Evening Rituals

Bibek Adhikari

Inside the cramped living room, planting ourselves in shaky wicker chairs, with dinner on our knees— rice, chickpea stew, roasted okra, faintly smelling of paraffin from the Primus stove— we savor our share on steel plates, the ones that come with separate compartments for different dishes, eyes glued to the technicolor screen— that dreadful 21-inch box, a gift from my parent’s wedding, a flamboyant luxury in the olden days, now a relic, speakers crackling, almost dying— we eat off our knees, forgetting the everyday problems of our everyday lives with a famous Indian sitcom, Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasma, sharing intermittent laughter in-between. I stuff a heaping spoonful of rice and curry into my mouth, snort at a smutty double entendre, drink water, splutter and cough—my dad pats on my arm, I laugh clumsily, content to be with an everyday family with a living room, a TV, and bills to pay.

Contributors

Fiction

Jemàl Nath is a writer of emerging profile with essays published in journals and magazines such as, Anastamos; Food, Culture & Society; Journal of Sociology; Australian Humanities Review; and Health Sociology Review.

Gary Percesepe is the author of Itch, a story collection, and Falling, a poetry collection. He is Associate Editor at New World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review), where has worked closely with Executive Editor Frederick Barthelme for many years, and before that, was an assistant fiction editor at Antioch Review. His work has appeared in Story Quarterly, N + 1, Salon, Mississippi Review, Wigleaf, Westchester Review, Brevity, PANK, The Millions, and other places. He resides in White Plains, New York, and teaches philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx.

Roland Leach’s fourth collection of poetry, Obliquity, was recently published by Ginninderra Press. He is proprietor of Sunline Press, which has published twenty three collections of poetry by Australian poets. His flash fiction piece ‘Angle’ appeared in Apeiron Review and was chosen for the Best Short Fictions 2015 (Queens Ferry Press)

Chris Neilan is a writer, filmmaker, PhD student and lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. Neilan won 2nd prize for short fiction in the 2017 Bridport Prize, and was shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2016.

Gabe Kaminsky is a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh studying English. His work has appeared in Exile and Prologue Magazine. He has a story forthcoming in the Scarlet Leaf Review. He is from from the Greater Philadelphia area.

Tom Mizell is a writer and actor originally from Dallas, Texas. His first short story was published in Ripples in Space in 2018. He now lives in Chicago, where he works teaching children’s robotics classes.

JACKE WILSON is the unlikely host of The History of Literature Podcast. He lives like a dog in Bethesda, Maryland.

Judy Xie’s writing has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, both Rider and Ringling University, and the Festival of Books. She attends Mountain Lakes High School in New Jersey and has been published in PolyphonyHs, The Colombia Journal, Into the Void, and Noble / Gas Qrtly, among others. However, she is most known for consisting of at least 50% ice cream.

Photography

Jim Ross resumed creative pursuits in 2015 after leaving a long career in public health research. He’s since published nonfiction, poetry, and photography in over 100 journals and anthologies in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Publications include Columbia Journal, Friends Journal, Ilanot Review, Lunch Ticket, Kestrel, MAKE, The Atlantic, and The Manchester Review. In the past year, he wrote and acted in his first play; and, a nonfiction piece led to a role in a high-profile documentary limited series. Jim and his wife—parents of two health professionals and grandparents to five—split their time between MD and WV.

Richard Wu is a Eugene McDermott Scholar from the University of Texas at Dallas. In his spare time, Richard enjoys creating artwork, as well as writing stories and composing music.

Creative Nonfiction

Jim Ross resumed creative pursuits in 2015 after leaving a long career in public health research. He’s since published nonfiction, poetry, and photography in over 100 journals and anthologies in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Publications include Columbia Journal, Friends Journal, Ilanot Review, Lunch Ticket, Kestrel, MAKE, The Atlantic, and The Manchester Review. In the past year, he wrote and acted in his first play; and, a nonfiction piece led to a role in a high-profile documentary limited series. Jim and his wife—parents of two health professionals and grandparents to five—split their time between MD and WV.

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Sunayna Pal moved to the US after her marriage. She is part of an anthology that is about to break the Guinness world of records. Know more on sunaynapal.com

Poetry

Bibek Adhikaria is a contributor to The Kathmandu Post, a leading national daily of Nepal. His works (both poetry and prose) can be viewed at https://kathmandupost.com/author/bibek-adhikari. His poems have also been published in some print and online publications, including República Daily, Annapurna Express, and Lokantar.

Denise Alden lives and writes in the Twin Cities, and some of her work can be found online at Pif Magazine and Metafore Magazine, and in print at The Aurorean.

