The saying goes that you learn something new every day, however any time we sit down to work on Burnt Pine we feel like the lessons augment by the dozens. As issue two is launched today, we find ourselves reflecting on the many lessons this issue has taught us. Having one issue under our belts we could focus on fine tuning our many aspects of the magazine from submissions to publication. Yet there are always problems beyond one’s control. In this case, we ran into the hiccup of having fewer submissions than we had hoped for, but through an extended deadline we were able to improve our pool of pieces to choose from. In the end, we chose fifteen pieces to publish in this second issue, fewer than we featured in issue one, but pieces we are equally as proud of and excited to bring to the public.
Lucky for us, our struggles were easily remedied and were greatly outweighed by our advances and improvements. We became more efficient with our editing process, finding new ways to work from our remote locations. We also improved our social media interaction and outreach by more than doubling our following since the fall issue launched. And lastly, we decided to alter our publication process, publishing one to two pieces a day rather than every piece at once. We felt this would bring more individual attention to each writer’s piece and afford them the reading traffic they rightfully deserve.
So, we invite you to join us today and each day that follows to read the work we have curated for you. You will find pieces that focus on topics ranging from social stereotypes, trauma of many sorts, the natural beauty of our world, and much more. Not everything will be easy to read, but we felt these poems and stories needed to be read because of what they tell. We sincerely hope you do too.
Thanks for dropping by and we hope you enjoy,
Alexander Opgenorth & Taylor Navis
Burnt Pine Magazine
Fiction
“Survival Skills” By Nina Sudhakar
“Lack of Ambiguity” By Tara Isabel Zambrano
“Water Stains” By Kyle Schmidt
“Birds and Blue” By Kelsey Langlitz
Nonfiction
“When My Best Friend Came to Stay (or Corporeal Minimalism in Twelve Parts after Philip Glass)” By Siobhan Harvey
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach” By Heather Bekkers
Poetry
“Summer Break 1993” By Jessica Spruill
“Selfish Heart” By Esther E.D. Pratt
“Invisible with liberty & justice” By Gary Glauber
“To: a Soldier” By Theresa Dozier
“A Louisiana Story” By James Miller
“Lake of the Woods” By Crystal S. Gibbins
“Cringe” By Ben Hartman
“The Bells” By James Miller
“The City Sometimes Sleeps” By Andy Frakes
“Those Nights” By Ace Boggess
Burnt Pine 