Hi everyone! My name is Isabella Luciani and I am so excited to be this semester’s Fiction Editor and Music Coordinator. I was born and raised in Scranton, PA and am a junior English and psychology double major. I have been reading and writing stories for as long as I can remember. I’m also on the Fiction and Copy-Editing Committees of Kalliope, Klio’s sister magazine. I’m a member of the Volé dance org and have been dancing for seventeen years. In addition to writing fiction stories, I also enjoy writing and playing music on my piano and guitar. I love hiking, traveling, spending time outside, and archery. In the coming years, I hope to write and publish my first novel.
I was excited to take an in-depth look at Klio’s history since I hadn’t had the chance to do so thus far. I scrolled through everything our magazine has to offer and honestly had a tough time only deciding on two pieces.
The first piece that caught my eye is from Klio’s 2017 edition in the Fiction section. This story is titled “The Nobody of the Planet” by Laura Nejako.
Nejako opens this piece with a line that is bound to stick in many readers’ brains and that was:
“Priyanka Lakshmi had the shortened hourglass figure of a woman whose time was running out.”
This story follows a woman from the Hindu tradition and even utilizes elements of the language itself. As you can tell by the quote above, the description in this piece is beautiful and yet melancholy at the same time. Nejako’s story is very solemn and introspective, dealing with a lot of talk of the universe. I feel this is a beautifully written piece (with so many good one-liners) that almost anyone would enjoy reading.
The second piece that I chose is from the 2016 edition and is titled “Exhale” by Zana Allen.
This shorter piece has a very sad but almost urgent feel to it. Allen included many aspects of the kind of writing style that is commonly used in poetry which almost adds to the feeling that the reader and narrator are running out of time. There are many references to different sounds created by the apartment, both of the people in it, and even the rain that gives us this sense of urgency as the narrator is running around in the apartment. I think the poetry feel to this short story is what separates it from other pieces of fiction that I had previously read.
I cannot wait to see what brilliant pieces of writing and music I will receive in my submissions box this year! I hope to continue to provide great fiction pieces and also more music selections than our website has seen in the past. I hope you will follow us along as we begin to roll out submissions shortly.