Righteyeddeer Issue 6

A prime selection of poetry and fiction from the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Portugal, Denmark and Australia. Quirky landscape art from Ontario artist, Douglas Pugh.

E. Russell Smith is one of those amazing poets that can show you the great things in life, or the simple. They will both leave you relishing his words. He combines observation with worldwide travel, the humanity of hope and spirit.

When Dr Stockmann discovers that the water in the small Norwegian town in which he is the resident physician has been contaminated, he does what any responsible citizen would do: reports it to the authorities. But Stockmann's good deed has the potential to ruin the town's reputation as a popular spa destination, and instead of being hailed as a hero, Stockmann is labelled an enemy of the people. Arthur Miller's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic drama is a classic in itself, a penetrating exploration of what happens when the truth comes up against the will of the majority.

Edited by John Wilks, this is a fine selection of both poetry and short fiction that represents the very best writing from 12 weeks of The NOT The Whittaker Prize 2013. Contributors from the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA

Prepare to enter a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where elephants squat in living rooms, plastic ducks fall from the skies and even the rabbits can’t be trusted. The fifty-eight stories in Jonathan Pinnock’s Scott Prize-winning collection Dot Dash show a vivid yet disciplined imagination at work.These stories, many of which have individually won prizes, are populated by a rich variety of characters, including a tightrope-walking couple with marital issues, a graffiti artist with an agenda and an interviewee who’s about to find out some awkward truths about himself. Very few of them turn out to be completely innocent, and none of them remains unaffected by the experience.Jonathan Pinnock’s unashamedly entertaining fictions explore what happens when the macabre and the absurd crash headlong into everyday life. As writer Tania Hershman says, he ‘isn’t content to just pull back the curtain, but sets fire to it and chuckles as it blazes’. With this incendiary first collection, he invites readers to pull up a chair and watch the flames rise.

India’s Westernized elite, cut off from local traditions, ‘want to write a full stop in a land where there are no full stops’. From that striking insight Mark Tully has woven a superb series of ‘stories’ which explore Calcutta, from the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad (probably the biggest religious festival in the world) to the televising of a Hindu epic. Throughout, he combines analysis of major issues with a feel for the fine texture and human realities of Indian life. The result is a revelation. 'The ten essays, written with clarity, warmth of feeling and critical balance and understanding, provide as lively a view as one can hope for of the panorama of India.’ K. Natwar-Singh in the Financial Times

Attiya's cheating husband is murdered in a Bangkok nightclub, leaving her to raise their ten year old son, Den, alone. The killer, Surapat Wongsuphan, is a member of the country's "elite", who expects his father's wealth to once again get him out of trouble. But this time it's different. As Thailand's Old Money families rally against the Wongsuphan's, Attiya, Den and Surapat's lives will change in the most unexpected ways -- even as fate binds them together. Set in Bangkok, Vientiane and London, "The Mask Under My Face" is about what happens when those above the law fall within the reach of the powerless.