Heartlines Spec Issue 2 (Spring/Summer 2023)

This second issue of Heartlines Spec has poignancy running throughout. It's in the powerful stories that fill the space in your heart. The poems that grip your hand and whisper to you. The essays that lean forward, elbows on the table, to tell you something vital. It's a feeling of something that's not forlorn, not sad, not fluffy, but poignant—pain in the chest, funny flipflop heartbeat, and wistful smile with a shimmer of comfort. Editorial by Heather Clitheroe Short Fiction The Long Way Home from Gaia BH1 by Manuela Amiouny Sibble-Sweet by Carol B. Duncan The Saint of Lost and Stolen Things by E.M. Linden Autumn Without Rain by Lucy Zhang Pomegranate Anatomy by Diana Dima Night Blooms by Narrelle M. Harris The Bodytakers by Eva Papasoulioti Lost Time in the Turnaround by Sarah Ramdawar Poetry The Magician’s Foundling by Angel Leal Five Things said by the Deity's Lover by Goran Lowie Harrowing Nightwatch by Gretchen Tessmer As a, I want to, so I can by Kelley Tai Parable With Time Travel by Ashish Kumar Singh Non-Fiction It Takes (More Than?) Two: Relationships and their impact on the broader environment by Lynne Sargent Meet me at the bar by Mary Sanche Heartlines Spec is an online speculative magazine focused on long-term friendships and relationships. It's the comfort of the known, the fierce hug of someone that knows you best. Issues are released three times a year.