Writing is an act of resistance
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Judged
By Sheree Shatsky Artist Statement This collage reflects the connection of women past with women present and future, faced with the loss of civil rights fought for and won by previous generations. We must stand on the shoulders of those who came before, who struggled for the rights we have very much taken for granted…
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Election Day Facebook Exchange
By Laura Grace Weldon I post a thank you to the four pound bag of garbanzo flourwhich threw itself off a high shelf. It burst open in a spectaculardisplay of organic bean dust, coating my face and sweater.I’d been festering with worries about which waythe vote might go, but explain that snort-laughing helps. To whatever…
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Postcards from the Valley of the Moon
By Jennifer Karp The car shows 94 degrees after our dry desert hike. I write political postcards to Swing States while you drive. Dust in our boots, our clothes, the cracks around our eyes. They’re called crow’s feet, but you call them smile lines. I don’t know crows from blackbirds from ravens. Volcan Mountain, Iron…
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This little piece of heaven
By Mary Brancaccio after William Stafford has flown from Himalayan heightsto breed in Bialowieza, one of the lastprimeval forests in Europe. He perches,high in the branches of a leafy mapleand chirps out his rosefinch song as ifeverything in the world depends on it.It does — Earth needs more melody,more calls to joy and desire,…
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What should be free
By Livia Meneghin Archived recordings of Ainu, Aleut, Lushootseed, Quechua, Boon, Saami, Somray, Warluwarra, and other critically endangered languages. All traditional items stolen for foreign museums. Water. Parking at a hospital. (Parking at) the university you attend. To knock on your neighbor’s door asking for sugar or to borrow a drill or if they canwater…
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Welcome to Writers Resist the Fall 2024 Issue
The collage by Kristin Fouquet is an apt introduction to this issue, launched in the final throes of the chaotic, often hateful presidential campaigning. How wonderful it would be if the joyful prospect of electing the first woman president of the United States could be just that. Perhaps we can make it so by encouraging…
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How I Feel About the 2024 Election
By Jacqueline Jules Woke this morningwith self-immolation on my mind,not planning it, just incredulousthat anyone setting themselves on firewould expect others to pay attentionin this world of “alternative facts”where the size of an inaugurationcan be disputed by the White Housealong with whether or not menscaling the walls of Congresscan be considered an insurrection. It feels…
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Abecedarian for Billionaires
By Chiara Di Lello Amazing year for rich people says the headline announcingbillionaires like the latest bumpercrop. Congratulations to the proud capitaldaddies drooling over their offspring, as liable toeat their own in next year’s acquisitions as tofeed their cornflower blue-collared shaven throats.Go on, clap for them while we dance like bears forhealthcare and an hourly…
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Grass
And there he sits, or tilts like an officious grasshopper over the wooden podium. Face sprayed orange to fake the sun. Hair shellacked to cheat the wind. Railing against Marxists and the Green New Deal.