To read Quill & Still by Aaron Sofaer (she/her) is to discover a revolution fought not with swords or spells, but with intake forms and breakfast routines—a village where every stone house stands by mutual agreement (and where the enchanted toilets probably have union representation).…
Originally written for The Lesbrary, here. Living alone in her late mother’s house in Zwolle, Isabel is a quiet and fiercely guarded woman. An uncle bequeathed the house to the family with the understanding that whenever Isabel’s brother Louis married, he would inherit it. Isabel resides there now under a type of suspended claim—that of a caretaker, but not owner. Louis disturbs her meticulous isolation when he asks her to host Eva, his lover, for the summer while he is away. Isabel grudgingly…
Tonight the candle twines fire with fire, braided flame blooming in the bowl of my hand. It hovers—lucent, tender— in the pause between ease and ache, a flicker caught…
Prague's morning folds like an old letter, its edges softened by time and loss, a city of survived silences, trams tracking scars across cobbled skin. I'm…
Rena Rossner's rich historical fiction The Light of the Midnight Stars is set in medieval Hungary, where three sisters inherit mystical abilities linked to the stars. Rossner deftly combines vividly developed family drama, Eastern European folklore, and Jewish myth into a gently magical and softly unsettling story. What's delightful? Rossner's writing is beautiful without being overpowering; it is dreamy and atmospheric, like telling tales in front of a fire on a chilly evening. The sisters’ re…
