This Issue

From the Editor

Two planes

Our feet hovered above water as they dangled from the decrepit pier bruised by a hurricane from nature’s last season of wrath. I wouldn’t feel the sun’s angry impression on my skin for hours, but its intensity would keep me awake for several nights, eventually removing a layer of my epidermis, leaving my skin patterned like a doily.

Before the burn, there was this moment of beauty on the pier’s edge, my husband’s body at my side, his leg pressing into mine, my hand in his. Morning had been spent skimming...

[Continue reading...]

Contents

Unfit Mother's Choice

When I was 16 years old, I didn’t want to hold my newborn baby. Instead of grabbing Kervin when the nurse...

Understanding Moonseed

This was truly my mother’s last journey. It started in the morning with her urn placed deep into my backpack. On top...

Green Pudding

The spider jolted up and down like a yo-yo, industriously filling in a gap in the bush by the steps. Two large pine trees...

Atfal

I tapped my foot nervously on the pavement, feeling the weight of the soccer ball against my instep. It was the only...

Behind the Fiction

I type my name underneath his, then backspace it all. I stare at the blinking cursor, at the 421-page manuscript, at the...

Caught

"Mom, can we write a letter to Santa?" Finn, my eight-year-old, asked on Tuesday night, walking over to me at the kitchen...

Submission Guidelines

Who: Women writers.

What we're looking for: Scene-driven, first-person nonfiction.

Submission deadline: Rolling. We aim to respond to writers within 12 weeks; simultaneous submissions encouraged.

Six Hens features true stories about the moments that define and redefine. Our writers take us to the places and events that changed what they believe in, changed how they see their place in the world, and changed them. Through their storytelling, they change us. We are looking for powerful, first-person nonfiction about the moments that segment life into before and after. Make us feel something.

Your submission should be previously unpublished. Please limit your piece to 2000 words. Excerpts from a larger works are welcome.

Featured writers will receive $50.

Six Hens is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. Your submission automatically subscribes you to the Six Hens mailing list.

Terms and conditions: By submitting your work to Six Hens, the writer grants Six Hens royalty-free rights to publish the piece in its online literary journal. The author may publish the work elsewhere six months after it appears on Six Hens, but it is the author's responsibility to notify any future publishers that the work first appeared in Six Hens, and Six Hens maintains the right to include the work in future anthologies or collections. The author acknowledges that this work is an original piece of writing and has not been accepted by another publisher.

Submissions not selected for publication will be deleted.







About Six Hens

Each issue we feature true stories about the moments that define and redefine. Our writers take us to the places and events that changed what they believe in, changed how they see their place in the world, and changed them. Through their storytelling, they change us.


Our editors

Picture of Suzanne Galante

Suzanne Galante Editor in Chief

Suzanne Galante has launched newsletters, produced content for top web sites and segments of KRON TV's popular travel show Bay Area Backroads, written cover stories for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Bay Area Parent Magazine, and was one of the nation's first paid bloggers. Her work has appeared in TheStreet.com, CNET News.com, ABC News.com, the New York Post, CNN.com, The Industry Standard, The Deal, the Colorado Daily, and Oxygen.com. Suzanne holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the University of San Francisco and a Journalism degree from Northeastern University. She has been writing as
Mother in Chief since 2005.

Picture of Marcy Burstiner

Marcy Burstiner Editor at Large

Marcy Burstiner was born in New York City and grew up in Yonkers, NY. She started her journalism career as an assistant editor at the Multinational Monitor Magazine, which was founded by Ralph Nader. After getting her masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she worked as a reporter and editor for a series of publications including the San Francisco Business Times, thestreet.com and The Deal financial magazine and website. She is an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at Humboldt State University in Northern California. In 2010 she was named Journalism Educator of the Year by the California Journalism Education Coalition.


Our cover art

Issue 15: Born in the Philadelphia suburbs with a cacophony of pets, seven siblings, and 50 acres to run wild and dream, Leah McCloskey brings the spirit of her childhood to her art -- whimsical beauty and colorful characters. She paints in oil, watercolor, and acrylic on wood, paper, can vas or "basically anything I can find." She loves to listen to music and dance when she paints. Her work has been exhibited in numerous gallery shows and shops. She lives and paints in Salem NY. Find her online here.

