TO READ REBECCA BROWN’S WORK is to be led by a minimalistic and incantatory voice into a world simultaneously familiar and peculiar. Brown’s stories—true and fictional—are imaginative, obsessive, witty, often dark, and always brilliant. Through her exploration of themes such as violence, youth and aging, loss, and human connection, Brown is a master of blurring the … Read more

THROUGHOUT HER WORK, Maggie Smith presents vulnerability and softness that comes from someone writing a love letter to the very thing that is trying to destroy her—and everyone else. Smith pulls from fairytales, imagined natural disasters, and biblical stories, but reminds us that the dangers we face are often human. Without an edge of anger or … Read more

COMING SOON to Willow Springs

Spokane-based artist and graphic designer Chris Bovey is the mastermind behind the cover art for Willow Springs issues 81 through 86. Each of these covers is iconic Spokane, and his work has forever shaped the look and feel of Willow Springs magazine for the better. Bovey’s goal is to cherish and capture the heart of Spokane. To glorify the … Read more

“I CAME TO UNDERSTAND that my father was my antagonist,” Kim Barnes declared in a 2009 essay for the New York Times, “the one against whom I tested myself every day, the one who had both scarred and shaped me.” Barnes’s female characters—in her fiction and nonfiction—face two primary obstacles: overbearing men and religious fundamentalism. In … Read more