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Volume 2, Issue 1
Editor's Note
I moved to Providence, Rhode Island this past summer. I was expecting difference. Different neighbors, different drivers, different customs, but besides the slightly hotter heat wave, everything felt the same. Rhode island was Maine except smaller. Providence was Portland except bigger. I was both disappointed and relieved. The move was such a large leap for me, leaving my family, my friends, my job, but here I was in a supposedly new place feeling pretty much the same.
Then, I attended WaterFire. Eighty-six blazing braziers bisected the Woonasquatucket River. Hundreds of people walked, sat, or kayaked along the dark water transfixed by the fires and the Italian opera music pumping from refrigerator-sized speakers. Though there were people everywhere, squeezed along the canal’s edge, leaning over the bridges, or bumping into each other along the river-walk, they were silent. I’m not sure if they were genuinely dumbstruck, or if I just couldn’t hear over the booming music. I was certainly dumbstruck. I watched a man propose to his girlfriend on the other side of the river and then looked back at the water and fire.
I haven’t been to many concerts, so my excitement about WaterFire may be naivety, but regardless, when I learned that the festival happens every other weekend, I promised to go to every one. So far, I’ve been to four.
Because I grew up in New England, it’s easy to think I’ve experienced everything the region has to offer, but of course, that’s impossible. There’s always another festival, fair, or phenomenon. No one has done it all.
My favorite thing about editing is the sheer variety of writing voices. No two authors have the same thing to say. Some are joyful, some despondent, fantastical, romantic, terrifying, or angry, but all are personal. While not every piece will go down as a literary classic, each one offers an honest slice of that writer’s personality, and I get to read them all.
Here are some of my favorites. Thank you for reading, and see you in April!
— J.B. Marlow, Editor
Cover Artist (The Clear Glass Teapot)
Table of Contents
Mineral Assortment
It was cool in the mountains in the late morning, so it didn’t really matter that the climate control system in the car wasn’t working...
Fall Comes to Great Head
Mount Desert Island hovers in my consciousness like Maine hovers over my home state, Massachusetts...
The Last Year of Trick or Treat
“Hurry Up, Kaitlyn.” Kaitlyn cannot hurry up. It is Halloween, and she is dressed as her favorite thing, a book...
Of Course, I Didn't
The night my parents reported me missing, the police came over and searched the house...
The Census Man
Caleb sat at the rough wooden table, his fingers gently stroking the small bottle of ink...
Diving for Junk In the Gulf of Maine
I came to scuba diving during my last term in college; needing a credit or two to graduate, and my major (philosophy) was complete, just a few short months and a few essays stood between me and my diploma...