A journal of simply good writing
Spring is on the way, the days are getting longer, and here at Compose we’re getting excited about our forthcoming issue. We received nearly 600 submissions across all genres during the past reading period, but we had space to accept only a small percentage of those. Our senior editors are now working through edits with our contributors to prepare each selection […]
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Today’s post is written by P. Kearney Byrne, whose short story “The Call Birds” appears in our Fall 2015 issue. In 2013, I saw a UK short story competition with a prize of £7,500; a lot of money at a time when I was indulging in daily fantasies of winning my way into the black in […]
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Today’s post is written by Bernard Grant. A piece of his creative nonfiction—”Puzzle Pieces“—appears in our Fall 2015 issue. Sometimes an image causes words to sound in my head, looping like a catchy jingle. The only way to lose it is to write. “Puzzle Pieces” was an attempt to rid myself of one such sound: “The woman […]
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Today’s post is written by Jenna Kilic-Somers. Her poems “My Father Recites a Story in Low Voice” and “Language” appear in our Fall 2015 issue. On the day before learning that my father had passed away, I dashed off the first draft of “My Father Recites a Story in Low Voice” for a workshop I had the next […]
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Today’s post is written by Deborah Bacharach. Two of her poems appear in our Fall 2015 issue. Twenty years ago, I was lying on the grass at Green Lake reading my mom’s college copy of Whitman and writing what I saw, what I felt. It was a slim green volume with her name carefully lettered on the frontispiece […]
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Today’s post is written by Catherine Cobb Morocco, whose poem “What Father Brought Home” appears in our Fall 2015 issue. “What Father Brought Home” draws on my memories of my father’s homecoming after the Second World War. Much about the war and his return were confusing—where he was in the world, whether he was in danger. My […]
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Today’s post is written by Richard LeBlond, whose essay “The Basque Shepherd” appears in our Fall 2015 issue. At first I was reluctant to write about the circumstances leading to “The Basque Shepherd.” The essay had already crawled inside itself, becoming part of the story. I didn’t think it could support a third perspective. But when I […]
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Today’s post is written by José Angel Araguz. “Raro,” a piece of his short fiction, appears in our Fall 2015 issue. “Raro” is part of a forthcoming collection, Everything We Think We Hear (Floricanto Press), whose pieces deal primarily with what it meant for me to grow up in and out of South Texas. While growing […]
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Update: The issue is now live! You can read it here. We’d like to thank all of our readers and those who submitted work to us during the last reading period. We’re excited and encouraged to see such growth at Compose, having received more than 800 submissions to consider for the forthcoming issue. Wow! Our senior editors are preparing our Fall […]
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Today’s post is written by Dan Alter. We published his poem “Summoning Dylan” in our Spring 2015 issue. In one sense, although this poem is framed as a summoning, it is a work of exorcism. The poem is a séance to exorcise Dylan, who has haunted me for more than thirty years: his power, his unswerving full […]
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Margaret Atwood calls Story Is a State of Mind, “Smart, encouraging, practical”.
Suzannah, editor here at Compose, has previously reviewed of Story Is a State of Mind and says that joining Sarah’s program was “one of the best investments I’ve ever made in my writing.”
