Female sommelier Marie Vayron’s love for wine has taken her from Paris to New York. It’s a common misconception that joining the family business stems from some sort of personal inertia.
06 Rejection
Poem: Alisha by Karla Lamb
Karla Lamb earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from GVSU, where she served as a poetry copy-editor for Fishladder and a contributor for INwriting newsletter. Her poetry has appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, Neon Lung and two issues of Runaway Hotel. Her poem “Dear Father” was recently anthologized in Voices from the Attic Volume XIX. She is currently enrolled in Carlow University’s Creative Writing MFA program. She curates DOUBLE MIR OR Exhibit, while attending workshops, readings and collaborating with other artists and writers in Pittsburgh.
Poem: Ode to Pluto by Kelli Russell Agodon
I keep hoping for a reinstatement, for Pluto to return to the end of the line of planets, the period, the punctuation of the galaxy. It wasn’t so long ago, we were planetary, a speck of dark matter floating around the Milky Way, our parents’ universe.
Over and Over by Margherita Urbani
Margherita Urbani is an illustrator, graphic designer and art director. She was born and received her education in Italy before moving to the States in 2008. Her comics have been published in The New York Times, IL Magazine, Apartamento Magazine and others.
From Tehran to Tehrangeles: Iranian Women’s Rejection of Body Hair
Iranian women avoid body hair like the plague. The norm is to commit to hairlessness, which is ironic for a population predominantly blessed with thick, dark hair.
Hurt Until It Laughs
For comedians Carolyn Castiglia and Lane Moore, painful topics mean opportunities for entertainment and connection.
This Is Me: How Chronic Illness Taught Me to Stop Hiding
After a year in the hospital, after blood transfusions and surgeries and chemotherapy not for cancer but to halt my immune system’s war against me, the appearance of my 15-year-old body had drastically changed.
No Great Women Artists: A Lesson to Be Learned
In recent history, a growing acknowledgement of gender disparity in the workplace has led to more conversations about women’s initiatives and an increased focus on mentorship programs.
#BYEFELIPE: Instagram and the Art of Public Shaming
Instagram accounts like #byefelipe have become Public Shaming 2.0— giving women a chance to fight back.
The Time I Realized My Hair Defies Gravity
I subscribed to the respectability politics of grooming African American hair, believing if I hid my blackness just enough, I would be acceptable.
Rejected by the World: A Refugee’s Journey
The war that has so far claimed over a quarter million Syrian lives, including those of 30,000 children, has also displaced Thair and his entire family, disrupted his studies, and left the recent university graduate feeling squeezed out of the successful future he had long imagined and worked hard to achieve.
Pages: Marguerite Duras’ The Lover
Rejection is either an act or a state of being. Marguerite Duras explores both in “The Lover,” an autobiography that itself rejects conventional prose …
The Outside View: How Rejection and Failure Can Bring Us Back to Life
Most of us are so humiliated by failure and rejection. But with loss come opportunities to subvert traditional definitions of success.