2006 (Volume 18)

 

A prominent theme in this issue is loss. Rebecca Tuch's prize-winning story, "Stop Saying My Name," shows the loss and anger a young man feels when his parents divorce. "At the last moment, he turns toward his father's house, instead of his mother's. Not sure why; he hates them both the same."

 

"A Dying Woman Considers Winter" is our prize-winning poem by Jason Ranek, and it shows the grieving taking place before her death. "No memento of the light, no false appeasement / to ease my journey into darkness, can clear / a life together spent alone."

 

In our contest-winning essay, Rachel Pridgeon's "Weather," the focus is on how her grandmother always writes about the weather and she sees it as a sign of "stagnancy, boredom, monotony as measurable as rain collecting patiently at the bottom of the gauge." The essay shows bad marriages and good marriages, change and loss.

 

"Loss is commonplace to the race," wrote Alfred Tennyson in "In Memoriam." Loss may be commonplace to the race but so is change, growth and new beginnings. That is reflected in our art and photographs, too. We hope you connect in some way with our artists and writers as you read and view this issue of The Briar Cliff Review.