Gareth Culshaw lives in Wales. He had his first collection published, The Miner, by FutureCycle in 2018. He is currently doing an MFA in Creative Writing at Manchester Met. He has been nominated for Best of the Net. Gcwculshaw@moonfruit.com

Roland Leach’s fourth collection of poetry, Obliquity, was recently published by Ginninderra Press. His poetry has been published throughout Australia, US and UK. His short stories have also appeared overseas and ‘Angle’ was included in Best American Short Fiction 2015. He is a past winner of the Newcastle Poetry Prize (the richest poetry prize for a single poem in Australia), and the recipient of an Australia Council Grant to write poetry in the Galapagos Islands. He was the Poetry Editor at University of Western Australia for Westerly for several years. He is the proprietor of Sunline Press.

Melia Lenkner is an emerging writer from rural Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in the literary magazine Pulp. When she isn’t writing for The Siren or reading submissions for BatCat Press, she spends her time bonding with her two dogs.

Betsy Littrell is a whimsical soccer mom to four boys, working on her MFA in creative writing at San Diego State University. Her recent publications include The Write Launch, The Road Not Taken, Prometheus Dreaming and Adanna among others. In addition, she volunteers with Poetic Youth, teaching poetry to underserved elementary students.

Chad W. Lutz is a speedy human born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986, and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. Alumna of Kent State University’s English program, Chad earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College and currently serves as an assistant editor for Pretty Owl Poetry. Their writing has been featured in KYSO Flash, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Gold Man Review, and Haunted Waters Press, was awarded the 2017 prize in literary fiction by Bacopa Review, the 2019 award for fiction by Haunted Waters Press, and was a nominee for the 2017 Pushcart in poetry.

Connor McDonald writes from Oregon while completing a law degree. His poetry has appeared most recently in Wales Haiku Journal, Under the Bashō, and The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. His nonfiction has also appeared in the Dante Society of America’s Dante Notes and in Beatdom.

Maria McLeod writes poetry, fiction, monologues, and plays—three of which have been performed on stage. Honors include three Pushcart Prize nominations and the Indiana Review Poetry Prize. She’s been published nationally and internationally in literary journals such as The Interpreter’s House, Puerto Del Sol, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pearl, Crab Orchard Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Critical Quarterly and others. Originally from the Detroit area, she resides in Bellingham, Washington, where she is an associate professor of journalism at Western Washington University.

Cecil Morris, retired after 37 years teaching high school English, now tries writing himself what he spent so many years teaching others to understand and enjoy. He has had a handful of poems published in The Ekphrastic Review, Ekphrasis, Poem, Dime Show Review, Gravel, The American Scholar, and other literary magazines.

George Perreault’s most recent book, Bodark County, is a collection of poems in the voices of characters living on the Llano Estacado in West Texas.

Kris Robinson’s poetry has appeared in Voices of Sacramento and Calaveras Station Art & Literary Journal. He is also a two time recipient of the Bazzanella Literary Award for poetry. Kris currently resides in downtown Sacramento with his ornery calico, Mingus.

Katelyn Roth graduated from Pittsburg State University with a Master’s in poetry. Her work has previously appeared online at Silver Birch Press and at Heartland: Poems of Love, Resistance, and Solidarity. Currently, she lives, works, and writes in Kansas City, MO.

Beth Ruscio, daughter of actors, is part of a working class family of artists, actors, teachers and writers working in California. She is the current winner (2019) of the Brick Road Poetry Prize, and her debut collection SPEAKING PARTS will be published in 2020. Her poetry has been Pushcart Prize nominated and has won finalist honors for several prizes and awards, including The Wilder Prize, The Sunken Garden Prize, The Tupelo Quarterly Prize, The Ruth Stone Poetry Award, The Two Sylvias Prize, and Beyond Baroque’s Best Poem Prize. A featured poet for the June 2019 issue of Cathexis Northwest Press, other recent work has been published in Tupelo Quarterly, Cultural Weekly, Tulane Review, Spillway, Malpais Review, High Shelf, and in the anthologies Dark Ink: Poetry Inspired by Horror; Beyond the Lyric Moment; 1001 Nights; Conducting a Life: Maria Irene Fornes and in the upcoming anthology Fifty Years of Beyond Baroque. Beth is also an accomplished film, television and theatre actress, and a longtime mentor at Otis College of Art and Design.

Alan Semrow’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has been featured in over 30 publications. Apart from writing fiction and nonfiction, he is a monthly contributor at Chosen Magazine and a singer-songwriter. Previously, he was the Fiction Editor for Black Heart Magazine and a Guest Fiction Editor for the Summer Issue of Five Quarterly. Semrow’s debut short story collection, Briefs, was published in 2016. Ripe is his second book. Semrow lives in Minneapolis.

Additional Photo Credits

p.6 MusicFox Fx p.13 Maria Teneva p.19 Beth Macdonald p.27 Nikita Tikhomirov p.29 Jordan Whitt p.32 Ludovic Migneault p.35 A P O L L O p.41 Martin Castro p.47 Hamza Dildar p.59 Denis Agati p.61 Ronan Furuta

All photos available on Unsplash.com