Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume III

Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume III, picks up where Volume II left off, at times slowing the pace to allow for thoughtful introspection, but never forgetting the importance of wonder and adventure.The foreword by Lidia Yuknavitch reminds us to celebrate lives dedicated to words as a kind of devotion.Regular contributor George Wells takes readers on a walk across the field between how things are and how they're remembered in To the River.The Story of a Mother by Mika Hillery is an honest and painful journey through the grief of losing a child. The story here ends on a hopeful note, but as this is Spark's first Creative Nonfiction inclusion, the Hilleries' real-life story goes on and can be followed on their blog.Christopher Michel wrote Night Class in Syracuse to record the scene he encountered while attending lectures by Brooks Haxton. Through the story he tells and his writing itself, Fatman Butter paints a portrait of man s ability to find a silver lining in the most testing circumstances of adversity in Silver Linings.Leafing by Elizabeth Sachs is a love story, exploring a relationship's evolution as necessitated by Alzheimer's disease.Cathy Bryant wrote Yellow Roses on Snow after visiting Sylvia Plath's grave on the fiftieth anniversary of her death.As the train moves forward in Letters to Mary, the tension provided by Megan Turner lies as much in what is unsaid as in what is said.Traditional Southern imagery is freshly woven by D.A. Gray in the sophisticated and evocative poem Sleepless on Medicine Creek.Alexis A. Hunter's third installment of By The Gun raises the stakes for Della and adds a paranormal twist as she finds herself on the Wrong Side of God. Through the dreamlike language of Sister Eugénie's Wonderful Glass Eye, Barbara Black invites the reader to explore the aquatic depths of the imagination.In a delightful injection of levity, Ben Thompson brings an unlikable narrator to All-You-Can-Eat. As he makes his way through the local buffet, will you find yourself rooting against him or for him?When an anomalous baby is born to young parents, Janet E. Irvin explores the couple's difficulties of raising a daughter who is "different" in A Brief Theory of Triangular Scale.Temporal Shift by Tom Pescatore paints the very same location at very different times.John W. Buckley deftly provides the soundtrack to an evening of acquaintances lost and acquaintances regained in Jukebox Lament.Despair against nature leads to unexpected salvation in Christian Fennell's Angel of the Equinox.Before Ararat introduces fresh perspectives on a familiar story a recurring approach in Kari Castor's poetry. Her work also appeared in Volume I.In Call, Talk, Lock, Deborah Miller-Collins takes an unusual occurrence and develops it into an event that brings together two strangers who need each other.Beatriz F. Fernandez pens a response from the woman to Sherlock Holmes, signed Very Truly Yours, Irene Norton, née Adler.  Escape seems impossible for Cassie in the fiery suspense Gold Stars and Forget-Me-Nots by Francesca Linton.In Inner Night by Michael Campagnoli, a woman waits for an unknown lover.Caroline Zarlengo Sposto asks, "How far would you go to stand up for and even protect a stranger?" in Chivalry.To conclude Volume III, a mother savors a moment with her infant son and contemplates the day he will inevitably leave in Rebekah Orton's Future Wife.