News & Notes

Chores, T-Shirts, and All Night

Upcoming Readers Write Deadlines

There’s still time to submit to Readers Write on “Chores”! Be sure to get your entry to us by September 1, 2024—we’ve suggested a few potential prompts if you still need to get your creative juices flowing. And it’s never too early to start your first draft for an upcoming topic. . . .

Listen to Poems from Our August Issue

The two poems in our August issue are like mirror images of each other, taking the same theme in reverse directions. In Nadia Colburn’s “August at Forty-Three,” a mother looks to the future, wishing for a child yet to be. The speaker in Jim Moore’s “Better Yet” looks back to his own origin, imagining a return to his “mother’s ocean.” You can enjoy these complementary visions by listening to the authors read their poems.

Loosening the Strings

Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum on Craft, Curiosity, and Letting Go

Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s story “Clean Breaks,” which appears in our August issue, is her first publication in The Sun. When Kirsten and I spoke by video call, she was in an eight-by-eight-foot room in her yard that her husband built for her. She referred to the space as a sanctuary, a place where she can teach and write without interruption. The idea of closeting oneself away for solitude reminded me of Sonja, the main character in “Clean Breaks,” who, after experiencing a traumatic event, leaves her home and nursing career behind to live alone on a sailboat. Kirsten and I discussed the inspiration for this story as well as her writing process for her forthcoming novel, Elita.

Reminiscing About School Days

Selections from the Archive

Our August issue looks at the way endings and beginnings are intertwined. This time of year the summer is winding down, and parents and children are gearing up for school. I miss the long cycle of the school year: the end and the new start. I rummaged around in The Sun archive for some pieces that could bring back that first-day feeling.

Tents, Chores, and T-Shirts

Upcoming Readers Write Deadlines

There’s still time to submit to Readers Write on “Tents”! Be sure to get your entry to us by August 1, 2024—we’ve suggested a few potential prompts if you still need to get your creative juices flowing. And it’s never too early to start your first draft for an upcoming topic. . . .

Where the Hunger Leads

Kate Osterloh on Building a New Life

The Sun has published three short stories by Kate Osterloh. Her writing is warm and rich, and her characters feel real and complex. But after reading each of her pieces, I found myself increasingly curious about Kate’s life and experiences. I knew little about her, except that she is a former US foreign diplomat, which only made her seem more mythical. I was thrilled when Kate agreed to talk with me about her essay in our July 2024 issue, “New Life,” which recounts how she created a fresh start for herself, moved west, and became a mother. In conversation she was inviting and compassionate, and we talked for an hour, but we could have easily continued for another.

Listen to Poems from Our July Issue

Our July issue features two captivating—and very different—poems about animals. One is a gorgeous, ruminative piece that makes me feel as grounded as a stone in a stream. The other is a loving ode to a headstrong pet who can teach us all a lesson about taking charge of our lives.

Thoreau and Me

Read an Essay from an Upcoming Issue

If I had to pick a Sun author who comes closest to achieving a truly simple existence, it would be the poet Sparrow, who writes, “I don’t live off the grid, but I’m close. I live right on the edge of the grid.” Fittingly he wrote the following tribute to Henry David Thoreau.

The essay will appear in a forthcoming print issue of The Sun, but we’re sharing it early online in celebration of Thoreau’s birthday today, July 12.

Practicing Friendship

Sy Safransky and Sparrow

Sy Safransky and I visited longtime Sun contributor Sparrow in his double-wide in Phoenicia, New York, the place he’s called home for about twenty-five years. We had been forbidden to show up before 12:01 PM because Sparrow has a practice of not speaking until noon. Having spent time with them, I can tell you Sy and Sparrow are like long-lost brothers: both Jews from New York with an interest in Eastern mysticism, who read more than anyone I know and live according to their principles, consequences be damned.

Holidays in The Sun

Selections from the Archive

Our July issue features an essay by longtime Sun contributor Dave Zoby in which he describes driving across the Canadian wilderness en route to Casper, Wyoming, on Canada Day. Zoby didn’t realize it was Canada’s national holiday until he tried to visit a bakery that was closed for the day. Such can be the case for an American abroad.

It’s one of many pieces published in The Sun where a holiday plays a central role. To celebrate Independence Day, here are a few that have appeared in our pages over the years.