Please go to Issues in the menu to see what’s on offer in our Change issue!

This online journal celebrates the diverse voices from Laguna Writers, Birdland Retreats and workshops. In this issue, we present a collection of stories and prose poems where dialogue, both external and internal, follows our theme: Talk to Me. The voices of ten writers … Continue reading →

(An excerpt from a draft of the novel, Tesali and Lisbet) On the first day during morning recess, Tesali stood by herself on the edge of the school courtyard looking for a game to join or someone to talk to. … Continue reading →

Jamie met Sam at Wild Side West, a lesbian bar on Cortland Avenue. He didn’t like most bars and spent little time in them. Wild Side West was different.

My first travel experiences were all wrong. They looked nothing like the way travel is supposed to look, according to glossy magazine spreads featuring white sand beaches, Parisian cafés, and cruises down the Nile.

The three of them had been planning this trip for a year.

Yes, please invite me to dinner! I say that, but then I’ll ask you what you are making. Do you need a side dish? How about roasted Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts? The other day a good friend offered to make a birthday … Continue reading →

In theory, Sally knows she will not live forever. But how close can she get?

Tomorrow, I will finish organizing the coat closet Mopping the floors and baking a chocolate cake from scratch I will polish the furniture and dust the bookshelf. Tomorrow, I will have intelligent discourse

This piece was a response to a prompt given at the Grief and Healing Retreat. We were encouraged to personify both life and death, and imagine ourselves in a conversation with them: on a road trip, having afternoon tea, or … Continue reading →

The trick is not to panic when the words don’t come.

“When did you know you were gay?” Miles asked. So we were having that conversation.

This online journal celebrates the diverse voices from Laguna Writers, Birdland Retreats and workshops. We are excited to present Place Setting, our lushest issue to date, with seventeen transporting  stories and poems. Travel with us into homes, neighborhoods, the countryside, … Continue reading →

A tureen of stimuli                              set among world-woe-                                                               absorbing trees Stoney plates                     laid upon the paths                                           to idyll thoughts A breezy climb                           then nestle in, feel                                                       the tines of shared sparks Hearth warmed wanderings                                           we call home eagerly–                                                                            hope awaits

Tower-topped, quarry-scarred, road-cut little mountain climbs amid San Francisco hills. Gopher-pitted, coyote-prowled, raptor romanced,

It didn’t happen the way we planned it. We thought we would return from our India trip, flanked by airplane rides across the oceans, being greeted by you. You were what we looked forward to. During every journey home, whether … Continue reading →

When we first saw you, you had giant begonias up and down your hallway. You were sad and mourning the loss of the last people you held, and I thought, Wow, they were here for 25 years! How could anyone … Continue reading →

This is how she remembered it even though it never happened this way. The road where she parked runs nearby but far enough away for the rhythmic noise of traffic to have been diluted and then consumed by her short … Continue reading →