From the Editor

Dear Readers: Yes, we are still here. I want to thank each of you for your patience. I have long had a terrible self-image, and I do not take well to disappointing others. I go through spells where I am unaffected by it, and others where it consumes me. For over three months, I have been [...]

Dear Readers: We're back. Issue 20 is a milestone. Not because it marks twenty issues in less than four years, but because it shows our potential after some process changes and a challenging last few months. 'Stoic' is filled with tenacity, grit, and feeling. Although it is our smallest issue in terms of content, it [...]

Dear Readers, These are the dog days of summer. Heat swelters in afternoons, and then gives way to cool evening breezes. Air is thick. Clothes stick. Family vacations are memories. School is starting; parents are anxious. COVID strains loom. People are discordant. Tempers and temperatures flare, hope rises and falls, and then falls further. Humankind [...]

Dear Readers, Life is a monolith. I appreciate your patience and grace. Issue 18 is finally here! It is late, and that is my fault. We moved to quarterly issues for 2021, and I underestimated the additional time required to assemble something the size of 'Idle Reveries'. I want to thank everyone who has been [...]

Dear Readers, We at Barren Magazine stand firmly alongside the #BlackLivesMatter movement in effort to uproot and eradicate systemic racism against Black people and people of color. We mourn the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Antwon Rose II, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and every single Black individual who has been [...]

Dearest friends, I am writing to you from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. As only some of you know, I manage a respiratory care department at a large regional hospital in southwest Michigan. We are one of only two hospitals in a 50-mile radius that is a 'funnel' for all patients under investigation [...]

Dear Readers,   It has been a pleasure getting to know so many of you in the writing community. This is our official statement on safety and inclusion: We want to make it crystal clear to everyone that Barren Magazine is a safe space that embraces the beauty of the human condition and celebrates diversity, inclusion, and [...]

Dear Readers,   When I was in high school, I picked up a copy of The Sun magazine, a diamond in the rough of wannabe-smart lit mags. It spoke to me: a corner logo color burst atop a monochrome photo of an African boy with a water pail, mired in dirt and poverty, eyes wide and white. [...]