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We begin oceanside with cover artist Tais Teng, and a lonely piano on a blustery beach inviting us to uncover the many stories of this issue, including one by the artist himself: ‘The Pianist Who Serenaded the Mermaids with Chopin’s Nocturne in E Minor’.
- Carved by the Pacific, three faces of the West Coast emerge in three historical moments: ‘Crossroads’ by feature author Dan MacIsaac, ‘Pretty Lies: Ghost Walking’ by Mel Anastasiou, and the SiWC Storyteller Award winner ‘My Name is Philomena’ by Robin Malcolm.
- David Perlmutter, in ‘Canadian Invasion’, takes us on a cross-Canada tour. Keep an eye out for those semaphores, eh? And in ‘The Shepherdess: Intrigue’ by JM Landels, Toinette navigates the complexities of the court of Versailles. Mind your manners with the Queen, s’il vous plaît.
- Whether it’s a greasy slice of pizza or a kill from the hunt, ‘Just Another Date Night on the Highway out of Town’ by Zandra Renwick, and ‘Come Back Around’ by Sarina Bosco, prove it’s rarely a good sign when your dinner starts talking.
- Parents face their demons in ‘Attempted Murder’ by Leslie Wibberly and ‘Cold Blessing’ by Kelsey Hutton. And the finale of Matthew Nielsen’s ‘Houses’ illustrates the importance of owning — and sharing — your story.
- The Magpie Award for Poetry winner and runners-up, Frances Boyle, David Barrick, and Aldona Dziedziejko, spin gritty memories, childhood dreams, and a mouthful of metaphors with their stunning poetry. And a young woman yearning for exploration leads us to dream of the future in Melissa Nelson’s Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest runner-up, ‘Solstice’.