Issue Twenty-One

Regular price $8.00 Sale

Rainbows!

May/June 2019

As we strive for simplicity, most of our themes hold to our aesthetic and our mission. But is this possible with RAINBOWS? ALL the chaos of ALL the colors at once? ALL the magic without cliché? ALL the beauty without a bombastic display of color? Because, while I have never met a child who didn’t love rainbows, and rainbows are nature-made, they are almost completely absent from high art and poetry.

Rainbows are the kindness inside of the food that nourishes our bodies and spirits. Rainbows remind us that the world is good after a storm. And we can be rainbows for another’s bad weather.

The target audience for each magazine is children ages 3–8, or children who are being read to and/or are just learning to read—but because children are never far from their siblings and caregivers, we created a magazine that can be enjoyed by all ages, from 1 to 100.

Thank you for allowing us to bring heartfelt literature and art to children—and adults. Hooray!

Issue 21 Contributors

Sarah Bell Burch (Bath Time photo) has had amazing adventures in New South Wales and Southeast Asia, and her family is the heart and soul of everything she does.
Stephen Cecchini (After the Rain, Memory of Ants) is an MSA student at Loyola University Chicago. During his free time, he likes to write in his imagery journal which contains the fruits of his poetry. He is also an editorial staff member at Diminuendo & Cadence—Loyola's premier student-run literary magazine.
Kristina Closs (Growing a Rainbow Art) is a watercolor artist who lives and works in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. She works from home with her two children who are 2 and 4. She loves birds and takes inspiration from the garden and forests that surround her home.
Robin Clugston (On Losing Your Rainbow art) is an artist and illustrator raised in Ottawa, Ontario. From a very young age, Robin was turning her ideas into images, and working at reproducing the world as she saw it onto paper. Robin’s fascination with visual arts began with the illustrated picture books she and her mother would take out from the local library.
Hartley Coleridge (Floral Clock poem) was an English poet who lived from 1796 to 1849.
Shelley Davies (Rainbow puzzle collage) creates colorful artwork with whatever’s at hand. With a love of treasure hunting, every day can turn up something she can make into art, whether it’s a drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage. She likes to go on these treasure hunts with an imaginary dog, sometimes two, just for fun.
Jennifer Davis (Green Grass Grows All Around art) is a painter from Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Her paintings are inspired by furry critters, scary movies, and vintage toys.
Catherine-Laura Dunnington (On Losing Your Rainbow poem) is a writer and doctoral student based in Ottawa, Ontario. Her writing has also taken her to Vermont, Maine, Montana, and Nova Scotia. These landscapes influence the world she writes and lives. She currently is writing narrative research on how children’s stories, and stories of the child within, impart voice and meaning to the everyday.
Heather Feinberg (Ammi text) is a mother, counselor, writer, educator, and the founder of Mindful Kids, a nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, whose purpose is to help children (and the child inside us all) discover their voices, access their power, and, most importantly, connect to their inner knowing.
Nadira Filatova (Maya Angelou quotation) is an artist. She lives in Moscow, Russia and dreams of seeing the whole world.
David Gregal Jr. (Ask Arden art) lives in Maryland. At the end of the day, he loves reading books with his wife and three kids before bedtime.
Aimee Hagerty Johnson (After the Rain art) has always loved to do all kinds of art. Some of her favorite things to draw are horses, sweaters, coffee pots, trees, and telescopes.
Abbigail Knowlton Israelsen (Childhood Secrets art) is an artist who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Abbi likes to look for fossils, mushrooms, and geodes with her four children.
Petya Kazantseva (Covers) lives in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her passion is drawing and creating. She loves to travel and dream of everything beautiful, but mostly she finds her magic when being around friends. Petya adores life, and she has promised herself that she will turn all the impossible into the possible.
Lida Larina (Root & Star comic) lives in Russia. Every day, Lida walks her best friend—her black dog named Babai. After their walk, Lida draws the sleeping Babai.
Gina Marie Mammano (If I Climb a Rainbow poem) is a longtime teacher, storyteller, and poet. In her spare time she likes to sing, play her sweet, silver flute, and make friends with the outside world.
Courtney Mandryk is a maker of this magazine. She finds poetry in breath, in string, and tiny, broken things. Quote: Love yourself. Then forget it. Then love the world.—Mary Oliver.
Erin McInerney (Growing a Rainbow) graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in English and Writing. She likes cartoons, Victorian Novels, plants, and kickboxing.
Erin Meadows (Speaking Mindfully mission poem) is an art and mindfulness instructor. Her background is in theater and education. She works to introduce children to the concept of mindfulness through creativity and movement.
Amy Rice (Hello/Goodbye) is as inspired as much by childhood memories of growing up on a Midwestern farm as by the urban community in which she now lives. She is influenced by bicycles, street art, gardening, and random found objects.
Heather Franzen Rutten (If Thou of Fortune Be Bereft art) is an artist and illustrator living in Pennsylvania. In her free time, she likes playing video games and attending orchestra concerts.
Kathryn Tanis (You’re Magical art) is an illustrator, writer, and jungle explorer. She loves research and uses her artwork to explore topics of evolution, conservation, and animal classification.
John Greenleaf Whittier (If Thou of Fortune Be Bereft poem) was a Quaker poet who lived from 1807 to 1892.
Changming Yuan (Childhood Secrets poem) published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, the 2018 Naji Naaman's Literary (Honour) Prize, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, and nearly 1500 others.