Tag: writing

Tourist

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By Jozlyn Basso

There are landmines in our backyard,
and I carefully jump around
them while Dad takes apart
his Smith & Wesson and drenches
the porch with molten black oil.
The sticky stains coat a ringing shadow
of Mom’s fallen
windchimes, their bells tolling
in the voice of God,
and Dad can’t tell if they’re damning him or not.
Today, the sun shines hotter
than it did in Iraq,
and Dad warns me to get back in the house
before my skin is burned.
Through the tan curtains, I see
Dad cup his head in his hands.
From far away, his knuckles look less calloused
and sometimes I imagine them, all soft
and rosy, before they learned
to slide delicately
between trigger and soul.


-In memory of SPC Timothy Gresham, walk tall young man.


Biographical Statement: Hello! My name is Jozlyn Basso, and I am a sophomore at VCU. A teacher introduced me to poetry in elementary school, and since then, I have been compelled to write. Poetry has been a dominant force in my life, and I hate it almost as much as I am infatuated with it. Beyond writing, I find great joy in relaxing in nature and being surrounded by family and friends.

Night Kitty

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By Christine Stoddard

My eyes fall on the lights and shadows cutting up the Neotropical forest. Patches of gold and green collide with crevices colored deep browns and blacks. Agave and rubber trees form an army that marches on for miles. Maybe to them I am a rogue soldier, hunting for a news story to publish in the military newspaper. My camera hangs from my neck, bouncing off my chest whenever I speed up. I seek nothing new, but rather something old. This is my grandmother’s backyard. Though she has been dead 40 years, perhaps her face lives in a log or her heart lies pounding on a stump, nestled by ferns. I cannot know if I do not look.

When a hibiscus bush rustles, I freeze. More plants start to dance. Then a jaguar, ebony with the faintest smattering of spots on its forehead and sharp shoulder blades, emerges from the foliage. It might have crossed my path without acknowledging me, but I lose my balance and snap a twig under my ugly hiking boot. The jaguar shoots its big head toward me. Its amber eyes roll around, betraying their bored owner, and its massive jaw hangs open. I fear I might have angered the jaguar, but it is only annoyed. It snuffles like it’s clearing its nostrils, though I suppose that is a reluctant greeting. Without thinking, I exclaim, “Abuela!” In the same instant, I lift my camera. Too late. The jaguar has already leapt across the remainder of the path and into the brush. The movement is so swift and clean that the plants it pushes past only tremble for a moment after the beast has gone. Meanwhile, I cannot move so swiftly, or at all. When I finally do, I turn around and head back toward camp, not a single photograph saved to my SD card.


Biographical Statement: Christine Stoddard is a filmmaker, performer, writer, and artist named Brooklyn Magazine’s Top 50 Most Fascinating People and has won BestOfBk.com’s Best Artist. She runs the YouTube channel @StoddardSays and co-hosts the comedy TV show “Don’t Mind If I Don’t” on YouTube @DontMindTheShow. As an undergrad at VCUarts, she started her career writing books, exhibiting art, founding Quail Bell Magazine, and directing the documentary “The Persistence of Poe.” ​Her work has appeared in the Portland Review, Ms. Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The Feminist Wire, City Limits, and beyond. Her books include Desert Fox by the Sea, Belladonna Magic, Water for the Cactus Woman, and other titles.

Cobblestones is Open for Submissions!

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Hello readers!

As of today, Cobblestones is open for all submissions. Our editor will be reviewing submissions in the categories of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual arts on a rolling basis until the end of March 2025. Please use our submission form to submit your work. Work submitted by any other means (comments, emails, etc.) will not be considered.

If you have any questions about the submissions process, please reference our editorial guidelines. If the answer to your question is not in our guidelines, feel free to post it as a comment on this post. Our editor will be monitoring comments and answering questions throughout the submissions cycle.

Once your work has been reviewed, you will be notified of our decision via an email to the address you entered in the submission form.

Happy reading!

Cobblestones Editorial Guidelines

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Hello readers!

A publication must stand for something, or else why does it exist? Cobblestones was conceived as a practical editorial exercise, but if artists are asked to contribute their hard work to a publication, then the publication must stand for and center them. These simple principles are intended to articulate exactly how Cobblestones will do so in actual practice. They will serve as touchstones when a theory of publication is inevitably tested by real conditions over the course of this directed study.

  1. Listen to the artist. Without artists, there are no publications. The artists are the purpose and the stars of the publication. It is presumptuous to speak for them. Every artist will be invited to submit a biographical statement and an artist’s statement about their piece(s) for publication alongside their creative work.
  2. Pay the artist. Art is work. All work deserves pay. Even if the amount that can practically be paid is relatively nominal, each artist whose work is accepted must be compensated. Cobblestones will pay $20 per accepted submission.
  3. Never ghost the artist. The artist invested time and energy to submit their work, and to do so is to put oneself in a vulnerable position. All submissions will be responded to, regardless of the answer given, as a matter of professional respect. 
  4. Punch up, not down. Art is inherently political. Soliciting artistic production is therefore a political act. Cobblestones will take every opportunity to stand in solidarity with historically marginalized communities and will not accept submissions that seek to harm them. Submissions of a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise bigoted nature will be rejected. Submissions that challenge systems of oppression will be encouraged.
  5. No robots. Art is a human activity, and humans deserve the credit and payment for its production. Cobblestones will not accept work that is the result of generative AI. Please do not submit work that has been generated by an AI.
  6. Be accessible. Art should be readily accessible regardless of the audience’s means. Publication should be equally accessible regardless of the artist’s means. Cobblestones will never put any portion of its collected work behind a paywall of any kind. Cobblestones will not seek to limit the republication rights of the work it prints. Cobblestones will never charge artists a reading or submission fee.