Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume III

Prefer to buy on Amazon? This book qualifies for free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. Note: When you order the eBook, a download link will arrive by email within two to five minutes of your completed purchase. Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume III, picks up where Volume II left off, at times slowing the pace to allow for thoughtful introspection, but never forgetting the importance of wonder and adventure. The foreword by Lidia Yuknavitch reminds us to celebrate lives dedicated to words as a kind of devotion. — Regular contributor George Wells takes readers on a walk across the field between how things are and how they're remembered in To the River. — The Story of a Mother by Mika Hillery is an honest and painful journey through the grief of losing a child. The story here ends on a hopeful note, but as this is Spark's first Creative Nonfiction inclusion, the Hilleries' real-life story goes on and can be followed on their blog. — Christopher Michel wrote Night Class in Syracuse to record the scene he encountered while attending lectures by Brooks Haxton. "Actually," Michel explains, "the class I was referencing, A History of the Poetic Form, I took twice because it was such a densely informative experience." — Through both the story he tells and his writing itself, Fatman Butter paints a portrait of man’s ability to find a silver lining in the most testing circumstances of adversity in Silver Linings. — Above everything else, Leafing by Elizabeth Sachs is a love story, exploring a relationship's evolution as necessitated by Alzheimer's disease. — Cathy Bryant wrote Yellow Roses on Snow after visiting Sylvia Plath's grave on the fiftieth anniversary of her death. — As the train moves forward in Letters to Mary, the tension provided by Megan Turner lies as much in what is unsaid as in what is said. — Traditional Southern imagery is freshly woven by D.A. Gray in the sophisticated and evocative poem Sleepless on Medicine Creek. — Alexis A. Hunter's third installment of By The Gun raises the stakes for Della—and adds a paranormal twist—as she finds herself on the Wrong Side of God. This series began with By the Gun in Volume I and continued as The Shadow Attached to His Name in Volume II. Don't miss the conclusion of this delightful "Weird Western," coming soon in Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume IV! — Through the dreamlike language of Sister Eugénie's Wonderful Glass Eye, Barbara Black invites the reader to explore, untethered, the aquatic depths of the imagination. — In a much-needed and well-deserved injection of levity, Ben Thompson brings back the unlikable narrator in All-You-Can-Eat. As he makes his way through the challenge presented by the local buffet, will you find yourself rooting against him—or for him? — When an anomalous baby is born to young parents, Janet E. Irvin explores the couple's attempts to reconcile their desire to give their child the very best with the difficulties of raising a daughter who is "different" in A Brief Theory of Triangular Scale. — The very same place at very different times: Temporal Shift by Tom Pescatore. — John W. Buckley deftly provides the soundtrack to an evening of acquaintances lost and acquaintances regained in Jukebox Lament. — Despair against nature leads to unexpected salvation in Christian Fennell's Angel of the Equinox. — Before Ararat introduces fresh perspectives on a familiar story—a recurring approach in Kari Castor's poetry. Her work also appeared in Volume I. — In Call, Talk, Lock, Deborah Miller-Collins takes an unusual occurrence that actually happened to her one rainy New England day and develops it into an event that brings together two strangers who need each other. — "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman," wrote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his short story A Scandal In Bohemia. Here, Beatriz F. Fernandez, whose poetry also appeared in Volume II, pens a response from the woman to Mr. Holmes, signed Very Truly Yours, Irene Norton, née Adler.   — Escape seems impossible for Cassie in the brief and fiery suspense piece Gold Stars and Forget-Me-Nots by Francesca Linton. — In Inner Night by Michael Campagnoli, a woman waits for an unknown lover. — Caroline Zarlengo Sposto asks, "How far would you go to stand up for—and even protect—a stranger?" in Chivalry. — To conclude Volume III, a mother savors a moment with her infant son and contemplates the day he will inevitably leave in Rebekah Orton's Future Wife.