Bracken: an anthology from the first five issues

What is your connection to the woods?For me its mud-caked wellington boots after long walks through the English countryside the earth damp and wormy and stamped with leaves littered with plump chestnuts. Its hushed journeys into Floridian woods heart racing at the thought of alligator eyes watching from still green water everything painted with the dusty finish of sunlight filtered through Spanish moss. Its the thick mist and springy moss of the Pacific Northwest and towering cedars and firs stained black with lightning and the whisper of crow wings above. And of course its the Brothers Grimm and Fantastic Mr. Fox Mirkwood and Brocéliande...Theres a reason storytelling has long found inspiration in the woods whether as symbol or as setting. The forest can be a place of profound beauty or terror a place of sustenance or danger a place to find solitude or to become hopelessly lost a place of magic and dark corners where the imagination can run wild.Its the stories that arise from this convergence of the deeply personal and the universal that Bracken seeks to harvest. From the beginning weve collected pieces that not only capture the magic and beauty of nature but also explore encounters with those hidden spaces inside and outside us those unknowable things that wink at us and shapeshift in the dark--encounters with both pain and wonderment and the journey between. In putting this anthology together weve wanted to take you on such a journey. Weve selected and arranged work from past issues in a way that we think truly embodies Brackens spirit. Just as the girl on our cover is emerging from the tangle of branches into the light we want to let these pieces guide you from the forests edge through its depths and out the other side. We hope youll find something along the way.Charlotte dHuart Anthology Editor