Issue #45

We are happy to bring you Issue #45 of Mud Season Review. Thanks to our amazing team of readers, associate editors and editors for being so thoughtful with the hundreds of submissions we receive. It’s a difficult job to choose three pieces and four artists out of the many, many wonderful pieces that we have the opportunity to review. Read more about the Mud Season team in our masthead.

Of Jacqueline Vogtman’s fiction piece, “Girl Country,” staff mentor Julia Shipley says this: “It’s the kind of story that hangs in your mind long after the way campfire smoke clings hair and clothes.” Hints of science fiction and magical realism combine with compelling characters in a story that explores the nuances of love and loss.

“Unbecoming Doogie” by Storey Clayton takes a deep dive into what it’s like to grow up labeled a child prodigy. Our editors noted that although our culture seems to love the hero story of the genius (think Good Will Hunting or Doogie Howser, M.D., of the story’s title), Clayton’s piece deftly helps us understand a real-life version of that story in all of its complexity. His wise, insightful writing examines this human tendency to both celebrate and stigmatize.

Kelly Weber’s poetry brings the natural world into focus, asking questions of the body in the process. There’s an intensity and a yearning to these pieces – a struggle between beauty and pain, inside and outside, life and death. Read each poem multiple times to experience the layers, the sounds, the way her language challenges our assumptions in surprising ways.

Our featured artist, Amrita Chowdhury, uses color, shape and texture to create vibrant pieces that are at once playful and poignant. Hint: Make sure to consider the title of each piece. There are questions asked in the space between art and language.

Thanks for reading Mud Season!

Erin Post, managing editor