A Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Issue 28 of StepAway Magazine.

This issue takes us on another meandering adventure featuring walking narratives from across the globe. As I write this letter, the linden and sycamore trees that I can see from my office window are rapidly turning to a crisp russet-brown, and their leaves are already gathering in my porchway to give a satisfying crunch underfoot. What better way then to open this issue than with E A M Harris’s “Autumn in Heald Green” which transports us to the suburban streets of Greater Manchester, capturing that “misty in-between” nature of the season. We then move one hundred and sixty miles south to Bristol with Amy Bacon’s “Bristol Ode” which plunges us into the commotion of urban life. Next, John Short’s “The Dogs of Athens” examines animal life in the city; a network of “crazy, noisy…canine delinquents” who communicate in howls. Joe Bishop’s “Justine” then whirls us around a Latin Quarter dive bar, as a jazz trio set the evening’s rhythm, before we are again pulled out of the city by Rhea Cassidy’s “Anatomy of Suburbia”. In “Hotel Window, Changshou, China” Simon Costello confides: “this is what you missed while you slept,” offering a sensuous description of a district of Chongqing in the early hours. Steven Fraccaro’s “For William Gass and Alan Davies” remains in the nocturnal city, philosophically pondering the nature of urban detritus. We then experience the surreal white nights of Finnish Lapland in Marc Swan’s “Tango” and the bohemian worlds of San Francisco in Kimberly White’s “a city condo/hiding out from god”. We end huddled under an awning seeking shelter from the rain in David Francis’s “A River in Buenos Aires”.

The cover art for this issue comes courtesy of the photographer Mimizane Jr. – a strikingly minimal blade of light slicing through the main post office in Lucerne, Switzerland.

From Buenos Aires to Changsou, Issue 28 takes us on a remarkable journey. As always, I do hope that you enjoy the walk.

Yours faithfully,

Darren Richard Carlaw

editor@stepawaymagazine.com