Pulp Literature Winter 2021 - Bhat Shashi

With A Foundations of Lies by cover artist Kris Sayer, we emerge from the dark woods with Tatterhood's loyal goat Bokki. Sword in hand (or mouth!), and fierce battle won, we are ready to take on the varied landscapes of this issue, no passport required.

In 'The Library Giant' by feature author Shashi Bhat, the struggle with nature - human nature - rages deep within. Meanwhile, in British Columbia and Iceland, ghosts of grief wander with the living as KT Wagner, SL Leong, and Erin Wagner explore the rocky terrain of memory.

And whether in a culvert or factory, but most certainly within one's own mind, Mike Gillis and Brandon Crilly remind us how difficult it can be to navigate wreckage of the heart.

Forest, river, mountain, ocean - Mother Nature has a starring role in the winning stories for the 2020 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize: 'The Weeping Pools' and 'River's Thousand-One Voice' by Cadence Mandybura, and 'Glimpse of a Goddess' by Laura Kuhlmann.

Poets Abner Porzio, with 'Californian Illusion', and Michael Penny, with 'Kalaloch Beach, WA', introduce us to two very different wild west coasts.

Next, take flight and soar above it all with part three of Joseph Stilwell and Hugh Henderson's comic saga Blue Skies over Nine Isles.

And finally, heroines Frankie Ray and Allaigna enter dangerous territory of their own as they search for clues to murder. In 'Sleuth With Star Quality' by Mel Anastasiou, Frankie Ray dons a disguise and braves a brothel. And in 'The Killing Ground', the second part of Allaigna's Song: Oburakor by JM Landels, Allaigna buries the dead in a blood-soaked wasteland.