FICTION: Paradox, by Cole Lavalais

  Paradox Cole Lavalais   Lana closed the bedroom door firmly behind her, but it didn’t block out their noise. Even in the elusive moments when screams and screeches and sobbing stopped bouncing off of every solid surface, the reverberation remained. No stranger to self-sacrifice, Lana had done what she was expected to do, until, of course, she discovered the Bruja. Then she did what she was instructed to do. Waiting twenty-three days for the arrival of the quarter moon, then watering the tree with the fruit of forty-two days of her labor—tears, blood, sweat, urine, saliva, all collected from each of them. And for the last eight and a half days, she sat and waited, staring out of her second floor window, watching for something to blossom from the roots of the tree in the front yard. Waiting for the reprieve promised by the Bruja. Two squabbling gray squirrels rolling around the base of the oak tree reminded her of the two squabbling creatures outside of her bedroom door, so she concentrated further up the oak’s trunk. She was forced to look through a translucent version of her own somber face. It was fall, and the leaves were in...
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We're Hiring! A Call for Readers

  Apogee Journal is currently looking for highly motivated and critically minded readers to review submissions in collaboration with our Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction editors. Our submissions are open 4 months out of the year, and last issue we received nearly a thousand submissions. As we continue to grow, we expect to receive even more!   If you are interested in being considered for the position, please email editors@apogeejournal.org by July 1st with the following items: *A Resume or CV * A cover letter that answers the following questions:         1. What genre(s) are you interested in reading for?         2. What do you believe makes a successful piece of writing in chosen genre?         3. Which contemporary writers work are you most interested in, and why?         4. Are you familiar with the mission of Apogee Journal? Why are you interested in working with us? Apogee Journal focuses on publishing art and literature that engage with issues of identity politics: race, gender, sexuality, class, and hyphenated identities. Our goal is to publish exciting work that interrogates the status quo, providing a platform for unheard voices, including emerging...
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