AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought
ARCHIVES: VOLUME 2
"Anyone possessing [a sense of possibility] does not say, for instance: Here this or that has happened, will happen, must happen. He uses his imagination and says: Here such and such might, should or ought to happen. And if he is told that something is the way it is, then he thinks: Well, it could probably just as easily be some other way. So the sense of possibility might be defined outright as the capacity to think how everything could 'just as easily' be, and to attach no more importance to what is than to what is not. It will be seen that the consequences of such a creative disposition may be remarkable, and unfortunately they not infrequently make the things that other people admire appear wrong and the things that other people prohibit permissible, or even make both appear a matter of indifference. Such possibilitarians live, it is said, within a finer web, a web of haze, imaginings, fantasy and the subjunctive mood. If children show this tendency it is vigorously driven out of them, and in their presence such people are referred to as crackbrains, dreamers, weaklings, know-alls, and carpers and cavillers."
- Robert Musil, "The Man Without Qualities"
Volume 2, Issue 4 (2017)
SHORT FICTION (CONTEST WINNER): Claimed by the Sea by Sam Reese
PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY/APHORISMS: Sylvan Passages by Dan Wood POETRY: Sister Alone by Janet M. Powers SHORT FICTION: Century 2.1 by Alan Flurry |
Volume 2, Issue 3 (2017)
SHORT FICTION (CONTEST WINNER): Crosshatching by M.K. Rainey
SHORT FICTION: Lullaby by Barbara Daddino PROSE POETRY: Housemouth (and other poems) by Anhvu Buchanan and Brent Piller SHORT FICTION: The Residue in Public Tea and Coffee Cups by V.B. Borjen POETRY: Syzygy (and other poems) by Malorie Seeley-Sherwood |
Volume 2, Issue 2 (2017)
ESSAY: And Richard Burbage Had a Sister by Freya Shipley
SHORT FICTION: The Watchers by M.K. Rainey POETRY: Jazz Interaction With Symbols by Sarah T. POETIC ESSAY: Dragonflies: A Discourse on Anxiety by Lara Lillibridge POETRY: Spider (and other poems) by Natalie Crick |
Volume 2, Issue 1 (2017)
SHORT STORY: Echoes by Daniel Freeman
POETRY: Maps, guided thought tape #30, & guided thought tape #5,723 by Susan Brennan SHORT STORY: Edgar's Father's Magic Words by JWM Morgan POETRY: Lockjaw: In Two Acts, Pyramids of Complex Thought, & A Comet's Return by James Blevins NOVEL EXCERPT (CONTEST WINNER): What the Living Do (Chapters 1 & 2) by Susan E. Wadds |
Our mission: We love work that is linguistically, intellectually, and emotionally demanding of the reader. We want literary fiction that grows in complexity upon each visitation. All writers tend to develop a scrap heap of brilliant writing - sharp dialogue that has been cut in service of a plot, a philosophical tirade that can't quite be couched in a narrative, a stunning imagistic landscape of linguistic pyrotechnics that seeks an audience... Literary beauty exists in more than the conventional narrative, we believe, and the most cerebral moments cannot necessarily be expressed in more than bursts and fragments. We seek to provide a space for those portions of works that have been cut away through no fault of their own as well as for those who have achieved a more traditional fruition.
Every piece published in AZURE appears alongside a customized black & white sketch that is devised and executed by our in-house illustrator, Evgenia Barsheva.
Every piece published in AZURE appears alongside a customized black & white sketch that is devised and executed by our in-house illustrator, Evgenia Barsheva.
Customized illustrations for all published pieces are provided by Evgenia Barsheva.