The Rag Issue 6
Cover at by Justin Duerr
Issue 6: Life Isn’t What You Thought It Was
In The Rag’s 6th issue, many of the characters are struggling with the dichotomy between what life was in their dreams, versus what it has become in reality. The realities here are often quite common: a recent college graduate who’s stuck living with his mother, a young woman looking to climb the corporate ladder and marry rich, a man trying to piece his life back together after a car accident, a woman living in the shadow of her husband’s death. Each attempts to break out of the mundanity of their existence in different ways, with varying degrees of success.
Each of these stories has details that stick with you. The one that stuck with me the most was in Falcon Miller’s Someone in the Room Will. It was that title refrain, “Someone in the room will … take care of it/me/you”, which can be looked at in a few different ways. An optimist might see this as soothing, the idea that there is goodness around, and if one person needs help and can’t cope, that another will step in to take care of them. A pessimist, however, might see an entire world looking away, hoping that someone else will take care of the problems.
The great thing about good writing is that it’s not narrowly defined, and others will be struck by different details in other stories. You can read some readers’ thoughts by scanning through the reviews on Goodreads.com.
You can purchase Issue 6 on our website store or on Amazon.com for $4.99. You can also preview the Issue on Amazon, or you can download a preview of the PDF here.
Contents
Someone in the Room Will by Falcon Miller
Where the Butterflies Meet by Timothy Ghorkin
many many plumbers by Daniel Fuginski (poetry)
Elevation by Andrea O’Rourke (poetry)
Ayesha Miller by Royce Brooks
An Affair by J.A. Bernstein
Floaters by Benjamin Soileau
Swimming with Sharks by Don Boles
Croton Falls Still by Kara Delavoye (poetry)
Kuskanax Creek Jordan Mounteer (poetry)
Pneumatology by Tyler Petty
Oddly Precious Melancholy by Janna Layton
Dog Days and Wet Dreams by J.R. Hamilton
Best Work by Stacey Bryan
Lightin’ Hopkins Emerges from the Woods at Mooresville, In by D.A. Lockhart (poetry)
Todd’s Mom by David Joshua Jennings (poetry)
On Bread Alone by Josh Goller
Art by Justin Duerr
