by John Gosslee
Short Stories
The Flood
by Judy Light Ayyildiz
About Judy Light Ayyildiz
Judy Light Ayyildiz has taught writing to all education levels for many years, been an editor of Artemis, Artists and Writers from the Blue Ridge and founding board member for the Blue Ridge Writers Conference. Her poetry books are First Recital, Smuggled Seeds and Mud River. She co-authored with Rebekah Woodie Skyhooks and Grasshopper Traps, Creative Writing across the Curriculum, Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers and The Writers' Express. Her memoir Nothing but Time focuses on the importance of a story within to bring courage and healing. Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks was her first children's book. She has published poetry, short stories, articles, reviews, in anthologies and in literary magazines such as New York Quarterly, Mickle Street Review, the new renaissance, Sow's Ear, Pig Iron Press, Clique Calm Books, Turkish Times, Turkish Torque, McGuffin Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Black Water Review, Roanoke Review, The Northeast Journal, Kalliope and others. Her novel Forty Thorns is to be released in 2011 in English and Turkish by Remzi Book House (Remzikitabevi).
That Man's Father
by Stephen Wade
About Stephen Wade
Stephen Wade is an M.Litt graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Recently returned to Ireland after a number of years living abroad on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, he divides his time between writing and teaching.
His novel 'On Hikers' Hill' was awarded First Prize in the UK abook2read Literary Competition, December 2010 - among the final judging panel was the British lyricist Sir Tim Rice.
A finalist in the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition (4,000 submissions) - his story is published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual 2011.
Three of his stories for children have been accepted for publication as easy reader books with Little Acorn Press - one of the three published for Christmas 2010. Other accolades in 2010 included an invitation to read his work at The Irish Writers' Centre before an audience; a short story in top three in competition run in conjunction with The Sunday Independent, and Very Highly Commended in UKA Opening Pages Manuscript Competition.
Many of his short stories have been published online and in print, in national and international magazines and anthologies such as First Edition, Crannog, Leaf Books, College Green, Pearl Magazine and New Fables. Other short stories have won prizes, such as First Prize in Christmas Chillers 2009, Second Prize in the Biscuit International Short Story Competition 2008 and a nomination for New Irish Writer in the Hennessy Literary Awards 2008.
The first three chapters of his novel On Hikers' Hill have been published by Leaf Garden Press. He is currently seeking agency representation or a publisher for his completed novel On Hikers' Hill. www.stephenwade.ie
Pawley's Island 1987
Istanbul, October 2008
by Judy Light Ayyildiz
About Judy Light Ayyildiz
Judy Light Ayyildiz has taught writing to all education levels for many years, been an editor of Artemis, Artists and Writers from the Blue Ridge and founding board member for the Blue Ridge Writers Conference. Her poetry books are First Recital, Smuggled Seeds and Mud River. She co-authored with Rebekah Woodie Skyhooks and Grasshopper Traps, Creative Writing across the Curriculum, Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers and The Writers' Express. Her memoir Nothing but Time focuses on the importance of a story within to bring courage and healing. Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks was her first children's book. She has published poetry, short stories, articles, reviews, in anthologies and in literary magazines such as New York Quarterly, Mickle Street Review, the new renaissance, Sow's Ear, Pig Iron Press, Clique Calm Books, Turkish Times, Turkish Torque, McGuffin Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Black Water Review, Roanoke Review, The Northeast Journal, Kalliope and others. Her novel Forty Thorns is to be released in 2011 in English and Turkish by Remzi Book House (Remzikitabevi).
Poetry
Here in My 56th Year
by Corey Mesler
About Corey Mesler
Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published four novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006), The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010) and Following Richard Brautigan (2010), a full-length poetry collection, Some Identity Problems (2008), and a book of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations (2009). He has also published a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. He also claims to have written, "Your Auntie Grizelda." With his wife, he runs Burke's Book Store, one of the country's oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.
Counting Sparrows
After the Fall
Troy
by Olympia Sibley
About Olympia Sibley
Olympia Sibley teaches Poetry and other English courses at Blinn College in Bryan, Texas. Her favorite poets include Anna Akhmatova, Elizabeth Bishop, Andrew Hudgins, Mark Jarmon, David Jones, Philip Larkin and Les Murray. She enjoys participating in guerilla poetry and chanting the services at the small Russian Orthodox mission that meets in her home. Olympia has three daughters, two granddaughters and has loved the same man for thirty years.
weeping willow
Highway 285
by Juliana Kocsis
About Juliana Kocsis
Juliana Kocsis is an English major trying to enjoy West Texas until she graduates next year, when she'll hopefully move on to something and somewhere more exciting-and a bit more scenic. She likes reading anything from novels to poetry, drinks inordinate amounts of coffee and would spend her life in the Rocky Mountains if she could.
