EDITOR'S PREVIEW OF ISSUE 16 - FALL 2023
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A New Day! - Photo by Charlene Anderson
Vistas & Byways is the literary review for students at San Francisco State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). As the summer heat fades, the leaves turn brown, and the kids go back to school, the editors of the review get busy preparing our Fall issue. As Yogi Berra might have said, the review is only published bi-annually, but it seems like every six months we have a lot to do! We read, discussed, and evaluated numerous works of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, some of which addressed our special theme, A New Day. We also chose from an impressive array of photos that depicted the topic, Ironies and Incongruities. This Fall 2023 issue is packed with a diversity of creative talent and includes several artists whose work is new to our publication. We extend a warm welcome to: Linda L. Day Charles Mayes Richard Marino Jane Russell Congratulations! We hope that for each of you this marks the beginning of a long relationship with Vistas & Byways. A former contributor to and member of the Editorial Board returning to our publication is Jan Robbins, a writer for SF Senior Beat. She allowed us to reprint her delightful profile of Mike Lambert, the creator of Vistas & Byways and our current Webmaster. If you ever wondered how a buttoned-up business executive could cut loose upon retirement and organize an adult school, start two literary reviews, master the technical details of online publishing, and author a handful of books, then look for Jan’s article in the section, Inside OLLI. Mike hasn’t let a blade of grass grow under his feet since leaving AT&T sometime in the last century. His journey is an inspiration. Two works from previously published writers illustrate the diversity of themes in our current issue. Linda Zamora Lucero’s short story, “ZigZag,” takes us to Tinseltown where we read about Beto, an aspiring actor hoping to be cast as the leading man in a film he describes as, “the next Get Out from a Latinx perspective.” While seeking his big break, his humble wife, Letty, holds a steady job as a librarian and is, “the supportive partner every actor needs.” When they are both selected as game show contestants, Letty is terrified, but Beto, certain that he will benefit from the exposure, tells her not to worry, he will do the “heavy lifting.” Alas, big egos are a dime a dozen in Hollywood; what happens to Beto’s ego is priceless. Constitutional scholar, promoter of the rule of law, and worldwide traveler, Mary Noel Pepys, helped numerous former communist countries revamp their legal systems. In her nonfiction piece, “An Unusual Taxi Ride on the Silk Road in Uzbekistan,” she travels to a country that was a key outpost on the Silk Road in ancient times but something more akin to the outback in the Soviet Union of more recent times. Pepys arrives for her assignment early, intending to see the sights before fixing the newly independent nation’s jaundiced jurisprudence. She boards a taxi, surrenders to the driver’s unexpected agenda, and loves every minute of it. With a pinch of Marco Polo and a dash of Mata Hari, Mary Noel Pepys serves up another exotic tale. This is just a sample of the creativity contained in our current issue. The variety of stories, poems, and photos surely offers something for everyone. We hope our readers enjoy them as much as we did. |
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Matt Ginsburg received an MFA degree in Creative Writing with a concentration in playwriting at San Francisco State University. His work explores his interest in business, economics, and politics. His plays have been read or performed at numerous theaters in San Francisco. He has also had three short stories and three works of memoir published in previous editions of Vistas & Byways. He serves on the Editorial Board of our publication.
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