Art: Malawi from Ningaloo Series by Alyson Gurney
PASSPORT
we ate lunch on the grass in Borodino, laughing, photographing our mates in their dramatic reenactment of the famous battle scene. before hitting the road we used the bathroom – a barn with a hole in the ground. we caroled U2 songs all the way to Smolensk when one of our tour mates announced his passport was missing, last seen this morning in his back pocket. our bus stopped, in a frenzy we searched all overhead compartments, underneath the seats, in the aisles, the luggage, the garbage, we had to retrace our steps, return to Borodino, rummage behind Napoleon and Kutuzov, but there it was as we feared, in the barn, in the hole, on the pile of shit, open, with a New Zealand insignia facing upward. we broke up in teams, Canadian programmers constructed a fishing rod, Australian carpenters worked in shifts wearing bandanas on their faces, British kindergarten teachers transported the unfortunate document back to the bus, American CPAs hosed it off. at the Russian border with Poland, a fat woman in passport control went through every page of every passport, licking her index finger .
Reprinted from Stealing Cherries published by Manic D Press, 2007.
_____________________________________________________________________
About the author:
Marina Rubin’s work had appeared in over eighty magazines and anthologies including 13th Warrior Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Dos Passos Review, 5AM, Nano Fiction, Coal City, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Jewish Currents, Lillith, Pearl, Poet Lore, Skidrow Penthouse, The Worcester Review and many more. She is an editor of Mudfish, the Tribeca literary and art magazine. She is a 2013 recipient of the COJECO Blueprint Fellowship.
Her fourth book, a collection of flash fiction Stealing Cherries was released in November 2013 to rave reviews. “…One of the richer contemporary visions of America that I’ve read, ” said NANO Fiction. “Marina Rubin’s collection of micro-stories hits all the right notes with its humor, warmth and mild perversity,” said Coachella Valley Independent. And Urban Graffiti declared – “ its intimate clash of cultures, political and economic antagonisms, and transgressive sexualities are never very far from the surface of these sometimes nostalgic, sometimes bittersweet, often sensual fictions…”
Should you require any additional information please do not hesitate to contact me at mrubin@starpoint.com or call me directly at 917-539-3645, or check out my website at www.marinarubin.com.
Art: Malawi from Ningaloo Series by Alyson Gurney
In the artist’s words: A collection of organic forms that collide with orthogonal angles.
I am Alyson Gurney, a 21 year old artist graduating from the Savannah College of Art + Design. My influence stems from the natural world around me and how it interacts with manufactured elements.