FEATURES

BEN’S COVER PICTURE by R. Virgil Ellis (inside cover)

Letters from Readers 4

Voice Over by Rod Clark 5

Rosebud Notes 10

THE THIRD URSULA K. LE GUIN AWARD 23

ANNOUNCING THE NEW XOLOX CONTEST 44

TOP THIS contest winners 64

ROSEBUD ROUNDTABLE: DO YOU SWEAR TO TELL THE TRUTH? 121

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Rod Clark 130

GO FIGURE by P. S. Mueller 133

AFTERWORDS Now in Paperback by Rick Geary 137

HIDDEN WEAKNESS

BURN by Kim Garcia 16

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN... by Amanda L. Pepper 24

HOMESICK

LOVE FINDS ME IN THE DARKNESS OF A HEAT WAVE by Alan Britt 26

THE NAMELESS SEASON by Alicia Conroy 27

STREET MADONNA by Catherine Alexander 34

ESSEN by Sherryl Kleinman 37

THE SWEET SMELL OF GASOLINE by Timothy Walsh 38

DARKENING SKY

THE POET REFLECTS ON HER SOLITARY STATE by Sandra Cisneros 46

FULL CIRCLE by Linsey Trask 47

FIVE CRAZY HORSES, FOUR SITTING BULLS by Joseph Bruchac 50

IRIS by John Rzeznik 51

OPAL by Hilary T. Hamann 52

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH?

MY FATHER IS DYING by Judith Strasser 66

THE SEED OF THE MISTAKE by Terrie Czechowski 67

THE PERMANENT GUEST by Sheryl Tempchin 70

ON EXTENDED WINGS

FIRST FLIGHT by Shankar Vedantam 77

HOW I LEARNED TO FLY by George Tucker 83

SPIRIT GUIDES by Kristine Kathryn Rusch 89

THE GOLDEN AIR

THE BALLET DANCER AT THE GOLD COAST ARTS CENTRE by John Millett 104

THE ARTIST by Melissa Gish 105

THE PODS by Penny Susan Rose 106

AFTER HOURS by F. J. Bergmann 110

LOYAL SERVANT by Maggie Kast 112

DEAD AIR by Michael Snell 119

Issue #29