It's a Jumble

Bracken Magazine is one of my favorite magazines. The editors there select absolutely beautiful, lyrical fiction, poetry, and artwork, all “inspired by the wood and what lies in its shadows.” This is work that often breathes in the liminal space between “literary” and “speculative,” work that slips between genres. I’m absolutely thrilled that my short story, “Wild Ones, ” (first published in Bracken in 2018) now appears in Bracken: An Anthology of the First Five Issues. This is a paperback collection of selected art, poetry, and fiction that embodies the Bracken aesthetic. My short story appears alongside gorgeous work from Gwendolyn Kiste, K.T. Bryski, Emily Stoddard, and more. The lovely cover art is from Jana Heidersdorf. If you can’t buy the collection, I hope you still check out the magazine! ( issues are free to read online).

Midway through June and I’m behind on my fiction reading (and writing!) as usual. Still, here is some of what I’ve read in the past few months. SHORT STORIES Necessary Reading “ Riverbed” by Omar El Akkad at Terraform (reprinted from the anthology, A People’s Future of the United States ”) In a future America ravaged by climate change and decline, Dr. Khadija Singh has returned to Riverbed, an internment camp in Billings, MO where Muslim-Americans were interned purely for their religion. Singh and her family were Sikh, not Muslim—yet that matter was overlooked in light of their complexion and appearance, and they were rounded up and held there as well. Now it’s decades later; Dr. Singh has Canadian citizenship and America is ashamed of what it did—the old internment facility now houses a museum, tours are given, and events planned for the 50 th anniversary of the facility. But Dr. Singh has not come back to participate in commemoration events. She’s not in a...