Offshoots 10


Introduction

Let us celebrate the occasion
with wine and sweet words.
Plautus, Roman Playwright, c.254–c.184 BC

Offshoots 10 was published in September 2009

Twenty years old is a grand age for a literary anthology. The Geneva Writers’ Group celebrates this anniversary with Offshoots 10. We members of the GWG are nearly all foreign to Geneva and if we write in English that does not necessarily mean the language is our mother tongue or even that we use it daily. Still, it remains our common denominator; we use the English language as an extension of ourselves.
As strangers, we have all felt the Earth tilt on its axis and we have not always been sure if we are turning towards or away from the sun. But though we are uprooted, we continue to send out new shoots, nourished by loamy, invisible soil.
Offshoots 10 reflects our maturity. We hope our anthology goes beyond alienation and nostalgia, twin stumbling blocks for all writers living abroad, to reveal compassion and an affirmation of life over and beyond the tragedies and absurdities we encounter. Often nature is our solace, we vibrate to its seasons and diversity, though we also write about its raw destructive forces as well as the damage we humans inflict on the natural world. In a fundamental way, we recognize that life and death move within mystery.
Offshoots 10 is rooted in universal emotions: love, anger, grief, fear, joy, reverence and enduring hope. We affirm the importance of relationships. We deliberately write both about ourselves and “the other” and we use farce, pathos, poetry and myth, tools passed down to us from generation to generation. Ever since our predecessors told stories by firelight in shadowy caves, we writers have needed to express our feelings and experiences in an attempt to acquire purpose and understanding about our lives and the world around us.
The texts are arranged in loose cyclical order so that they mirror a human being’s spiralling physical and emotional growth. If our sweet words quicken your spirit or provoke a smile, then we have succeeded and we are celebrating together our common humanity.

Jo Ann Hansen Rasch
Editor

 

Writing in Offshoots 10


Marlyn Czajkowski Zaiden The Language of Existence
Catherine L. Hayoz Elodie
Keith Stimpson Mother and Baby
Bronwyn Lay Fire Breath
Lisa Karlin-Rigo Surrender 
Lang-Hoan Pham Prayers in the Wind
Alexa Intrator November Garden
Julianne Di Nenna Fig Tree
Bob Piller Privileged
Keith Stimpson Sebastopol Street
Christine Scott Blue Plastic Chair
Adrienne Hahne Absence
Katariina K. Alongi Dragonfly
Christiane Ledakis Bougainvillea Branches
Jacqueline Cooper War Comes to Alexandria
Erika Anderson gong meditation
Daniela I. Norris Clockworks
Angela Brett Role Reversal
Emma Johnson Excavations
Manolita Farolan That Other Country
Valerie Harrison On the Outside Looking In
Leti Baumgartner Time
Rachel Hosein-Nisbet Migration
Caroline Thonger Ex Aequo
John Zimmer Turkish Delight
Jan Harrington Girls In Summer
Alistair Scott The Way We Are
Paula K. Read Embrace
Yvonne de Grandbois Moonlit Heartbeat
Ruary O Siochain Winter in Geneva
Beth Peoc’h Memoire d’Homme
Sunanda Krishnamurty At Crossroads
Karen Laudenslager McDermott road trip
Kathy Giannini Les Laumes
Pamela Taylor Jennings Reza Han
Zeki Ergas Gaza
R.M. Byrd A Home Beneath the Sycamores
Wallis Wilde-Menozzi White Geranium
Susan M. Tiberghien Nautilus Shell
Peter Meinke Sunday Brunch at Point Lookout
Mary Njeri Kinyanjui Coffee Time
Wallis Wilde-Menozzi Accepting Need
Jan Harrington Scavenger
Susan M. Tiberghien Something’s Changed
Duncan McGibbon Letter to Friends in Iceland
Mary Scheurer Plain of Plenty


For further details and to buy copies, contact Offshoots sales

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