Dia Calhoun – Writers Resist

Welcome to our September 2022 issue

It’s been hot. Everything’s hot. Global temperatures, national temperaments—even the bees that hover at the birdbath’s edge are plunging into its waters, only to find them warmed by an unrelenting heat dome.

What to do?

Writers Resist offers a cool escape: Don a wet t-shirt, flop before a fan, and read this issue. In it, you’ll find featured works by the following writers and artists.

Katie Avagliano

Dia Calhoun

Heather Dorn

Zoë Fay-Stindt

Howie Good

Morning-meadow Jones

Flavian Mark Lupinetti

René Marzuk

Penny Perry

Tracy Stamper

Jennifer Swallow

Laura Grace Weldon

Please also join us in saying farewell to another beloved editor, and welcoming two new editors.

Ying Wu, one of our dedicated poetry editors, is moving on and shares the following: “It has been an honor and an inspiration to be part of Writers Resist. Since I joined in 2019, our community has grown. I’ve enjoyed the privilege of experiencing voices from all walks of life and parts of the globe—voices driven by hunger for compassion and dignity; by the will to thrive in the face of increasing planetary peril; by the urge to confront the pain of exploitation, intolerance, and subjugation. I believe we can create a better world by amplifying what drives us to speak out, as our words are the bridge between thought and action. I am so grateful to Writers Resist for helping to keep this bridge strong.”

We will miss you, Ying!

René Marzuk joins us as a poetry and prose editor. Accidentally born in Ukraine to Cuban parents, he grew up in Havana, Cuba, and migrated to the United States as an adult. Read a poem by René here.

Holly A. Stovall joins us as a prose editor. Currently writing a thesis for her MFA in Creative Writing at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, she has an MA in Women’s History and a PhD in Spanish Literature.

Read more about our new editors on our About page.

Then, in the relative cool of the evening, join us for an online reading of the September issue’s contributing writers—Saturday 15 October at 5:00 p.m. PACIFIC.

For the Zoom link, email K-B at kbgressitt@gmail.com.

Oratorio of Arrival

By Dia Calhoun

for Ukraine, 2022

Because the woman hugs a green glass bottle
yellow-wicked, and waits
by the fabric store where she once bought
the blue wool for her coat,
the scarlet gingham for the kitchen window,
coral flannel to snuggle her baby
somewhere now on the pouring road to Poland—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because the composer holds his index finger,
limber from years of black piano keys,
on the trigger of an AK-47,
a melody in B minor playing in his head—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because the music is louder, the blue brighter
than the tanks now grinding down the street—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because their eyes meet
because she lights the torch
because he pulls the trigger
singing his greatest opus—Fuck you, bastard!
because she runs out, blue coat whirling,
and throws—

Veni Magna Spirita

Crossing a different border, their baby looks up.

Dia Calhoun is the author of seven young adult novels, including two verse novels, After the River the Sun and Eva of the Farm (Atheneum, 2013, 2012). She won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. Her poems have appeared in The EcoTheo Review and MORIA Literary Magazine. An article on poetry craft, co-authored with Deborah Bacharach, is forthcoming in the Writer’s Chronicle. Calhoun is a co-founder of readergirlz, recipient of The National Book Foundation Innovations in Reading Prize. She has taught at Seattle University, Stony Brook University, and The Cornish College. Learn more at diacalhoun.com.

Image credits: The compilation is by our own Debbie Hall, poetry editor and author, and the flag image is by Nataliya Smirnova on Unsplash.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.