“Maybe that is what a life is:
learning which deadlines are real,
which are merely printed,
which walls deserve a name,
which storms are not asking
to be overcome.”
Thirty Minutes After Thunder: a Poem
September Issue, 2026
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
When I Go Back Home
“I came back because there are places that do not merely exist on maps; they exist inside the blood. I came back because no matter how far a person travels, there is a particular dust that remembers his feet. I came back because the village that raised us deserves more than nostalgia. It deserves attention. It deserves roads that do not punish the poor for being poor. It deserves schools where children can dream without apology. It deserves healthcare that does not force a family to choose between medicine and food.”
No Music On
A behemoth polemic from musician James Quentin Devine.
The Mā-hua-tsìng & The Strait
Set between the muddy paddy fields of Taiwan and a cold college room in California, this story weaves together Taiwanese bird ecology , traditional Taiwanese street delicacies and a linguistic misunderstanding. It explores how food, nature, and intergenerational love can cross geographical and historical oceans when words fail.
The West 79th St. Laundromat
“Sometimes I wonder, perhaps naively, if all the problems of the country could be solved by sitting the folks in Washington down at a table with a lump of clay and some encouragement. They can bring their dirty laundry if it helps them find the time.”
August Issue, 2026
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
Fifty Years After Soweto: A Struggle Without Documentation Is Not a Struggle
“South Africa’s anti-apartheid photographers did not merely record brutality. They preserved evidence, built collective memory, and transformed the camera into a weapon of political education and international solidarity.”
Memory Beyond the Mind
“Taken together, these examples challenge the idea that the past disappears once it is no longer actively remembered. The past often remains present in quieter and less obvious ways. It stays in what is unsaid, in the places people move through, and in the physical traces of those who came before them.”
July Issue, 2026
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
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