Joan Drescher Cooper
Joan Drescher Cooper is a writer and poet living in Baltimore, Maryland after a career in teaching. She has been published in magazines such as The Delmarva Review, The Write Launch, The Bay to Ocean Anthology, Wildsound Writing Festival, and Here/Not Here Ekphrastic Collection by Salisbury University. She published her first collection of short stories, Circling the Inferno, in 2023 and first poetry collection, Birds Like Me, with Finishing Line Press in 2019. She is an avid gardener, teacher, grandmother and a rescuer of a bevy of dogs.
Confessions in Birdsong
Chapter 19The morning after the upheaval of the night protests, the city was surreally quiet. Waking in the parking garage, Eleanor lifted herself out of the nest of old coats and her backpack on the floor of the backseat. As she drove away from the one sanctuary she could think of as streets were shut down, Eleanor saw evidence of the night’s violence in the strewn litter, broken glass, and the watchful police presence.
Novel Excerpts
Issue 95, May 2025
Circling the Inferno
Limbo
Sometimes on the train in the morning, Melanie thought about failing to get off at her stop for work. She’d lean her head back on the tweedy headrest and close her eyes. If this was a real train instead of commuter light rail, she’d muse, perhaps she would stay on the train all the way to the next town.
Sometimes on the train in the morning, Melanie thought about failing to get off at her stop for work. She’d lean her head back on the tweedy headrest and close her eyes. If this was a real train instead of commuter light rail, she’d muse, perhaps she would stay on the train all the way to the next town.
Long Short Story
Issue 58, February 2022
Issues Archive
Joan Drescher Cooper
Joan Drescher Cooper is a writer and poet living in Baltimore, