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Offshoots 11
Introduction
Offshoots 11 was published in September 2011
Writing can be a lonely journey, especially when one lives far away from family and in a different culture. The Geneva Writers’ Group provides inspiration, motivation, literary critiquing and support to over 150 writers from around the world, all currently living in and around Geneva. Most of us started writing many years ago, and had other careers. Employees in International Organizations and UN agencies, engineers, consultants, teachers, journalists, diplomats and others, are all joined together by the joy of writing and of supporting each other in our creative endeavors. Some of us are multi-published; others are on the path to publication.
It is an honour and a privilege to have edited this eleventh edition of Offshoots, the biennial anthology of the Geneva Writers’ Group. I could have never done this without my inspiring team, Mary Scheurer, a teacher and published poet and short story writer, Bob Piller, an independent consultant in commodity finance, university lecturer and fiction writer, and Sue Niewiarowski, a talented designer and artist. And of course, the founder and leader of the GWG, Susan Tiberghien.
The use of different types of English is deliberate. It seemed unjust to insist that an American write in British English, and an Australian in American English. Therefore, we left the various stories in the tongues which they were submitted, making this anthology richer in its variety of dialects.
I hope you will enjoy reading Offshoots 11 as much as I have enjoyed editing it, and that you be able to feel the spirit of internationalism and multi-culturalism that is an integral part of the GWG while you read through these pages
Editorial and Production Team
Editors
Daniela Norris
Bob Piller
Mary Scheurer
Design
Sue Niewiarowski
Photographs
Pamela Baillie, Kristine Greenaway, Valerie Harrison, Patti Marxsen, Karen McDermott, Caroline Thonger, Sue Niewiarowski
Writing in Offshoots 11
| Sunanda Krishnamurty | Deceptions |
| Martha Culig | One Cold Night |
| Caroline Thonger | Prickly Heat |
| Suzanne McFayden Smith | Home |
| Adrienne Hahne | Fourteen |
| Wendy Zito | Dogs are People too |
| Iqbal Alimohamed | The Crystal Perfume Container |
| Kristine Greenaway | Bitten by the apple |
| Sharon Pollack | Tough in the Suburbs |
| Leti Baumgartner | Monochrome |
| Kathy Giannini | Black Walnut Winter |
| Lisa Karlin-Rigo | These Few Moments |
| Pamela Baillie | A simple pink chair |
| Erika Anderson | Citizen of the World |
| Peter St. John | CHoo-CHoo Sky Train |
| Angela Ernest | The Birthmark |
| Livia Varju | Stages |
| Taylor Jennings | Bosnian Coffee |
| Sophia Tellen | Process |
| Alan Harmer | Wild Pheasant Castaway’s Stew |
| Patricia Beckham-Prout | A Home for the Heart |
| Mary M. Pecaut | About the Mind |
| Beth Peoc’h | Toussaint, Letter to Self |
| Susan Tiberghien | Maple Leaf, Ivy |
| Christiane Ledakis | The Crinkly-haired Old Man |
| Jacqueline Cooper | An Evening With Farouk |
| Karen K. Mason | The Elements and Willa |
| Catherine L. Hayoz | Fragmented Archeology, Lifeguard |
| Karen Laudenslager McDermott | Mid-afternoon, I Know Why I Am Here |
| M. Anita “Emanita” Bailey | Hail La Forge! |
| M. Byrd | Glimpse of Fire |
| Roderick Vincent | Songs of the Naked Monkey |
| Zeki Ergas | Heart of Jenin |
| Julianne DiNenna | On a Mission |
| Valerie Harrison | Finding My Marks |
| Adrienne Hahne | Getting it Right |
| Sylvia Petter | The Burka |
| Elizabeth Hornor Boquet | Acorns, mother-daughter tanka |
| Christine Breede-Schechter | Bells and Beyond |
| Bashir Sakhawarz | I Sail in Your Eyes |
| Bob Piller | Rhino, Elephant, Effort |
| Patti M. Marxsen | Seventy Winters |
| Maria Cecilia H. Santos | My Life in Bags |
| Paul Smith | In a Park at Ventnor, Burning |
| Yvonne B. Laverrière | Buenos Aires |
| Shizue Tomoda | Ode to My Hometow |
| Lang-Hoan Pham | Airport Goodbyes |
| Joy Manné | The Right Game |
| Jo Ann Hansen Rasch | At the Swimming Pool |
| Alexa Intrator | House of Emptiness |
| Gwen de Mel | In your loss are my losses all combined |
| Folake Idowu | The Letter |
| Jillian Vigrass | The Ship that Launched a Thousand Laws |
“Offshoots is a tribute to the spirit, commitment, and talent of the outstanding international expatriate writing circle centered in Geneva, Switzerland, but reaching throughout the world.”
— Thomas E. Kennedy, Author of The Copenhagen Quartet
“The Geneva Writers’ Group has produced an enthusiastic and talented group of writers.”
— Geeta Kothari, Fiction Editor, Kenyon Review
For further details and to buy copies, contact Offshoots sales