“And still we rise…”
While BoomerLitMag is not a political magazine, we believe that among literature’s many roles is helping readers navigate times of unusual political distress, chaos, cruelty, and destruction.
Literature can foster empathy and compassion as we see through the eyes of others, as we hear the voices of strangers and neighbors. It can inspire and spark our own creative spirits to help us find ways to better ourselves and communities.
It reminds us of what truly matters. It can help illuminate deeper truths about ourselves, about courage, and about peace. Importantly in this period, it also helps us resist resignation and withdrawal from public life–those emotional tools of authoritarians everywhere.
In one word, it helps us stay resilient.
With that in mind, we invite writers to submit original, previously unpublished work on resilience. Over the next two months, we welcome quality fiction or short poems exploring resilience in the face of communal threats and challenges. We’ll spotlight the best of these in future issues.
We are not looking for polemical works advocating a specific ideology or action plan. What we are asking for is what we always ask for: wonderful literature that is creative, fresh, nuanced, and accessible. We are just adding to this an additional call for fiction or poetry on the theme of individual or communal resilience.
Such works can help us through the current American administration’s threats to democracy, the poor, the courts, scientific research, public health, and more. Submissions may, but don’t need to, directly address the current political landscape.
Our aim is to celebrate resilience in all its forms—whether bold and uplifting or quietly defiant. As always, we encourage writers from diverse backgrounds and from around the world to submit.
If submitting poetry or fiction on resilience interests you, please read the Guidelines for Submissions on Resilience.
This Issue
Even before coming up with a theme for submissions, we were already planning to publish “The Education Files.” This quirky short story shows resilience by ordinary people during an earlier and somewhat similar American crisis–the Red Scare of the 1950s with its HUAC Congressional intimidation, bullying, and blackballing of people.
The poetry this time includes the return of Pragya Vishnoi’s dreamlike and evocative explorations of love. Richard Spilman’s “Speaking in Tongues” faces the struggles of dementia and communication, and Ronald Geigle gives us a fresh, lighthearted look at sleep and at what happens when flying late at night. Other poems cover themes of nature, sexual relationships, death, and the blues.
All of the works, as in every issue, are making their worldwide publication debut.
Be well, stay safe, help each other.
Leonard Lang, Editor
Contents
Prose
• The Education Files
Poetry
• January• New Delhi in Monsoon
• Orchard Beach, Bronx NY
• Suffering’s Limit
• What She Gave
• Eating Silkworms
• Speaking in Tongues
• The First House (prose poem)
• Menage Trois Noir
• Last Heron
• Flying at Night• Consider Sleep
• Robert Johnson Calls the Blues
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