Prose, Poetry, and Art since 1956
In the ever-evolving pantheon of young adult literature, it’s rare to find a story so relevant, so intellectual, that the book will appeal to even adults. However, Val Neiman’s In the Lonely Backwater isn’t just another young adult novel. Much like its main character, Maggie, In the Lonely Backwater is uniquely intellectual, and more importantly, it’s the story of a young woman on the brink…
She’d listen closely, then gently remind Such is life!Her mantra: don’t live a coulda shoulda woulda life. Tucked me to bed with when the blaze is blue, and the lamp-wick sputters, and the wind goes woo-o: my future life. Saved the water from boiled potatoes, added it to the soup.After parties, washed the icing from the plastic forks. A frugal life. We’d sit in her…
builds a fortress in his living room from blankets, pillows, hand-me-down futon and today after shift you’ll go there instead / of going home to your own twin-sized bed, sleeping as the walls you’ve already outgrown try / to shrink you back down to size— he isn’t the right fit either, you knew that / back when he first kissed you, but you keep drifting…
It began with the Andora. The stylist at the bridal boutique had selected the Fleur, the Reagan, and the Andora gowns to try on, but in the end, it was just the Andora. Maya knew this. It was too perfect. She hadn’t been prepared to spend the money that day, but the best things in life are often surprises, or at least that’s what she…
While my mother was getting her stomach pried open to remove a child formedwrong side up, my father sat in the hospital lobby balancing yellow notebookpaper and pen on legs half-feeling and unsteady as he wrote a letter never to befinished to a daughter never to be known. I sleep with the trailing last sentenceunder my pillow, whispering it into darkness like a prayer. A…