Snapshots by Eileen Keane

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Photo © Linda Raymond

"I feel disengaged from my life, as if it is a series of stills from a film, or moments captured in images that I offer to the earth. I spread them out there and examine them and rearrange them as if by doing so I might somehow find answers. The older ones seem faded and when I look at them it’s as if my head fills with noise, but when I focus on the ones that link to this place, the din fades and the mellifluous sound of the clarinet takes its place."

Long Story, Short Journal's July 2015 edition is a unique tale from Hennessy-award winning writer Eileen Keane. 'Snapshots' examines tensions that affinity for one's 'home-place' can create in a relationship, while offering 'snapshot' portraits of the endurance and strength that can be drawn from love.  CLICK HERE TO READ 'Snapshots'.

Axman

Photo © Mitch Weiss

“It was the guitar that made us stop for him, that and the unmistakable silhouette, in black, of Castle Bran painted on the white guitar case. The black suit and black and white striped shirt also helped. His hair was long and grey – once black? – and he was as tall and skinny as a lamppost. The only incongruous thing about him was the pair of tiny John Lennon glasses perched on his somewhat long nose.”

'Axman'​ is a wonderfully weird offering from renowned poet and writer Matthew Sweeney, co-author with John Hartley Williams of the novel 'Death Comes for the Poets'. In 'Axman', Sweeney draws on his years in both Germany and Romania to create a unique tale of a guitar-wielding hitchhiker one couple will forever regret picking up, but will also never forget. Sean O'Brien describes Sweeney's approach at the British Literature Council website: "Disliking the term 'Magic Realism', he [Sweeney] has proposed the name 'Alternative Realism'. In this realm, the mundane world lies open to the proverbial, to the peremptory logic of folktale and to the possibility of nightmare derived from what Sweeney calls 'European darkness'." The darkness, humour and lingering mystery in 'Axman' make it a story well worth reading. CLICK HERE TO READ 'AXMAN'.