Fall 2008

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Fiction

A Gathering of Children
G. Miki Hayden – United States

During moments when he could sit on the bench and watch them instead of being sent hither and yon by their buoyant orders, Ibn Jubayr would speak with the equally vigilant working-class Arab mothers. “You make such a fine father, Mr. Jubayr. You are a treasure,” the women would sigh.

Proselyte
Tovli Simiryan – United States

The sound of their songs rose inside me. They were not dreams, but ambition. I recognized their faces and voices in the distance of my slumber. “It’s as though the fog coughed him up. It is as if the desert had roads all along and we just noticed them.” I heard them sing from inside my soul.

Nonfiction

A Starbucks Like This in Palestine
Greggory Moore – United States

They would freak out; it's a garden of paradise with the flora replaced by brown metal tables beneath umbrellas of green.

 

Poetry

Cloud Nine
Tanja Cilia – Malta

Candy floss clouds.
On stratus cloud nine when you call me …
 

Manifestation Supreme
Anjum Wasim Dar – Pakistan

Green leaves trembling
With the tremors,
Shivering with laughter ...
 

Byblos: Past and Present
Katie O'Sullivan – United States

Sometimes when her housework was done,
she climbed the wall-clinging patio stairs to reach the flat roof.