Spring 2019

It’s spring and finally heading into warm and even hot temperatures in Minnesota as some of us take our reading outdoors. Wherever you enjoy your reading, we hope you take us with you.

The latest issue of BoomerLitMag will take you beyond wherever you are and specifically into the lives of characters living on the edge. In nonfiction, “The Sun is My God” recounts the life of a teen whose rash and foolish act one day led him down a frightening path he could not have imagined. The sharply funny flash fiction, “Bubbles, Wine, and Smoke” delivers on all three title elements in a senior’s edgy social media life, perhaps expanding the idea of what it means to stay active as one ages. In poetry, the edge is a more serious place in the crisp and powerfully written set of related poems by Darren Demaree who first appeared here in 2017.

In an expanded poetry section, there’s even more to explore. For example, we see William Carlos Williams’ famous advice for poets– “no ideas but in things”—expressed through Jacalyn Shelley’s poems where a fedora and a woodcut image on a card represent more than just things, and we can explore with Stephen Harz the way words can and can’t shape our lives.

Enjoy these and the many other writers—and if you are a writer who appreciates the works appearing here, feel free to send us your very best works for future issues.

New Editorial Staff

I’m extremely pleased to introduce our new prose reader, Adrienne Pilon. Adrienne has a careful, smart take on the writing we’re seeing and is devoted to literature as a reader and writer. I’ve been delighted with what she’s bringing in her analysis of submissions as well as her enthusiasm. I’m looking forward to more of her ideas for the magazine. Check out her bio on the About Us page:

In addition to Adrienne’s help, we were fortunate to have the guest assistance of Elizabeth Poreba this issue. Thanks to Elizabeth, a former contributor to the magazine, for her help reviewing prose pieces, with smart insight and suggestions—and amazing speed.

Enjoy, and Like us on Facebook,
Leonard Lang, Editor

Contents: Volume IV, Number 3

Prose

Jane Hegstrom
• The Sun is My God
Charles Stieren
• Bubbles, Wine, and Smoke

Poetry

Gina Valdés
• Genmai
• Walking Away
Darren Demaree
• Emily as We Try to Buy a New House #5
• Emily as a Refusal to Flinch
• Emily as One Wire
• Emily as I Am a Spark
Steven Harz
• Write You a Bird
• Abandoned Park Swing Set
Jacalyn Shelley
• His Fedora
• About the 29th Anniversary Gift Your Mother Gave Me
Quinn Carver Johnson, Todd Fuller
• Through the Window
• Trickling from the Faucet to a Single Point
Karen Henry
• Galveston Blues
• For My Children, Who Hate My Worry
• The Lost Whaling Museum
Margaret Diehl
• Stolen
• As a Child in the 1960s