The new issue of Faraway is online, featuring dozens of pieces by many new authors.  Click on the titles below to read the individual stories or poems, or click here to view the issue as a whole.

On the Other Promontory by Davide Trame

Winter Passage For Billy Collins by Michael K. Gause

Dwindling Times and Burden by Gary Beck

A Work in Progress by Benjamin Nardolilli with artwork by Travis Jeffords

Paramecium by S.P. Flannery

Her Shunted Complexion by Ray Succre with photo by James Berkshire

Beyond Organic Groceries by Elizabeth Kate Switaj

“Behold I Am Oblivion” by Terence Kuch

Titian on His Journey Home by Davide Trame

The Book Review by David Kentner

A Family Matter by Josh Mitchell with photos by Atina Thorning

Manic is the Dark Night by Michael K. Johnson

Dwellings by Luigi Monteferrante

The Whole History of Art by William Doreski

Can I Get a Witness by Eric McKinley

Betty With the Peacock by Willow Healy

Fading Flurries by Sean Wiebe

? by Jeff Hendrickson

RedYellowRed by Katie Rutherford

Conceptual Conflict by Felino Soriano

Spirit Faces by William Doreski

Roy Flint, Circa 1988 by Jen Conley

Venge by S.P. Flannery

Smack! by James Berkshire

The Silent Signs by Olga Zilberbourg with artwork by Gay Degani

Some Dark Blue by Beth Mathison

Coming to America by Shane Ryan Bailey with L.A. Harvest by James Berkshire

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Mark Konkel
New Grass by Michael K. Gause

My sister Zoe, a travel writer, had just returned to New York City from Tel-Aviv or Riga or St. Petersburg when somebody told her I had three months left to live. The news struck Zoe as rather odd: nobody at the headquarters of the travel publishing firm where we both work could trace the source of this information or venture a guess as to the cause of my impending death, and Zoe is not the one to believe uncorroborated rumors. She brushed the idea aside, and proceeded doing business as usual: finished her report on the latest adventure, ordered new custom luggage from Signe Mou on Fifth Avenue, and went out for lunch with her boss, our chief editor Karen Everest. Karen is Zoe’s boss only nominally; in fact, Zoe herself hired and trained Karen during her own brief stint as the chief at Kongo-Roo.

The job kept her stationed in New York for several months at a time—it was the longest period of time Zoe had spent in one place since college, and she almost single-handedly caused the demise of this 100-year old organization driving everybody crazy with her constant flow of ideas for radical change. It was she who opened our surprisingly successful West Coast office (hiring me as a technical editor), and immediately attempted to do the same in China and Ireland, I think. When those ventures almost bankrupted the company, Zoe announced that she was a travel writer at heart and turned her position over to Karen. They say that after two and a half years of tenure my sister’s office had remained a bare white-walled room without a single picture or personal item.

 

Silent Signs features a painting by Gay Degani.  Read the rest here.  Read more about Olga Zilberbourg and Gay Degani.  You can also click here to read another story by Olga in The Writer’s Eye magazine.

Christopher Caldwell crosses the space between the stove and kitchen sink for what could have been the fiftieth time tonight. He turns the faucet to fill the kettle he’s holding. Returning to the stove he starts to boil water for more coffee. He then hears the door open and close in the adjacent washroom. His brother Michael now enters the kitchen. It’s 11:40pm and a single light overhanging the tiny kitchen table illuminates the small room.

“You’ve been gone awhile,” Christopher says. Michael pulls a chair from the table and sits without saying a word. Reaching into his pocket he grabs a pack of cigarettes, pulls one out and places it between his lips.  Outstretching his arm, but without looking up, he offers one to his brother.  Christopher quietly accepts one and the two brothers light their cigarettes in unison, and both exhale large plumes of smoke, Michael’s slightly larger.

With photos by Atina Thorning.  Click here to read more, and here to read more by Josh Mitchell.

Featuring stories, poetry, and artwork by dozens of contributors, the new issue of Faraway is now online.

Read the whole issue here, or preview the issue by clicking below:

Poetry: On the Other Promontory by Davide Trame.
Short story: The Book Review by David A. Kentner.

And return tomorrow for a new short story by Josh Mitchell, illustrated with photographs by Atina Thorning.

The latest issue of Faraway is now available. thanks and congratulations to all the writers and artists.

These things always seem to take longer than anticipated. A word on the process: Our pet chimp Dimba solicits short stories, poems, and artwork from his cage at the company fortress in Montclair, California.  Accepted pieces are then shipped through a series of tubes to his brother’s underground log cabin in Montpelier, Vermont. His brother uses scotch tape and elbow grease in his spare time to assemble the various and sundry pieces into something marginally acceptable for mass digestion. Sometimes an ocean liner is hired to ship material to the chimp’s cousin, who lives in a big wooden shoe in Norway and has more and better digital skills.

The first two issues of this publication were profoundly and embarrassingly amateur hour (still, my favorite bit out of everything we’ve done is the first poem from the first issue). With Vol 1, Issue 3 we started working thematically with varying levels of success. E.g., Vol. 1 Iss. 3 featured birds and trees…um…for no particular reason. Volume 2 Issue 1 was broken up by the 4 seasons and had a cool cover. Volume 2 Issue 2 had a victorian theme, complete with fake ads that i think turned out pretty good.

Since Vol. 2 Iss. 2 took a bit of effort we tried to do something simpler with this one: i had always liked the title of the Nine Inch Nails song “The Line Begins to Blur”. what if we used kind of a Mondrian / straight lines theme that gradually became more blurred, curved, etc? It had a certain kind of symbolism and resemblance to daily experiences. Easy!

4 months later the current issue is on your screen.  I think we basically executed this concept, with Sean Wiebe’s last lines of the first half “…a new thought that has been slow in coming” leading to Jeff’s two explosive centerpieces and subsequently more abstract, natural images. This one might have been labored to death, but see what you think.

So, for next time, how about some suggestions for themes? Also- the next batch should plan on submitting their bios in 6 words or less.

Also, for best viewing: download and save, then view as “Two-up Continuous”.

Our commissioned artwork experiment is becoming a big success!  I’ve already received artwork back from two great artists, and I’m simply amazed and what they’ve been able to come up with.  Their artwork is not only great in its own right, but it perfectly encapsulates the prose that it accompanies.  I really look forward to having the Winter issue of Faraway go online, so you all can see some great talent displayed side-by-side.  And perhaps for the Spring issue, we’ll consider a commissioned writing experiment . . .

Don’t know what the commissioned artwork experiment is?  Want to get your artwork published?  Click here now!