One Story – 2006

One Story publishes 18 journals a year of one story each. Impeccably edited, professionally dressed, the slender, 5”x7”, pocketable books are a brilliant addition to the lit scene. “The Arrival” (Issue 67) by Robin Romm is not another cancer story.

One Story publishes 18 journals a year of one story each. Impeccably edited, professionally dressed, the slender, 5”x7”, pocketable books are a brilliant addition to the lit scene. “The Arrival” (Issue 67) by Robin Romm is not another cancer story. Amy is discovered on shore by Nina, who welcomes any break in dealing with her cantankerous, terminally ill mother. While Dad’s upstairs napping, Mom dotes on Amy, exposing emotions dormant in Nina. “Is this just jealousy? That I can’t make my mother stand for lunch? That she hasn’t called me dear in ages?” No one knows where Amy came from and no one cares—Romm lays out the competing emotions of grief and appreciation too expertly to worry about such triviality. Another sea born arrival is introduced in Austin Bunn’s mesmerizing “The Ledge” (Issue 68). I loved this story—there’s no better way to say it. Vivid, magical, poignant, part Moby Dick, part Treasure Island, this Columbus-era piece is wholly original. Finding themselves pulled to imminent death, the crew confronts much more than mortality at the last corner of the world. “There are many ledges that split this world.” The other installment for January (One Story publishes bi-monthly on the odd months), “The Six Poisons” (Issue 69), by Dana Shapiro, takes place at a yoga retreat in India, where estranged half-sisters encounter each other and a past corrupted by jealousy. That and the other poisons must be purified from the body before one can reach enlightenment, which is distant for both sisters. Matt Clark’s posthumously published “Baton Rouge: A Doctor Story” (Issue 70) takes on the one-picture-one-thousand-words equation. Wives of doctors are organizing the doctors before a photo shoot and we get clever, biting bios of each doctor and their relationships. One Story’s format gives writers and readers the kind of exposure, dedication to craft and quality that gets lost in busier journals [www.one-story.com]