France

Paris on Paper: Writing about the City ~ "There are artists who find inspiration in the natural world, who paint mountains and craft poetry that evokes the trickle of a stream or the roar of the ocean, who capture the sunrise between branches on film or who create prose in which each line carries the breeze whispering through corn fields. And then there are those who find poetry in a city—in manmade forests of brick and cement where long shadows are cast by spires and offices, not trees, and where the hum of congested asphalt expanse replaces the calls of the wild....."

The Heart of Paris, The Center of the World  ~ (Editorial) Editor Lori Brister explores the l’Ile St. Louis and l’Ile de la Cité, the islands that form the center of Paris.  As she wanders the tiny streets and visits the huge cathedrals, she is drawn into a world steeped in history and sparkling with imagination.  Brister finds that Paris is a world full of contradictions, which are present most of all the in the contrasting atmospheres of these two little islands.

Northern Ireland

Welcome to Northern Ireland: Watch Your Step AND What Brings You to Derry? ~ Ashley Dresser went to Derry, Northern Ireland looking for a revolution, but what she found instead was a country looking for peace. In these two essays, Dresser describes that what she first thought was indifference to The Troubles, she soon realized was a precarious veneer covering the scars of a violent conflict of religion and nationality.

Spain

An Unexpected Stop in Extremadura ~ Tyrel W. Nelson experiences an unusual collision with the local wildlife while on a train between Mérida and Toledo.