The Gray Issue
A Note from Your Editors (see below)
Fiction
Your Best Self, by Rachel Lastra
Teething, by Kimberly Rooney
The Shredder, by Matt Rowan
Sefa, by Amy Savage
Nonfiction
Summer, Electric, by Gemma Singh
A Good Woman, by Hailey Danielle
Poetry
noir portrait, by Lisa Cantwell
Two Poems from Kyle Brosnihan
Art Portfolio
Three Collages from Gabriela Denise Frank
Dear Reader:
For this special issue of Barrelhouse, we asked for writing that explores the gray areas of life—liminal spaces, cloudy days, purgatory, limbo, good people doing bad things, and bad people who do good.
Although we set out to find writing in gray areas, you added a lot of color to our reading experience. In this issue, you’ll find generations of birds, the moonlight on a kitchen floor, a soul reflecting from purgatory, stories of love, and an unexpected workplace deity.
We spent an entire semester putting this issue together, as students in Mike Ingram’s Writers at Work class at Temple University. Under Mike’s tutelage, we spent countless hours reading, re-reading, shouting (both in agreement and disagreement), and yes, we did have to re-implement the kindergarten talking stick at times. We’re very grateful to have had the opportunity to read all your submissions—thank you.
We hope the pieces contained within this issue inspire just as much emotion in you as they did in us—but if nothing else, that they push you to think outside the black and white binary, and into the gray.
Sincerely,
Your Editors / Mike Ingram’s Fall 2022 Writers at Work Students
Bella Baldini, Hayley Banks, Laura Chiu, Samuel Collins, Becca D’Ostilio, Jenna Doran, Al Duran, Rose Fevrier, Rachael Fields, Zoya Gayle, Willa Gibson, Reece Herberg, Katie Jackson, Lauryn Jones, Nora Kelleher, Makayla Montarti, Madeleine O’Donnell, Zin Perez, Caelen Reid, Jessica Rios, Briana St. John, Avery Taylor