academyoftheheartandmind Announcements, Fiction, Miscellaneous

Spring Contest Fiction Winner: “Solar Life” by Gail Brown

Sunlight peeked over the horizon. Elanora pushed the woven grass curtain back. No need to call Traden or Shadel from onvine chatting with distant friends. The weather forecast for today was bright sunshine for a full eight hours. She tapped her final vine mail of the night.  The vine quivered as the message shifted off … Continue reading Spring Contest Fiction Winner: “Solar Life” by Gail Brown

academyoftheheartandmind Announcements, Fiction, Poetry

Spring Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “Spring’s Maestro” by Vanaja Malathy

On a pleasant spring daya little brown bird appearedfrom behind the green leafy screen reddish tail of rusty tone, brown chest and belly white-gray throat…the colors adding neither beauty nor glamor the unassuming bird perched unnoticed on the central branchthe bird spread its wings a littleclosed its eyes in meditationits throat swelled the deep breath … Continue reading Spring Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “Spring’s Maestro” by Vanaja Malathy

academyoftheheartandmind Fiction, Poetry

Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “Learning to Love in Another Language” by Haley DiRenzo

Once you’ve mastered introductions,directions, small talk conversations about family and weekend plansOnce certain sentences form themselves with ease, skipping the stop between head and mouth Then how do you describe your heartbeat in another country? Dreams that weave in and outtangled in two different tongues? How do you say, I want to trace the freckles … Continue reading Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “Learning to Love in Another Language” by Haley DiRenzo

academyoftheheartandmind Fiction, romance

Love Song Competition Fiction Winner: “Easy Like Manicotti” by Angie Curneal Palsak

The garage door creaks open, and Ned, who probably shouldn’t be driving, eases his car in. The headlights slice through the cluttered garage, revealing a teetering stack of Amazon boxes piled on a wobbly sofa table against the wall. The headlights also illuminate the garage walls, plastered with our old posters of punk bands we … Continue reading Love Song Competition Fiction Winner: “Easy Like Manicotti” by Angie Curneal Palsak

academyoftheheartandmind Fiction, Poetry

Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “A Winter Love Poem” by James G. Piatt

“Peace, my heart, let the time for  parting be sweet. Let it not be  death but completeness.  Let love melt into memory  and pain into songs.” Rabindranath Tagore Winter sneaked up on us this past year, warning us that our time was near. And, as a clock struck the late hour of the night, we … Continue reading Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “A Winter Love Poem” by James G. Piatt