Short Story Finalist: The Long Haul
By Patricia Malcom Rosenleaf Vivian sat by her dying boy’s bed, nodding, starting awake, nodding again. She’d been here with him from almost the beginning of this hospital stay because somehow she knew in her heart, he wouldn’t leave — at least alive. She and Floyd, her husband and Mike’s father, had taken turns to [...]
Short Story Finalist: The Reader
By Imtiaz Akhtar Read only those books that inspire suicidal thoughts in you. Books, as I have always believed, are more dangerous than an atomic bomb. A bomb can only kill or maim you, unlike books, which alone can transform you. They can transform you from something baser into something nobler, something higher. A great [...]
East vs West: Clash of Civilizations or Collective Madness?
By Imtiaz Akhtar There is a rather curious and utterly confessional account of Mohandas K. Gandhi’s failure to become an Englishman in his book: An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth. In Chapter XV in particular, modestly titled “Playing the Englishman,” Gandhi makes himself the object of his own ridicule. His initial [...]
Fidel Castro’s Reflections on Chavez
By Fidel Castro President Chavez presented his annual report on activities carried out in 2011 and his program for 2012 to the Venezuelan Parliament. After thoroughly carrying out the formalities required by this important activity, he addressed the official state authorities, members of parliament from all parties, and supporters and opposition members who had come [...]
Short Story Finalist: The People’s Choice
By Madeleine McDonald A nervous titter ran round the bar. It seemed tactless to laugh at the scurrilous satire show when one of the cavorting latex puppets on the television screen was there in the flesh, staring straight ahead without the glimmer of a smile. The socialist candidate for the French presidential election, for it [...]
