Blog — Half Mystic

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Introducing Sforzando, Hag, & Open Call For Staff Members

Introducing Sforzando, Hag, & Open Call For Staff Members

Issue VIII will sing to the theme of sforzando (the car-struck bolt of dissonance; the backslide into wreckage; the single note of shattering).

Announcements, MusicTopaz WintersJune 17, 2019Tamara Jobe, Alina Stefanescu, Lynsey Morandin, Haley Wooning

From the Editor: the Aubade Issue

From the Editor: the Aubade Issue

My first memory is the most beautiful song I ever heard. An act of peace. An intake of breath. A space suffused with hymn.

The Aubade Letters (a selection)

The Aubade Letters (a selection)

I have chosen to submit to Half Mystic because it is the only press that has thought to ask what music means to me.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersJune 2, 2019Lester Bangs, Mary Oliver, Joyanna M., Frederic Chopin, The Deftones, Saint-Saens, MILCK, love letters

VII: Aubade | Searchlight Song: "Catching Fire"

VII: Aubade | Searchlight Song: "Catching Fire"

Even from the beginning the stage never felt like home. Every second spent gazing into the faces of hundreds I wasted fazed, flaming.

Columns, Theatre, Music, Personal EssayElizabeth Ruth DeyroMay 25, 2019searchlight song

“There’s a sense of peace that comes with soft sunlight in the early mornings.” (An Interview with Lynn Werner)

“There’s a sense of peace that comes with soft sunlight in the early mornings.” (An Interview with Lynn Werner)

When combined, the arts create redemption, gratitude, connections we’d never have bridged on our own.

Art, Interviews, MusicKate WilsonMay 18, 2019Lynn Werner, Conan Gray, Hozier

VII: Aubade | Silver-Tipped Swallow: "Variations on Beginning"

VII: Aubade | Silver-Tipped Swallow: "Variations on Beginning"

Eyes open; sunlight pressing its tired hopeful nose against the horizon.

Music, Personal Essay, Columns, LiteratureTopaz WintersMay 12, 2019Bon Iver, e.e. cummings, silver-tipped swallow

Announcing the Submission Deadline for Issue VII: Aubade

Announcing the Submission Deadline for Issue VII: Aubade

The aubade reading period was one of our busiest yet, with hundreds of submissions reimagining dawn in tender, intricate ways.

$VII: Aubade | Uncomposed: "Refractions of Light"$

VII: Aubade | Uncomposed: "Refractions of Light"

I have wanted to leave home since I was thirteen years old, and the desire sings in my ribs even more strongly now.

Columns, Art, Personal Essay, MusicHana WidermanMay 5, 2019Pablo Picasso, uncomposed, Halsey

"The song rejoices in a dance of new life as it emerges from the darkness." (Daniel Gallie on "Coming Home" & Aubade)

"The song rejoices in a dance of new life as it emerges from the darkness." (Daniel Gallie on "Coming Home" & Aubade)

Our lives are composed of cycles within cycles.

Music, Personal EssayGuestMay 1, 2019Daniel Gallie

"As birds sing to survive, although they don’t have to." (Maureen Evans on Aubade)

"As birds sing to survive, although they don’t have to." (Maureen Evans on Aubade)

Dawn is portentous as any moment.

Music, Personal Essay, LiteratureGuestApril 27, 2019Maureen Evans