Welcome to Barnstorm.
We are a literary journal.
We publish written and visual artwork that is playful, takes risks, and harnesses energy.
Out Now
Volume 16 Issue 4
Featuring writing by:
Seth Amos, Nat Falkenheim, and Diana Altman
and visual art by:
Judith Skillman, John Swofford, and Jaina Cipriano
Featured artwork: “Moons of Earth” by Judith Skillman
“The Earth is a wet blue ball
spinning on a seal’s nose, a trick
the seal is practicing but hasn’t perfected.”
— Seth Amos, “Bagatelle with Milkshake and Seal”
Volume 16, Issue 4
Featured artwork: “I Need to Leave Now” by Jaina Cipriano
“Feeding your baby is a melty time, a squishy time, a time when you aren’t even on this earth. At least it was for us back in the days before breast pumps were ubiquitous, when we could stay home with our infants and not be labeled a Stay At Home Mom. As if mothers stay at home.
— Diana Altman, “Sisters”
Volume 16, Issue 4
Featured artwork: “Young Woman” by John Swofford
“I walked along the lake and surveyed the multicolored houses, the French balconies blooming with flowers and ivy. The light changed. I turned to the lake and looked to the sky, now unable to distinguish what was thundercloud and what was mountain. It was the most beautiful place I possibly could have imagined.”
— Nat Falkenheim, “Errands”
Volume 16, Issue 4
“The patients cling to us. They think we have answers. We think we have answers. But every night I go home and all I have are numbers echoing in my head—oxygen saturation, pulse rate, blood pressure, beeping monitors. I try to sleep and see lines, peaks and valleys, the last rhythms of strangers.”
— Lizzie Benge, “Do Not Linger”
Volume 16, Issue 3