The Gold Medal Game
by Naveen Dosaj
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
Honourable Mention - Grades 5 & 6
June 6th, 2022, Rouyn-Noranda, 6:45pm. Gold medal game of the Quebec Little League provincial baseball tournament. Our hero steps up at-bat with nobody on base, with no outs and a tied match.
I step in and wait for a pitch. A juicy ball hangs over the plate. I reach out and swing my bat. CRACK. The ball soars through the infield as the opponents dodge the speed of the ball. In the outfield, the ball slowly stops as the center fielder picks it up with a sticky palm and throws to the second baseman.
Our hero has already passed second base and is heading to third… he slides in right before the throw from the cut-off man (the second baseman) and gets to third base easily. He does a sort of celebration as his teammates cheer him on and dance with him.
Next up at-bat for the NDG Black Lynx is Owen Lindsay, all Owen must hit the baseball hard on the ground or hit it in the outfield. The Patriots put their defense in, if an infielder receives the ball, they will immediately throw to home plate to prevent the winning run from scoring.
Back to the game. Owen is ready, I am ready, and the pitcher is ready. The pitcher throws the ball and Owen swings as hard as he can, but he misses. That’s okay. The pitcher winds up and Owen strikes his bat at the ball. It’s a weak ground ball hit directly to the Shortstop. He charges the ball as I dash towards home plate as fast as a cheetah chasing its prey.
The Shortstop throws the ball while I slide belly first into home plate. The catcher tags me violently with his glove but it’s up to the umpire to make the decision of whether I am safe or not.
The umpire at home plate is old, and old umpires make better decisions than young umpires. The moment of truth is upon us: safe or out?
“You’rrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee…”
jury comments
The jury said that “The Gold Medal Game”by Naveen Dosaj was dynamic, lively, and full of energy. They praised the story’s vivid descriptions, clever ending, and strong narrative voice, and appreciated how it left readers eager for more.
by Greg Santos
It’s that in-between season again—when leaves rustle underfoot, pumpkins start appearing on stoops, and change is visible everywhere you look. The days grow shorter, the nights stretch longer, and the world feels charged with the possibility of transformation — fittingly, the theme of this issue.
Creative non-fiction by Lauren Barbato
Wear your best Forever 21 dress, the one the feminist housewife from Beverly Hills called posh, to the office every Thursday
Creative non-fiction by Raena Shirali
I don’t remember the first lie I told, the same way I don’t have a first memory—no first impression of my surroundings vignetted, no rose-tinted arrival at consciousness.
Comic by Annabelle Olendzki
Annabelle Olendzki, less formally known as “Moowsie” online, is a queer comic artist based in Western Massachusetts.
Comic by stef lenk
stef lenk is an illustrator and writer whose work has appeared in Brick Literary Journal, This Magazine, Rue Morgue magazine and Broken Pencil magazine amongst others.
Fiction by Anne Baldo
“Every good girl has daddy issues,” Maddie says, gulping from a two-litre jug of No Name cranberry juice because she has a terrible urinary tract infection.
Fiction by Anthony Portulese
Nothing exhilarates me more than the friction of hairy legs in high-heeled boots.
Fiction by Becky Petterson
Sally brought a seashell for her first show and tell. It was small and curved towards itself like a cupped hand.
Fiction by Leah Mosier-Farquharson
Allen told her that accidents didn’t exist, that everything happened for a reason and any mistake was at least subconsciously accounted for.
Fiction by Natalie Kishchuk
Trulie felt the bracelet break, its relinquishment, pale pink beads dropping from her wrist onto the flannels she had piled as a pillow, pooling into the hollow made by the weight of her head.
Photography by Ben Erlandson
David Orr explains, ‘Bioregionalism’ is the name given to our attempts to integrate the ecological potential of an ecosystem into our institutions.
Photography by Emem Etti
This photo series meditates on the devouring nature of love, lust, and yearning. As intimacy deepens between oneself and another, The Self, as a fixed whole, dissolves.
Photography by Gage Michael Wheatley
These images were taken over a summer spent walking through the places where people used to be, or where they only barely remain.
Poetry by Aris Keshav
It feels good to get things done. In four hours of
television the doctors save eight lives
Poetry by Foster Gareau
The time is
now,
as usual.
Poetry by Grace Lau
Phagocytosis (n): from the Ancient Greek φαγεῖν (phagein) 'to eat’ and κύτος (kytos) 'cell.’
Poetry by Jaspreet Singh
Darwish isn’t born yet
Poetry by M.C. Jia
You know what, I’m tired of fighting
Modernity is mostly good
Poetry by Sandra Sylvia Nelson
Scotland is fighting period
poverty by providing free sanitary
products in schools and libraries.
Poetry by Tolu Oloruntoba
From the entropic raft of my body
I surmise the heat death of the universe.
Translation by Dawson Ford Campbell
I am a sieve. A medium-sized strainer picked up at Renaissance, with a weave that’s tighter in places, a rim that’s lightly rusted.
Translation by Sunny Doyle
Martha died on September 1st, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. She was 29 years old, the last of her species: the passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius.
by Aderes Z.
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
First Place - Grades 5 & 6
Jjjjjjjjj! Tik tik tik! Ding! And into the fridge I went. I bet you’re wondering why I’m in the fridge. That’s an easy question to answer. I’m a cupcake, well more like a muffin right now, I don’t have my frosting on yet.
by Anastasia Maria I.
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
Second Place - Grades 5 & 6
Le soleil brillait haut dans le ciel et aucun nuage ne risquait de cacher son beau visage d’or. C’était vers midi quand une colonie de fourmis marchait en chantant dans le bois.
by Naveen Dosaj
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
Honourable Mention - Grades 5 & 6
June 6th, 2022, Rouyn-Noranda, 6:45pm. Gold medal game of the Quebec Little League provincial baseball tournament. Our hero steps up at-bat with nobody on base, with no outs and a tied match.
by Nona Morakabaty
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
Honourable Mention - Grades 5 & 6
Natation avec nations attends son attention actuel sincérement actuellement sensation avec sentiment mélé dans l’obscurité de l’obscure dans le sanglot de mon couer
by Matti Gonzalez-Idan
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest
First Place - Grades 3 & 4
Le forêt s’endort… mais pas ses prédateurs. Parmi eux, un loup pas comme les autres. Un loup-garou détective.
by Sarah Israel and Adèle Menache
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers Contest
Second place - Grades 3 & 4
Il était une fois, trois jeunes filles, une nommée Camille, une nommée Emma, et une nommée Zoé.
by Cordelia Carrier-Sydor
Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers Contest
Honourable Mention - Grades 3 & 4
It was a beautiful, summer day in Space Serpent Town. The sun was shining and the streets were busy.
Cover art by Melody Pineda, featuring photography by Savannah Dodd, Mia Huang, Esther Mathieu, and David Swartz
Mixed media is a means to express my relationship to identity, otherness and marginalization. Through collecting and interlocking images, weaving becomes a tool and symbol for intersecting realities.