Hello there, reader, it’s been a minute. Thank you for taking the time to check out another issue of Burnt Pine Magazine! We couldn’t be more excited and pleased with the stories and poems that we will be bringing to you in the coming days. Issue Six felt like a pivotal one as Taylor and I learned how to fit our time as readers and editors into the free spaces of our developing professional careers and personal lives.
The timeline to publication definitely stretched out a bit longer on this one, yet with the recent events of COVID-19 it seems we are launching the issue at a fitting time. With so many of us around the world being asked to social distance and self-quarantine there has never been a better time for reading. As we all spend more time inside and perhaps grow more and more anxious with the daily headlines and irritable with the situation, an escape is needed and the stories and poems we’ve selected for Issue Six can provide that.
We have a great mix of writers, some with a slew of publications to their name and others being published for the very first time. The themes and subject matter are broad, but all fit well with what can be expected from Burnt Pine. The challenge is always keeping our tagline in mind when selecting the work for each issue. How does the writing burn? Is it slow and creeping like a prairie still saturated with the snowmelt of winter or does it rage like a jack pine forest in the drought of July? We think you’ll find both in Issue Six and will hopefully return from your escapes into these artist’s words feeling enlightened, refreshed, and with a new perspective.
We will persevere through this strange time, but we encourage you to keep in mind your fellow human and be kind to one another. We hope you enjoy the writing that comes your way in the following days and encourage you to seek out other literary journals and to support your local bookstores and writers in whatever ways you can. For whenever we need an escape, in good times and in bad, reading is always there!
Warmly,
Alexander Opgenorth & Taylor Navis
Burnt Pine Magazine
Table of Contents
Fiction
The Brady Street Laundromat »»»»»»»»»» Mark Putzi
The Cartographer »»»»»»»»»» Bill Shafer
The Cleansing in Marissa’s Tub »»»»»»»»»» Sam Kaspar
Falling in Love with Teeth and Coral »»»»»»»»»» Penny Senanarong
Now »»»»»»»»»» Kasey Thornton
Room of Greenery »»»»»»»»»» Victoria Reiniger
The Scientist »»»»»»»»»» Charlotte Burnett
The Wrens »»»»»»»»»» Rachel Sondag
Nonfiction
A New Language »»»»»»»»»» Shilo Niziolek
The Quiet, The Fisherman, The Mud »»»»»»»»»» Yasmeen Mughal
Sitting with Aunt Laverne »»»»»»»»»» Lyndy Berryhill
the tarnish beneath the gold »»»»»»»»»» Sam Kaspar
Poetry
Awkward Positions »»»»»»»»»» Su Zi
Cut »»»»»»»»»» James Dobbyn
Dissonance »»»»»»»»»» Lauren Rose
Just Renting »»»»»»»»»» Laura Lannan
Neverland »»»»»»»»»» Marigold
The Old Mare »»»»»»»»»» Eric Schabla
Ontario »»»»»»»»»» Maija Hecht
Panic! »»»»»»»»»» Bethany Richmond
Recursion »»»»»»»»»» Jacqueline Donofrio
Spindle of Anchors »»»»»»»»»» Erica Schaef
Topless woman steals baby Jesus from Vatican nativity scene »»»»»»»»»» Timothy Pilgrim
Waiting »»»»»»»»»» Teresa Morse
Burnt Pine 