'Welcome to Meniscus volume 12, issue 1. We weren’t sure, twelve years ago, if we’d be able to get a new literary journal up and running, and thanks to our contributors and readers, it has after all been possible. Thank you for making our work (a) possible and (b) so rewarding.
'Each set of new submissions seems to illuminate the concerns of the moment / month / year; and the works of prose and poetry submitted to this issue of Meniscus shimmer with a sense of change. This seems appropriate, since many of them were submitted at the turn of the year, and are being published at the turn of the season, but we suspect they also gesture toward a broader sense of alertness to current global events, shaded with the memory of both delights and griefs from the past. Not that it’s all doom and gloom; a number of pieces included in this issue of the journal have tongue firmly in cheek, or are actively humorous or wry. Writers look at the world, after all, and reflect on it, and in the voices of these writers – who are located right across the globe (a majority of them based in Australia or the USA, but with representation from every continent except Antarctica) – we see the many perspectives that can be brought to bear by people skilled in observing, thinking, and crafting literary works.
'We are trialling a different organisation of the issue, on this occasion. Traditionally, the works in Meniscus have been set in alphabetical order, by family name; for this issue we have attempted to find threads, patterns and moods, and to organise the pieces along these lines. We trust you enjoy reading them as much as we did; and can linger over the pieces and taste their flavours.' (Jen Webb and Deb Wain Publication summary)
Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Captcha Me If You Can by Thomas J Misuraca
from Quatrains by Ken Cockburn
We Haven't Listened by Samuel Gilpin
Learning How to Say My Mother's Name by Rowan Tate
Grief is a Journey by Nkasiobinnaya Mbonu
The Taste of Blue by Finn Brown
I Take My Dead Mother To The Public Pool Because She Says She Misses The
Ocean by Rhiannon Conley
Just Talk by Hanna Carney
Fantasies and Realities by Abdulmueed Balogun Adewale
Assignments by Leo Vanderpot
Elegy in the Making by Daniel Brennan
Certain Music by Ian Ganassi’s
Chrome Alert by Brendan Gallagher
Untitled (‘Notre Vie Un’, By Henri Meschonnic) : Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes (translators)
Untitled (‘Tellement Je Suis À Venir’, By Henri Meschonnic) : Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes (translators)
Second Class by Oz Hardwick
Creep by Loren Walker
The Baptism of Billy Elliot by Maureen Martinez
The Flood by Madeira Miller
Writers Block Exit by Dotun Jide
First Meetings by Mrityunjay Mohan
Questionable Tropism by Leo Vanderpot
鬼地方 Unholy Place by Michael Chang
Supertarget by Liam Flake
A Writer's Resolution by Merrill Hatlen
Hot Breakfast In Ancoats When I’m Down & Out by Blossom Hibbert
In Plain Sight by Maggie Brookes-Butt
The Last of the Judges by Hannah Ratner
La Tiendita by Erik Peters
Grip by Geoff Sawers
When My Brain Tumour Lost Itself by R.C. Thomas
Templeman's Win by Ed Walsh
A Pure Bodiless Sound by Tim Mayo
Tiny Things of Real Value by Cathy Thwing
Lord of the Flies by Niles Reddick
Joy in the Time of Climate Change by Nupur Maskara
Tiger Roll (6pc) (Soy, Ginger & Wasabi) by Dorian Winter
Dancing With/Out Gender by Cecil Morris
#1197: Perspicacious by Bob Plainwilder
Georgie by Pete Levine
Dear Mr Hemingway by Michael McLaughlin
Kitchen Blizzard by Pam Sinicrope
All of It by Edward Michael Supranowicz
Dream Song by Travis Stephens
Winter Light by Thomas Lowery
Broom by Siobhan Harvey
Foolproof by Benjamin Hollo
Form, Sparrows and Nothing by Todd Heldt
Does it Track by Drew Pisarra
