Tag: july 2024
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Orion’s Belt Interview: Audrey Zhou (July 2024)
Sara Omer: In “Five Stages of Shedding a Skin,” Ming grieves her old memories as she prepares for a new life at the hands of the enigmatic Tailor, who will help her shed her old skin like a snake. What inspired this story? Audrey Zhou: This story started with an idea I had nearly a…
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Orion’s Belt Interview: Eleanor Ball (July 2024)
Sara Omer: “The Skeleton Café,” describes the everyday goings-on of an endearingly dreary café for the undead that feels very familiar. What was your inspiration for this poem? Eleanor Ball: My inspiration was my favorite coffee mug, which features a whimsical drawing of a few skeletons reading. These skeletons sport trendy sunglasses and jaunty berets,…
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Five Stages of Shedding a Skin by Audrey Zhou (July 2024 Prose)
1. Denial The only reason anyone gets a new skin is to become someone else. Ming’s skin—the one she was born with, the only one she’s ever known—fits fine, mostly. It’s a little tight, as if stretched taut, but that’s just what happens eventually, everyone says. Growing pains. “Well,” Xuemei says, “I heard there’s this…
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Clarity, Art, and Life by Joshua Fagan (July 2024 Essay)
The idea of art as a reflection of reality is a sensible one in theory that is questionable in execution. Aside from a few intentionally provocative statements made by aesthetes like Oscar Wilde, few writers or thinkers have asserted that art should not attempt to reflect reality. The most common characteristic of bad art is…
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The Skeleton Cafe by Eleanor Ball (July 2024 Poetry)
Clicking teeth keep time in the skeleton cafe. Every table is lit by a yellow candle, which smells like embalmed women and cannot be blown out. The skeletons speak in the grating of bone against bone, skulls half-hidden behind muddy newspapers proclaiming tariffs on devil-made textiles and obituaries of the newly twice-dead. A skeleton rasps, …
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Orions Belt Cover – July 2024
Enjoy the ethereal yearning of this cover for the July 2024 issue of Orion’s Belt, with the cover art brilliantly done by Jacelyn Yap. It is called “Out of Reach.” Get access
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Orion’s Belt Interview: Anne Leonard (July 2024)
Sara Omer: “Oak For Her Bones,” is a poignant tale touching on infertility struggles, self-discovery, and generational pain; however, even when tense, the prose is never bleak. What were your inspirations in carving out this story? Anne Leonard: This started from a writing prompt which I can no longer find, but the prompt led me to…