THEMA – Autumn 2009

Thema, the literary journal that boasts “many plots/one premise,” stepped into the kitchen for this edition. Editor Virginia Howard, drawing on memories of her time at a New Orleans bed and breakfast, called for short stories, poems, and artwork “varied as a recipe collection in a cookbook . . . concocted from a wide variety of ingredients for the theme ‘In Kay’s Kitchen’.” The result is a delightful compilation of five illustrations, eight poems, and eleven stories that transport readers into the various interpretations of Kay’s kitchen.

Thema, the literary journal that boasts “many plots/one premise,” stepped into the kitchen for this edition. Editor Virginia Howard, drawing on memories of her time at a New Orleans bed and breakfast, called for short stories, poems, and artwork “varied as a recipe collection in a cookbook . . . concocted from a wide variety of ingredients for the theme ‘In Kay’s Kitchen’.” The result is a delightful compilation of five illustrations, eight poems, and eleven stories that transport readers into the various interpretations of Kay’s kitchen.

The issue begins with an illustration by Malaika Favorite, titled “Country Mother,” a piece of art that truly encompasses the intimate and homey ambience that the journal has in store for its reader. The drawing is done in black and white, and features a tall womanly figure, calm in demeanor, in the midst of two smaller figures and the proverbial form of the farmland rooster. Favorite breathes life into her work through a simple framework of images that speaks of both simplicity and happiness, and it serves as a perfect beginning to the journal.

Favorite is not the only author with the ability to use simplicity in order to convey multifaceted idea’s about Kay’s Kitchen, though. Lori Andrews, in her poem “Making Penne With Basil-Seafood Sauce,” writes about life issues under the guise of a seafood pasta recipe. “Calamari is interesting to cut,” she claims, “all those little legs with their / stories, / those eyes begging a neat divorce, ashamed. . . . I think my son is on drugs you know, so I sauté garlic in olive / oil.” Williams’s skill with words takes readers to a more personal type of kitchen, and it makes her poem particularly noteworthy.

Also worth mentioning is “In-Between Moments” by Sky Andrews Gerspacher, a short story that weaves through the lives of four different people whose common interests are the destruction of a run-down drive-in theatre and a nearby restaurant, run by the elusive Kay, whom readers only get to know through the eyes of the other characters. Gerspacher dives into the lives of these characters, though, so that each of their stories and each of their messages are heard clearly, along with the overall message of the story. “Everyone’s story is different,” she writes. “Bad and unfortunate things happen to people and there isn’t always a villain.” These strong words, written on the first page, set a thought-provoking tone for the rest of the story’s search for the meanings of “good” and “bad” in a world that is not black and white.

This issue of Thema is filled with creative and interesting accounts of Kay’s kitchen, all of which serve as inspiration to readers and writers alike about the possibilities of starting with a theme – even one as ordinary as a kitchen – and transforming it into something original and artistic.
[members.cox.net/thema/]