Welcome to the 40th issue of Ducts!

A lot has happened in our world in the last six months, and as always, you’ll find unique and personal takes on it all here—including some pieces that speak to the themes of abuse of personal power and the stories of those who resist. 
 
This issue also includes the debut of poetry editor, Precious Okoyomon, and the photography of guest arts editor, Peter Ahn, who personally selected images for our five feature pieces from his diverse film archive. You can read more about his art and selection process here
 
You can also hear some of this issue’s selections at our winter issue launch reading, which will take place in New York City on January 13, 2018.
 
Finally, we thank the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (clmp), for their support of this issue in the form of a 2017 New York Technical Assistance Program regrant provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.

 

MASTHEAD

Mary Cool
Editor-in-Chief
mary@ducts.org 

Voichita Nachescu
Essays Editor
voichita@ducts.org

Julie Wilkerson
Fiction Editor
julie@ducts.org

Peter Ahn
Guest Arts Editor

Lisa L. Kirchner 
Memoirs Editor
lisa@ducts.org

Precious Okoyomon
Poetry Editor
poetry@ducts.org

 

 

Table of Contents
Watch Dec 2017 Trumpet Fiction readings
Memoirists Nancy Hightower, Dorri Olds, Lisa L. Kirchner, Charles Sanchez, Dean Wrzeszcz
Winter 2018 Issue Launch Reading
Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018, 7-9 pm
Experiences, Energies, and Emotions
Ducts welcomes Peter Ahn, guest arts editor, to our Winter 2018 issue--see his photographs in our 5 feature pieces.
A Triangulated Dialectic
This high school teacher then touched my daughter’s hand, the small of her back, her soul.
The Way the Wind Blows
A struggling actress in between auditions, I was grabbing a hotdog at Gray’s Papaya on West Seventy-second in Manhattan when David Gilbert recognized me.
A Life of Being Bic’d
I saw the world, but not by choice.
The Bookkeeper
Vaguely, he felt that “times” were good or bad or somewhere in between, but his own life had no such flows and eddies.
Feb Trumpet Fiction: Multi-genre
Hosted by Voichita Nachescu: Sat, Feb 10, 7-9 pm
Watch Winter 2018 Ducts Issue Launch
Authors Nolan Janssens, Carol Schlanger, K-B Gressitt & D Ferrara, and performers Ken Simon, Alix Alias, and Mary Cool
Mar Trumpet Fiction: The Agony of Defeat
Stores about the nature of losing: Sat, Mar 10, 7-9 pm
May Trumpet Fiction: YA Night
Hosted by Mary Cool: Sat, May 12, 7-9 pm
Watch May 2018 YA Fiction readings
With authors Beth Ann Bauman, Emilie Cohen, Mary Cool, and Regan Fad.
Home is more than where the heart is
One unshakable truth is that home is where the body has been.
Screams from the liminal zone
I pull on my shoes and jacket and reach to unlatch the front door of our houseboat. Loud screams stop me in my tracks.
Guitar Hero
I was certain I was on my way to greatness or at least to a unique place in the history of modern players.
God’s Toy Army
The dining room disappeared. That’s what happens when your brain doesn’t want to acknowledge the world anymore, when something is presented to you that you just can’t look at yet, let alone name.
As I Lay Googling
I struggle to swallow as I read cancer articles, the tenderness in my throat increasing with each one.
Blue angel of unctuous balm; and other poems
It's true that I got my first period at the Freud museum