We're now closed for submissions! Thank you all. We have some great work in the bag that we're taken to design, our editors will be in touch soon.

And our audio section is still open until the 20th May.

A flee-ridden beggar sits on the pavement. At his feet an empty tin plate glistens in the sunshine. A young soldier walks by hurriedly on his way to a meeting with a beautiful woman.

“Young man,” calls the beggar, beckoning with his hand, “could you help me for just one moment?”

The handsome young man pretends not to hear and rushes on, casually looking in the other direction. The beggar persists and calls again, more pitiful this time.

Ты жива еще, моя старушка?
Жив и я. Привет тебе, привет!
Пусть струится над твоей избушкой
Тот вечерний несказанный свет.

Пишут мне, что ты, тая тревогу,
Загрустила шибко обо мне,
Что ты часто ходишь на дорогу
В старомодном ветхом шушуне.


Hallo one last time, dearest mother of mine,
I trust that you're keeping my bed
as white as our birches; as starched as our pine;
as clear as our sky overhead.

The rumour now runs: my old mother misses
some devil--apparently me.
That devil, in truth, remembers her kisses,
her ratty old coat and her tea.

Translation: Russell Bittner

Horacio Quiroga, was born in Uruguay, as the son of the Argentine Vice-Consul, holding then both nationalities, Argentine and Uruguayan.

He wrote short stories characterized by the supernatural and the bizarre. He is considered the founding father of the Argentine short-story.

Llegamos aquella mañana por una sinuosa carretera, a aquel lugar rodeado de bonitas casas llenas de macetas con flores y grandes ventanas.

ENTREVISTA

FIRST AUDIO COMPETITION RESULTS IN:

And a big congrats to James Claffey and William Lantry.  'Glimpse' and 'Wells' will appear in our summer print issue.

A Micro -- Rare Glimpse by James Claffey

'The whiskey mixed with his old spice aftershave is powerful even from my distant position near the ground.'

A Poem by William Lantry

Ocotillo Wells

'if we could, patient, stare
across the winter's heat and summer's haze
and wait, persistent, for that single day
when ocotillos' flowering begins.'

We're now open for submissions in songwriting in this section.

We're accepting up to FIVE YOU TUBE or MP3 entries per person.

SUPEREXQUISITE RACKHAM

In 1892, Arthur, left his job and started work atThe Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. His first book illustrations were published in 1893 in To the Other Side by Thomas Rhodes, but his first serious commission was in 1894 for The Dolly Dialogues, the collected sketches of Anthony Hope, who later went on to write The Prisoner of Zenda. Book illustrating then became Rackham's career for the rest of his life.

In 1903 he married Edyth Starkie, with whom he had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in numerous exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer in his home in Limpsfield, Surrey.

Technique
Rackham invented his own unique technique which resembled photographic reproduction; he would first sketch an outline of his drawing, then lightly block in shapes and details. Afterwards he would add lines in pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after it had dried. With colour pictures, he would then apply multiple washes of colour until transparent tints were created. He would also go on to expand the use of silhouette cuts in illustration work.

Typically, Rackham contributed both colour and monotone illustrations towards the works incorporating his images - and in the case of Hawthorne's Wonder Book, he also provided a number of part-coloured block images similar in style to Meiji era Japanese woodblocks.

Influence
In one of the featurettes on the DVD of Pan's Labyrinth, and in the commentary track for Hellboy, director Guillermo Del Toro cites Rackham as an influence on the design of "The Faun" of Pan's Labyrinth. He liked the dark tone of Rackham's gritty realistic drawings and had decided to incorporate this into the film. In Hellboy, the design of the tree growing out of the altar in the ruined abbey off the coast of Scotland where Hellboy was brought over, is actually referred to as a "Rackham tree" by the director.

Da Friday Nite Party by GC Smith

Da Friday nite party down to Dupree’s went good fo’ da mos’ part. Lotsa col’ ones settin’ on ice. Renee had a buncha cooker full wit dat scrumptious coon stew. Dere was boil shrimp an’ crawfish. Lotsa boudin. Da ladies brung dirty rice an tater salad an cole slaw an’ stuff. Dupree even made sure da hounds got some o’ dat coon stew an fresh, warm hush puppies.