Welcome to our first issue of 2019! Our January theme is brilliantly captured by artist Crystal Lipsey. We commissioned the piece from her, and it turned out even better than we imagined. Thank you so much for working with us, Crystal!
And while our cover features a woman defiantly waving the flags of her resistance, our theme involves more than just taking to the streets in protest. Sometimes it means speaking up, saying no, and saving each other. Sometimes it’s ohmic. This month, we have an electric group of stories and poems to share with you.
With the new year, we’ve started interviewing our authors. Four short questions about what inspired them, what they hope readers take from the story or poem, how many rejections/revisions the story or poem went through, and a recommendation (a book, a movie, or whatever has them excited). We hope you enjoy these Creator Spotlights and the insight into the creative process that they provide.
Our poetic resistors:
“For Dark Figures and the Long Way Home” by Bria Strothers is a gut punch poem about resisting gatekeepers and giving a voice to those who are often ignored or kept out of spaces that are rightfully theirs.
“Taking, Keeping” by Jessica J. Horowitz is a brutal poem, which effortlessly captures the determination and sacrifice required to continue resisting no matter what is stolen from you.
Our author resistors:
“Grey Evergreen” by Marlena Evans is a story about resisting death, pushing back against the inevitable, and surmounting arduous paths. Marlena wrote a wildly creative story with prose that will dig its way inside your chest.
“Hearts Made Marble, Weapons Shaped From Bone” by A.J. Fitzwater features a unicorn on the warpath. The resistance here is brutal but necessary for survival. The format and language A.J. chose is precise–a perfect weapon of resistance.
In Laura O’Brien’s “In Silence, I’ll Sing” a woman forced into silence finds her voice. Resistance comes in all forms, and sometimes breaking your silence is more than enough to impart change.
“Who Defies the Watcher” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga is about resisting those who do harm to animals, which includes dragons. Sometimes we have to take action and do what we think is right, even if it’s scary.
This month’s essay by editor extraordinaire Clarke Doty is a thoughtful examination of writing as resistance and the inspiration we can take from words. As Dr. Ranganathan pointed out, “Every book its reader.” This law of library science can be applied to any creative work. Write that story, that poem, because someone out there is waiting for it.
Apparition Literary Magazine is funded by the editors and by your kind donations. If you’d like to support us, you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter and please consider donating and/or subscribing via our website. For 2019, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased our pay rate for short stories to $0.03 per word and poetry to $15 flat rate.
Thank you for reading,
Tacoma Tomilson
Managing Editor
Featured Image credit: Patrick Tomasso-
Tacoma Tomilson Owner/Senior EditorTacoma served ten years in the military and has the smallpox scar to prove it. Her fiction has appeared in Devilfish Review, Crossed Genres, and Pedal Zombies: Thirteen Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories. She’s currently a MFA candidate and you can find her forgetting to tweet @TMTomilson.
