Publication Round-Up
Join us in celebrating the successes of Storied Imaginarium writers & poets
“Carina is a great teacher—insightful, resourceful and empathetic. It was Carina who encouraged me to get my stories out, even when they’d rather skulk in the corners of my brain, then revise and send my work out to publishers. She helped me think critically about my characters, plot, setting, and everything [else] that makes a story. I can’t wait to work with her more in the future.” —Daniela TomovaWorkshop Publications
Join us in celebrating the recent success stories in the Storied Imaginarium community. To read more stories and poems started in one of our workshops, check out a comprehensive list on our website.
“Swans Will Be Swans” by Elizabeth Zuckerman (Mythaxis Magazine, Issue 38)
The weird thing is, as it was happening, I kept thinking how cold the floor felt. Like my brain had nothing better to do. Just picture it, okay? Me dripping shower water onto the locker room floor, that first-season-win glow fading real fast, arms crossed over my thin towel, trying to glare my clothes out of Trey Riley’s hands. And he’s grinning, the smug little bastard, because he knows our school won’t touch the principal’s son, and I’m yelling at him and my teammates with clothes on are coming at him and he’s laughing his way out of the locker room, and the whole time I keep thinking on loop, Gosh, Liv, your toes sure are chilly, why don’t you put your socks on?
It was shitty, is what I’m trying to say.
“Happily Ever After” by Alison Colwell (Two Hawks Quarterly)
Fairy tale scholars have traced the linguistic roots of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, dating it at three thousand years old. It’s a tale that’s been enacted over hundreds of generations, with multiple variations, but the underlying principle remains the same. The bridegroom can be transformed from an animal to a prince, if only they are loved enough.
I was eighteen years old when I met my Beast, slipping into a tale that was hard wired into my genetic code. I was eighteen and wanted a family of my own. So I traded the remains of childhood for marriage and belonging. I thought John was my Prince Charming, but I’d stumbled into the wrong fairy tale.
“Our Lady of Clay” by Daniela Tomova (Apex Magazine, Issue #145)
No signs protect the backyards in this part of town from the Marl Pits Forest. There’s no treeline either. Of course there isn’t. But even in the dark, you can’t really miss where the forest starts—not if you’ve lived a childhood in the wilderness here like Ansel has. He knows it by the way the ground softens underfoot and becomes springy like the flesh of a mushroom; by the way the dry weeds and runty wild apples start to lean back, as if recoiling; by the stars above.
The night outside the forest is a dusky sepia—a glassful of gin’n’bitters—just the way Grandfather drinks it—four parts gin, one part angostura. The memory fills Ansel’s mouth—the juniper needles, the bitter, the smell of gasoline on grandfather’s hands—the smell of leather and salt and blood—always somehow the smell of blood even when the skin doesn’t break.
Other Publications
We value community at the Storied Imaginarium. Although the following works did not get their start in one of workshops, we love to share the news by our writers. Happy reading!
“Dead Leaves on the Tongue” by A. Katherine Black (Cosmic Horror Monthly, #48)
“Outside of Wonderful” by A. Katherine Black (Hearth Stories, Issue Two, Summer Solstice 2024)
“Daedalus Waiting” and “Womanskin” by Fija Callaghan (Gramarye, Issue 25)
“How to Survive Christmas” by Alison Colwell (Roi Faineant Literary Press)
[PODCAST] “Just Tell Us How it Went Down” by Alison Colwell (writing class radio)
“Bone Deep” by Wailana Kalama (Gamut Magazine, Issue 6)
“Dancing Myself” by Helen Patrice (Moss Piglet)
“Trigeminal” by Katherine Heath Shaeffer (Anodyne Magazine, Vol. 3)
“Yakety Hex” by KT Wagner (Pulp Literature, Issue 43, Summer 2024)
“Managing a Difficult Situation with Grace” by Leslie Wibberley (Pulp Literature, Issue 43, Summer 2024)