The Unnatural History of Scars and Flowers
Images Becoming Soundlike
Insect Smile
by J. J. Steinfeld
About J. J. Steinfeld
J.J. Steinfeld a Canadian poet, fiction writer, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot's arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published fourteen books - ten short story collections, two novels, two poetry collections - along with five chapbooks, the most recent ones being Misshapenness (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2009), A Fanciful Geography (Poetry Chapbook, erbacce-press, 2010), and A Glass Shard and Memory (Stories, Recliner Books, 2010). His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and periodicals internationally, and over forty of his one-act plays and a handful of full-length plays have been performed in Canada and the United States.
Art
Cover Artist
Burning Bush
Et in Arcadia
Tree of Life
Tree of Life in Snow
Octapotheosis
by Clay Witt
About Clay Witt
Clay Witt is an artist that lives in Virginia.
Editorial note: Clay Witt's piece "Leviathan" is Issue 1's cover art. Accompanying full color prints of other impressionistic and sometimes surrealist works are inside Fjords.
Artist
Sexy Thing
Steel Reserve
Wordy Woman
Movement & Motion
Space Cowboy
Perception
Winter Equinox
by Suzun Hughes
About Suzun Hughes
Suzun Hughes maintained an artist residency in Paris, France, during the spring of 2011. She graduated with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute after obtaining a degree from San Francisco State University in Multimedia Studies.
Recordings
Poetry
Seaweeds Turn
Bucket
by Kristine Ong Muslim
About Kristine Ong Muslim
Kristine Ong Muslim has poetry and prose appearing in hundreds of publications, including Boston Review, Contrary Magazine, Hobart, Narrative Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine and Southword.
She authored the full-length poetry collection A Roomful of Machines (Searle Publishing) and the e-chapbooks "Our Mr. Flip" (Scars Publications), "Graphic" (Sikworms Ink) and "Smaller than Most" (Philistine Press). Kristine Ong Muslim has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize and four times for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award.
Midwinter Gardens
Gardens of Refuge
by Jeanne Larsen
About Jeanne Larsen
Jeanne Larsen's new book is Why We Make Gardens (& Other Poems). Her first book, James Cook in Search of Terra Incognita, won the annual AWP competition in poetry. She has also published three novels (Silk Road, Bronze Mirror and Manchu Palaces) and two collections of poem translations, most recently Willow, Wine, Mirror, Moon: Women's Poems from Tang China. She is currently the Susan Gager Jackson Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University.
Tokens and Trini Folktale
by Alan King
About Alan King
Alan King's poems have appeared in Alehouse, Audience, Boxcar Poetry Review, Indiana Review, MiPoesias and RATTLE, among others. A Cave Canem fellow and VONA Alum, he's been nominated for both a Best of the Net selection and Pushcart Prize. Willow Books will publish his first collection of poems, Drift, in 2012. When he's not reporting or sending poems to journals, you can find King chasing the muse through Washington, D.C. - people watching with his boys and laughing at the crazy things strangers say to get close to one another.
Short Story
Lequoia and the Mai-coh
by Stephen Wade
About Stephen Wade
Stephen Wade is an M.Litt graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Recently returned to Ireland after a number of years living abroad on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, he divides his time between writing and teaching.
His novel 'On Hikers' Hill' was awarded First Prize in the UK abook2read Literary Competition, December 2010 - among the final judging panel was the British lyricist Sir Tim Rice.
A finalist in the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition (4,000 submissions) - his story is published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual 2011.
Three of his stories for children have been accepted for publication as easy reader books with Little Acorn Press - one of the three published for Christmas 2010. Other accolades in 2010 included an invitation to read his work at The Irish Writers' Centre before an audience; a short story in top three in competition run in conjunction with The Sunday Independent, and Very Highly Commended in UKA Opening Pages Manuscript Competition.
Many of his short stories have been published online and in print, in national and international magazines and anthologies such as First Edition, Crannog, Leaf Books, College Green, Pearl Magazine and New Fables. Other short stories have won prizes, such as First Prize in Christmas Chillers 2009, Second Prize in the Biscuit International Short Story Competition 2008 and a nomination for New Irish Writer in the Hennessy Literary Awards 2008.
The first three chapters of his novel On Hikers' Hill have been published by Leaf Garden Press. He is currently seeking agency representation or a publisher for his completed novel On Hikers' Hill. www.stephenwade.ie