Conclave: A Journal of Character: Spring 2012

Literature & Fiction

Thorne, Savannah D.

Literary

Balkan Press

Returning to Awe

Kaminski, Laura M

Poetry

last penny the sun: poems

Our Halloween issue! Originally released from Chicago in 2008, Conclave: A Journal of Character is a bi-annual print and e- journal of character-focused writing and photography. We seek writing that centers around well-crafted and authentic characters: like Leopold Bloom, Huckleberry Finn, Anna Karenina, Hamlet, Miss Havisham, Hannibal Lecter, Hester Prynne, and others. Whether you love them or hate them, these characters are unforgettable and infuse their stories with life beyond the page. We reflect an assembly of characters, as well as the artists and writers who dream them up. We chose conclave because it means a gathering, a private chamber, a room that may be locked. It has the Latin roots of com (meaning “with” or “together”) and clavis (meaning “key”).

Conclave: A Journal of Character: Volume 8

Richardson, Kat

United States

Prepare to be enchanted by Selma Mann’s tribute to aging with grace and laughter. With disarmingly simple language, she finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, with whimsical unexpected twists that delight and connect with audiences of all ages, touching on her familiar themes of love, loss, and survival. These poems sparkle with fresh images, delightful wordplay, and a startling perspective on reality."Selma Mann's poetry makes my heart take flight. She has tapped into the source of everything poetry should bring: peace, comfort, and joy." William Bernhardt, author of The Ocean's Edge”Selma Mann’s heartfelt poems are an evocative and bittersweet collection of beauty. They fill one with compassion and respect for the urgency and preciousness of every life breath. A wonderful read. A wonderful gift.…” Mari McWilliams, author of Out of the Blue Valise and The Love Epidemic.

Whimsical Warrior

Mann, Selma

In this issue, Conclave celebrates “Voices from the Edge,” the writers and photographers whose work is not easily categorized or pigeonholed. This issue disregards genre and marketplace and instead focuses on originality and insight, artists fearlessly creating work of the highest caliber.As Editor-in-Chief Lara Bernhardt writes, “Fear holds us back. Fear prevents us from taking chances and reaching for our goals. Fear causes us to hide. Fear of failure. Fear of ridicule. Fear of someone seeing us as we truly are.” This, then, is the No Fear issue of Conclave, the no-holds-barred highway whose only toll is vision and talent.We live in troubling times, and many feel isolated, despondent, and worried about the future. In this issue, writers confront our common challenges with courage and optimism, because the greater good lies in unity, not division, including “…[t]hose who feel sidelined, ostracized, and silenced. Those who aren’t afraid to speak their truth, share their experiences, and offer a glimpse of something we may fear.”

Conclave (Spring 2017): Voices from the Edge

Bernhardt, Lara

Okataloa County, Oklahoma is anything but a sleepy town these days. Special-needs ghost Billy Craig haunts the local Pen &amp; Quill Creative Writing Society, while across town Janice Lynn solves her homelessness crisis by winning self-respect and a lime-green Volkswagen. Celebrity billionaires and Brangelina updates, always one click and inbox away, are virtual distractions as these female protagonists confront life’s storms. Mortgages may barely get paid, husbands might drift without warning, and blue eyeshadow sometimes doubles in price at the local Walmart. TV evangelicals and Groupon provide comfort. Both heartache and humor abound within the pages of Fetish.

Fetish and Other Stories

Wilson, Amy Susan

Short Stories & Anthologies

In The Smell of the Light: Vietnam, 1968-1969, Bill McCloud’s poems take the reader chronologically through his personal experience with the Vietnam War. From his decision in the spring of 1967 to join the army, to the present-day determination by the VA that he has a service-connected disability, these poems chart a remarkable journey.McCloud served on an army airbase during the height of the war. The poetry he uses to describe his experiences is based on more than fifty letters he wrote home to his family. His poems deal with helicopters being shot down, air rescues, rocket attacks, and buddies being wounded in action. But they also address the day to day routine, boredom, hooch maids, bar girls, memorable characters, and the time he met Ann-Margret. It’s a collection unlike any other.

The Smell of the Light: Vietnam, 1968-1969

McCloud, Bill

One couple. Two stories. One truth. Sort of.Jacob Fishman is miserable. His wife, Cindi, is miserable. His editor wants him to write another book.Suffocating in his own self-consciousness, Jacob decides to explore the frailties, fears, and deficiencies of his life with Cindi including, most tellingly, her desire to have a baby-and his desire not to. He creates Fishman doppelgängers, literary avatars, to see if their lives can be better than his. He wills himself to the intersection of truth, verisimilitude, and fantasy and finds himself paralyzed once there, no longer sure which events unfold in real life and which exist only in his book. Cindi, watching her life being laid bare, sees her husband as a megalomaniacal provocateur and chafes at his cherry-picking of their marriage and identities. Set in and around the University of Nevada, Reno, Jacob Fishman's Marriages is the story of an author's conceit and what the creation of art excuses. It is the story of a husband and a wife and a husband and a wife-the same husband and wife. Sort of.Praise for Barry Friedman: "This masterpiece would blow away the competition, if there were competition for such a masterpiece, which there is not."-Shane Gericke, bestselling author of The Fury"I haven't been able to get five pages in without having to catch my breath. You're a brave writer, my brother."-Charles P. Pierce, Esquire"Barry Friedman has written a raw, gut-wrenching book about the game-playing side of a marriage gone wrong. But this ain't a fairy tale. This is a brilliant look at a walk on the dark side of life."-Jerry Izenberg, Red Smith Award-wining author of Once There Were Giants and After the Fire: Love and Hate in the Ashes of 1967"Seeing the broken yet still beautiful world through his eyes is cathartic."- Jennifer Taub, author of Big Dirty Money

Jacob Fishman's Marriages

Friedman, Barry

Barry Friedman, a veteran of 30 years on the comedy road, delivers another punchline on standup. Filled with garden-variety kleptomaniacs, large, rum-drinking Bahamians, bitter, glorious, troubled, and sex-addicted women with ankle monitors, loquacious drug addicts, first-time Vegas lesbians, and tall, neurotic Jews in sweaters- and these are the sane people-The Joke Was On Me is the story, his story, of laughs and love and almost fame. It's all true-as much as comedy will allow anyway. &#65279; "You can't go on the road with standup comedian Barry Friedman, which is probably good for your health and sanity. But you can feel what it felt like, through this funny, gritty, wondrously detailed, and scarily honest book." Dave Barry "Barry writes so beautifully he actually made me miss shitty one nighters. Thanks A LOT Barry." Carole Montgomery, Host of Funny Women of a Certain Age "He's written a book with all the wisdom and humanity of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, but with way better jokes and twice as many clitoral piercings." John H. Richardson "I can neither confirm nor deny that I laughed out loud instead of clutching my pearls while reading the racy bits in Barry Friedman's new book, The Joke Was on Me. Confessions aside, seeing the broken yet still beautiful world through his eyes is cathartic." Jennifer Taub, author of Big Dirty Money

The Joke Was On Me

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

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