The Escape: May 2012
Have you seen the gibbous moon a’shining in your window last night? Follow the new summer moonlight into the best of the best from EIL’s May offerings…..
Fur 2009 by Hadieh Shafie
Even my friends in the far North are finally slip-sliding into summer with only a mist in the early morning and a lingering freshness in the air to remind us of that briefest season of spring. Shifting gears into simmering days and shimmering nights isn’t always as easy as turning on the sprinkler, but our recent posts at EIL can enhance the glow. New music, writing and poetry, reviews and interviews – May has been a month of variety and plenty. If it gets too hot—grab a popsicle and Escape Into Life!
EIL Interview: “This is Them”… Reading interviews with artists of different backgrounds and areas of expertise has always been one of the most addicting elements of Escape Into Life. This month on EIL, guest writer Stefan Pintaric, shares an interview with art graphic designers, “This is Them.” Insights into the creative process are always inspiring and illuminating…and in truth, we can’t get enough! Pintaric’s concise interview with the creative design team gives us a tantalizing look at the challenges of graphic design in a commercial setting that demands both artistic integrity and the need to satisfy a third party – the client. Their works is fresh and energetic, influenced by both street culture, vivid visions, and a pinch of vintage sensibility. Check out more here.
EIL Featured Artist of the Month: Hadieh Shafie “One reviewer calls Shafie’s use of the recurring word, “eshghe,” a “skeleton key” to her work. The Farsi word meaning love but with shadings of concepts such as passion, is woven through her mixed media and photographic images, like an enchanted song. The elegant calligraphy appears in scrolls, banners, and secret badges, and decorative repetitions adding mystery, fluidity, and spice to the more direct color-work and imagery also encompassed in her work. I found the hidden places a compelling component reflecting and replenishing my own current explorations of secrets, hopes, and seedling creation,” said EIL Editor, Stacy Ericson. [See more of Shafie’s work as featured on EIL here]
EIL Featured Fiction of the Month: “Blown Glass” by Catherine Rose Torres “As the winner of our 2012 Fiction Contest, Torres does not disappoint with her poignant short story that beautifully tells the tale of the modern day “help” from the perspective of one woman. Clearly faced with a cultural divide, the protagonist in “Blown Glass” is as unpredictable as she is realistic,” EIL Co-Fiction Editor, Ashley Devick.
Story Excerpt:
Amy nearly slipped in her cheap sandals as she yanked the grocery trolley to free its wheel, which had gotten caught in the gap between two paving stones. She should have gone through the basement carpark where there were ramps, she knew, but she couldn’t resist passing by the swimming pool. It reminded her of the view of the sea that greeted her every morning in the village she’d left behind, the sorry clump of huts like flotsam thrown up and left behind by the waves. She could blot out the hut, with its sagging plywood walls and rust-riddled tin roof, when she looked at the sea. You’d think she would tire of it, or else forget it was even there, having grown up with the view, but she never did.
A party was in full swing at the roofed veranda that jutted out of the clubhouse, which she’d heard Mrs Q call the ‘lanai.’ They had many strange words for things that had simple, sensible names to begin with, these white people, she’d learned after years of working for them.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you… The birthday girl stood dripping in her watermelon-red swimsuit in front of the cake. At the end of the song, she puffed out her little chest and blew the candles, sprinkling the icing with spittle….[Continue reading here]
EIL Featured Poetry of the Month: “What it Leads To” by Debra Bruce “This is a wonderful poem by Debra Bruce about the thrill of reading! A 13-year-old wrapped up in The Odyssey as her mother vacuums! We see the naked hero, hear the sirens singing, feel the ocean drying on our own skin as we read. And it’s fun that Debra Bruce is an Illinois poet in our international magazine founded in good old Normal, Illinois,” EIL Poetry Editor, Kathleen Kirk.
What It Leads To
I met him the summer I turned thirteen—
shipwrecked Odysseus,
naked, caked in brine, embarrassed
by a sunditzed maiden’s presence.
Watching him wash and wrap in fleece,
wipe grit from his golden flask.
I would have bathed him in olive oil
myself if he had asked.
I lay across chenille to read
while my sisters sizzled outside.
my dripping one-piece on the floor,
the knotty pine all eyes.
A girl who fell in love with a stream
got bedded under a wave.
My mother’s vacuum nosed my door
and thumped as if to say
she knew what was going in there,
this was her final warning.
My night for dishes was every night,
and then I read till morning. [Continue reading here]
Submissions: The Literature Section at Escape Into Life is continuing the open call for submissions for a wide variety of literary mediums. Our editors are searching for the best in contemporary fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, as well as reviews of new works and essays on the literary and visual arts. If you have a passion for art and vigorous writing style, please e-mail us at EIL Submission Manager.
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