November 2015 Issue
Zachary Zane and Camera by Ruth Sora Lee from 4, 962, 571, written by Trevor Eissler.
Editor’s Letter: We Have an Announcement
Essay: The Intertidal Zone by Jessica Johnson
Pregnancy plunged me into my own biology and made me long to escape by gazing, to locate the relevant biology outside a detached self. Some women crave the experience of growing a baby, but I was not one of them.
Essay: Heart Fractal by Beth Malone
The technician waves her magic wand, sliding it through the cold jelly beneath my belly button. Moments pass but she can’t find the heartbeat, only a horrible rushing noise, like wind in a lonely plain, and I imagine the wind inside of myself, ricocheting.
Essay: My Childhood Home by Christine Juneau
As we got older, our mother fell into the habit of communicating her grievances with us by leaving long handwritten notes taped to our door, the bathroom mirror, or on one of our beds. She would work herself into a slow boil over some minor infraction while we were at school and sit down with a sheet of loose leaf paper and really let us have it.
Fiction: The Art of Celebrating Nothing By Laura Distelheim
And there he is, as if on cue, toddling through the doorway with a yellow plastic hard hat placed backwards on his dark curls and a Cookie Monster sticker plastered to one cheek, and his beloved copy of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom clutched in both his hands. “Mama read?” he asks…
Motherwit: Story Time by Elizabeth Johnson
Scene: Large room with toys in the lower level of a library. Moms, nannies, and one dad sit on square cushions arranged in a circle on the floor; approximately 25 two-year-olds play, talk, stare, point, jump, run, trip, cry, and generally display the full spectrum of toddler behavior.
Backtalk: Your Favorite Parenting Quotes
“‘Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget you already have one.” – A. Stroud Brown
Poem: Connect by Sarah Layden
Author Q&A: Brain, Child writers in this issue share thoughts about their writing — Jessica Johnson, Beth Malone, Laura Distelheim
About our cover artist: Ruth Sora Lee has been drawing portraits on napkins since she was a little girl. She and Brain, Child go way back in 2006 where she received one of her first illustration jobs (thank you!). Since then, she has taught art to elementary students for five wonderful years and became a mother. She lives in southern CA, but often reminisces about living in seasonal RI where she attended RISD and met her husband.