Issue 14: Wanderer Woodwerks is a small family woodworking and sawmill business. They pride themselves on quality craftsmanship. Reclaimed wood is used to create unique pieces of art. They want each piece of artwork to evoke good feelings and memories for their customers. The owner's background is mainly log and timberframe construction, furniture work, custom doors and windows, and staircases galore. Find them online at Etsy here.

Issue 13: Windsparrow Studio creates original hand carved block print images that are inspired by the owner's flower farm, kitchen garden, and the wildlife surrounding her life in the Pacific Northwest. See more of her creations on Etsy and on Instagram.

Issue 12: Lee Oliphant and her husband live with four hens and two labradoodles along the central coast of California in the town of Cambria. Temperate weather allows their hens to be outside nearly every day, but they are confined to their outdoor pen most of the time because of predators. Their site Backyard Hencam features two webcams for viewing their chickens by the sea. One is in the run where the chickens eat, scratch in the dirt, and take dust baths; the other is in the henhouse. Oliphant caught our featured photo several years ago by enticing the girls with a bowl of yogurt.

Issue 11: Silja has been drawing since she was a kid. She loves painting portraits with oils and acrylics, making black and white sketches, and colorful ink paintings. See her art on Etsy here.

Issue 10: Martin Johnsen works in pastel. His interests include landscapes, seascapes, missions, floral, and still life. He lives on California's central coast with his wife and son. Find his work on Etsy here.

Issue 9: The Branded Barn is a small livestock producing family with a love and passion for their work. They celebrate their lifestyle with livestock-inspired baking supplies, note cards, and art supplies all manufactured with their proprietary molds and images. Find them online here and here.

Issue 8: Sandy Carter is a semi-retired photojournalist living in Bellingham, Washington. She co-authored the book, Women in Medicine. A Celebration of Their Work, with renowned Canadian photographer, Ted Grant. She has photographed throughout the world working on numerous documentary projects. Her images appear in exhibitions and publications worldwide. Sandy's documentary-style work is achieved without the use of added light: she photographs her subjects unobtrusively in their environment with only the use of ambient light. Find her online at: here and here.

Issue 7: What began as a hobby back in the 70s has become Joan Schulte's primary ambition and career. She is a photographer of "stuff" that catches her eye, and a lover of all things vintage or rustic. She captured "Chicken Gossip" on one of her exploratory walks in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. It was part of a window display in the shop of a local cookie baker. Find more of her work here.

Issue 6: Mary Vogel Lozinak is an artist, rubber stamp designer, and illustrator. See more of her work here.

Issue 5: Erin Vaganos's artwork is influenced by her childhood memories of her family's underground home in the woods near the Finger Lakes of New York, as well as rooted in her interests in nature, patterns, solitude, folk traditions, and the connection she sees between fairy tales and the subconscious. She says watercolor is the medium with which she can best express herself. See more of her work here.

Issue 4: Jen Walls is a mark-maker and mixed media artist who is often inspired by the traditions and stories of indigenous peoples. Self-taught, her art is the result of disciplined studio time, a regimen of exploratory and experimental projects and a good dose of magic. An advocate for doodling in the classroom, the waiting room and the board room, she lives in Plantation, Florida, with her husband and one grouchy dog.

Issue 3: Birdy Bella began her journey with art and writing as a healing response to a devastating illness from which she has since recovered. Learn more about her story and art work here.

Issue 2: Jane Wilcoxson uses oil pastel to creates contemporary fine art of quirky animals and fantastical scenes that uses color and playfulness to deliver the magic of the universe to everyday spaces. Learn more about her work here.

Issue 1: Stevi McCartney often paints to imagine places she'd like to be or has yet to visit. For her, painting has always been an outlet to get out of the digital space and get lost in wine country, lavender fields, or the crisp ocean coast. Learn more about her work here.


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Contact us:

Six Hens
274 Redwood Shores Pkwy, Suite 318
Redwood City, CA 94065