account_circle by Alexandra Panic
Alexandra Panic is a writer, a writing teacher, and a yoga teacher. She lives in-between languages and continents. You can find her in Belgrade, Serbia, or Seattle, Washington, or somewhere in-between. And most of the time, you can find her on-line serving as a managing editor for Pif Magazine. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, a BA degree in Italian language and literature from Belgrade University, Serbia, and she is an RYT-200 registered yoga teacher for hatha, vinyasa, and yin yoga. She had three collections of poetry published in the Serbian language. Dandelion in the Wind, A Love Story is available as an eBook and paperback. For more information visit www.alexandrapanic.com

Art Work

Essay

Seek the Beauty, Want the Passion, Hold the Wild or What I Learned about My Desires while Reading Melissa Matthewson’s Tracing the Desire Line

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 276 ~ May, 2020

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the term “domesticity” as the quality or state of being domestic or domesticated. The definition doesn’t offer enough clarity if you don’t continue the thread by looking into words “domestic” or “domesticated.”  Domestic: reduced from a state of native wilderness so as to be …

Inside Silence

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 266 ~ July, 2019

The first weekend of May, I attended Vortex, a three-day writers’ conference that took place at Whidbey Institute, on Whidbey Island, Washington. Organized by Hedgebrook, a leading organization helping women writers, Vortex is an annual event that celebrates women authoring change. During the conference, I was fortunate to lodge on site, on the property of Whidbey Institute, in a tiny cottage surrounded by tall evergreen trees and narrow trails that branched like sunrays, leading deeper into the forest.

Cities and Reflections

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 262 ~ March, 2019

People observe cities differently. One friend looks from the ground up, another from the top down. I look for reflections, my friend L pays attention to the city’s movements. She embraces or rejects places; I meditate on them. Perhaps, all these thoughts came to me as the result of L’s sudden urgency to relocate to Los Angeles. Perhaps, I am envious because I didn’t find that seductive sentiment of belonging that I sometimes see in other places away from home. That grounding, earthly sense that takes over my body in New York, pulling me deeper and deeper into the city. Is this the fault of the city’s geography, colors, shapes, attitude, or character? None or all of the mentioned?

The Art of Truthtelling

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 261 ~ February, 2019

As writers, we do what we know and whatever we can in order to understand, measure, examine, endure the world we live in. The world that amazes us, confuses us, hurts us. The world that accepts us or works against us. The world we cannot separate ourselves from.

The Magic of Revision

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 247 ~ December, 2017

  A few nights ago, a young woman who has been taking my creative writing classes asked me, Can I write a wrong story? Her question caught me by surprise and even though I promptly answered it in class, it resonated loudly in my mind …

Artist Interviews

Craft

Trust the Path

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 257 ~ October, 2018

In my artistic calendar, the new year starts on the first day of October. And every time, even though the past experiences taught me to anticipate what would follow, the second half of September, which embodies the fear of the transformation before the change of …

Write with the Heat

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 256 ~ September, 2018

A few days ago, the writer I admire shared on social media that the summer had tricked her into a loss of creative energy and a loss of confidence. Many other writers joined the conversation reporting similar and hostile effects of summer. The knowing that I …

Film & Screenwriting

Culture

One on One

Where Poetry Meets Fashion – A Conversation With The Poet Marie-Caroline Moir

interviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 263 ~ April, 2019

Besides of being a Senior Stylist at Armoire, Marie-Caroline Moir is a poet. She holds a BA in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry, from the University of Washington. For the past ten years, she taught composition, creative writing, and literature at Seattle Central College, and likewise established the Writing Center there. She is formerly City Arts’ Style Editor. Marie-Caroline recently read at the Bellevue Arts Museum for Bellwether, and her poetry was published in journals such as Golden Handcuff Review, Salmagundi, and The Seattle P.I.

From the Editor

A Poet Asking for Mercy

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 275 ~ April, 2020

Hello, my dear writers and readers! Here we are, entering April, our beloved National Poetry Month under the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic, and I am trying to write an encouraging letter as if I am coming from our bright near future, bringing the good news. That …

On Color

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 259 ~ December, 2018

“Our lives are saturated by color. The sky above us is blue (or gray or pink or purple or nearly black). The grass we walk on is green, though sometimes it is brown. Our skin has color, though not exactly the color we normally ascribe …

In Constellation of Sagittarius

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 258 ~ November, 2018

In just a few days, on November 8, 2018, the planet Jupiter will enter the constellation of Sagittarius, meaning that, after twelve long years or roaming through other constellations, Jupiter will return home. Born with the Sun in Sagittarius, I have been waiting for this …

Happy New Beginnings

by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 248 ~ January, 2018

  “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft   Happy New Year, dear writers! What are you up to this year? Any new beginnings? Any big expectations? Any solid plans? Any mapped journeys? Any …

Book Lovers

Call Me Guido by Mike Fiorito

reviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 271 ~ December, 2019

I have always been an admirer of everything Italian. Though, admirer does not sound like strong enough a word. Truth is: I believe my soul is Italian, and, in this life, I have been condemned to living away from my culture. For that reason, to …

Shadow Child by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

reviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 252 ~ May, 2018

Shadow Child, a suspenseful and beautifully written literary novel by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, the author of the acclaimed memoir Hiroshima in the Morning, interweaves narratives and voices to reveal harrowing secrets of two generations of strong-willed women. There are three time threads in the novel, …

The Brick House

reviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 246 ~ November, 2017

  The brick house is not like any other house on the moor. Here the land stretches out greenly with its allochthonous grasses and the house stands matronly and alone on a rise on the wild sedge like an ancient dynamo and one Sitka spruce …

Women Against the Apocalypse in The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch

reviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 241 ~ June, 2017

Thematically a dystopian novel, Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan is the author’s genuine way to fight against the apocalypse, against the fear of geological catastrophe and of Earth’s dying and turning into ashes and dirt. The story unfolds in our near future after Wars …

MARLENA by Julie Buntin

reviewed by Alexandra Panic
Issue No. 239 ~ April, 2017

          “Tell me what you can’t forget, and I’ll tell you who you are” is the that opens Marlena, the astonishing first novel by New York-based writer Julie Buntin. In the form of a confessional narrative, Buntin writes about the kind …

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