"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty
“Late, I have come to a parched land/doubting my gift, if gift I have,/the inspiration of water”~Dannie Abse
Make art about the inspiration of water.
7/17/2016
“Poor dear son, though you were not my son, I felt to love you as a son, what short time I saw you sick & dying here—“~Walt Whitman (letter to Erastus Haskell’s parents)
Make art about how they are all our sons.
7/18/2016
“May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.”~Mother Teresa
“The human brain holds in its cradle its own strangeness”-Eric Waggoner Make art about the brain, the magic of the brain, its beautiful strangeness.
7/1/2016
“I could spend my life trying to distill the feeling of a summer porch”~Jessie van Eerden Make art about that summer porch.
7/2/2016
Make art inspired by this quote: “Who looks after the sensitive child?”~Nikky Finney
7/3/2016
“You have to let the Light in.”~Nikky Finney Make art about ways of letting the Light in.
7/4/2016
I wrote a poem today called “What Goliath Wants Us To Know.” Make art about what someone—real or mythical, living or dead—wishes we knew.
7/5/2016
Alton Sterling ❤
7/6/2016
Philando Castile ❤
7/7/2016
Dallas shootings ❤ Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, and Lorne Ahrens.
7/8/2016
I’m struggling to function in the sorrow of what we’re doing to each other. Keep singing a song I learned as a child, One Tin Soldier.
Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago
‘Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below
On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone
And the valley-people swore
They’d have it for their very own
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away
So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure
Tons of gold for which they’d kill
It came an answer from the mountain
With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches buried there
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away
Now the valley cried with anger
“Mount your horses! Draw your sword!”
And they killed the mountain-people
So they won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain, dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it
“Peace on Earth” was all it said
Make art about what matters.
7/9/2016
Thanks and Love to Eric Waggoner for his seminar at the West Virginia Wesleyan MFA residency on writing ugly topics. Robert Bly said, “Dare to do something ugly.” Do this. Take on something ugly.
7/10/2016
Garmin took us down some strange backroads today, as it does at times 🙂 Today it took us down a two lane road with no lines, through a series of unicorporated communities, one of which was particularly sweet, Batesville Virginia. As we entered this tiny crossroad community, we passed a stone pillar with the word Elysium carved into it. Love letters from the Universe?
According to Eustathius of Thessalonica, the word “Elysium” (Ἠλύσιον) derives from ἀλυουσας (ἀλύω) and means to be deeply stirred from joy, or from ἀλύτως, synonymous of ἀφθάρτως (ἄφθαρτος) incorruptible, referring to the incorruptible joy of a soul in this afterlife.
Make art about your idea of the afterlife.
7/11/2016
Finding peace in doing the daily tasks of being home: folding laundry; washing dishes; sweeping floors. Make art about those moments when the mundane intersects with the divine.
7/12/2016
Lost a feline family member today, Dobi. She ruled our home with the most regal feline disdain for ten years, and my heart is broken at her going. Make art about what our animal family means to us.
7/13/2016
Coffee in the garden. Reminders of the cycles. Make art about what goes on, about what continues.
“It’s hard to wake up sometimes and look back at your life with clear eyes, isn’t it? All the Hello’s and Goodbye’s, and all the things said and left unsaid, whether they were timely, or easy, or uncomfortable or boltfree, or jarring, or just plain true, at least for you, in the moment of their saying.And once you’re awake you have to listen to the now, or ignore it and pretend that it’s just not there. Tricky stuff for the strongest of us, and hard travelin’ for the tender hearted. Like pilgrims on some dusty trail, the long line of true believers stretches into nothingness, and the shadows of the don’t fit in’s move along like so much smoke, pungent and ethereal, lingering toward home.”~John Little Bear Eaton
Send Submissions to: doorknobsandbodypaint@gmail.com
Call for Submissions
Off to Work We Go. For many of us work is a daily destination filled with demands on our time and endless routine. There is little time left for our dreams. But, we all have them. And, for a moment, over a cup of coffee or sandwich from home, we imagine what it would be like to do something else. Something more exciting. Something with a little adventure in it. Write your story within the limits of our contest guidelines (hoops):
DOORKNOBSKieron Devlin, editor
1. Maximum length: 250 words.
2. The sub-theme is: discipline.
3. The year is: 2004.
4. Within the story, you must use this text: sticking to the rules.TAPAS (tiny morsels) Joanne Faries, editor
1. Maximum length: 250 words.
2. The sub-theme is: vacation.
3. Within the story, you must use this bit of text: an embellished resume.
4. Like seasoning, it is language that makes your story unique. Surprise us.
HAYWARD FAULT LINE (shake us up) Leila Rae, editor
1. Maximum length: 450 words.
2. The sub-theme is: endurable.
3. The setting is: Milwaukee, WI.
4. Within the story, you must use this bit of text:without yielding.
DORSAL CONTEST: Bara Swain, editor
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers, George and his mentally disabled life-long friend Lennie, have come to a ranch in the Salinas Valley to find work in the middle of the Great Depression. George speaks of saving their stake so that they can one day buy a little place of their own where they can live off the fat of the land. The possibility of realizing their dream dissolves entirely when Curley’s wife makes advances on the bear-like Lennie, and horrible consequences ensue. The tragedy reveals the power of friendship and how even the simplest dream can provide hope in the face of desperation.
George’s hands stopped working with the cards. His voice was growing warmer. “An’ we could have a few pigs. I could build a smoke house like the one gran’pa had, an’ when we kill a pig we can smoke the bacon and the hams, and make sausage an’ all like that. An’ when the salmon run up river we could catch a hundred of ‘em an’ salt ‘em down or smoke ‘em. We could have them for breakfast. They ain’t nothing so nice as smoked salmon. When the fruit come in we could can it—and tomatoes, they’re easy to can. Ever’ Sunday we’d kill a chicken or a rabbit. Maybe we’d have a cow or a goat, and the cream is so God damned thick you got to cut it with a knife and take it out with a spoon.”
Write a 450 word story on the theme of work where a dream provides a way to overcome desolation. (Please note word count correction.)CAIRO ROOM
The Cairo Room contains all non-contest and writer’s pool selections under 450 words. From the exotic to the post-modern to hypertext to first time writers, this room welcomes all writers.
General Guidelines:
1. Send your submission by email, please include your name, mailing address, email address, and bio at the beginning of each story; paste your story into the body of your email and send it in rich text form.
2. If you send more than one story (four total), send each story as a separate email.
3. This is important. Put the category DK (Doorknobs), HF (Hayward Fault), DO (Dorsal), TA (Tapas), PB (Planet Betty), CR (Cairo Room), the issue #, and your last name on the subject line. (example: DK, 61, Argure) We use a filter for all email; therefore, if you do not put this information in the subject line, your email will automatically go into trash.
4. Do not send your story in HTML format or as an attachment. If you send your story in HTML format or as an attachment, it will be discarded.
Contest Prizes for each section (Doorknobs, Hayward Fault Line, Dorsal, Tapas):
An opportunity to read at one of Pandemonium Press Presents reading series.
We do not pay money for publishing your work.
The writers retains all copyright to their work.
SunStar Review is currently open for submissions to their Fall 2016 issue.
“We are seeking prose (whether fiction, nonfiction, flash, long, or simply unclassifiable), poetry, visual art, and mixed media work. We love depth and emotional resonance. We appreciate risk taking and ambitiousness—so long as the ambition is earnest. We love work that blends the real and the fantastical. We love experiments with craft. Our journal is also committed to promoting diverse voices and points of view that aren’t well represented in the general literary scene. Thanks for your interest, and we look forward to reading your work!”
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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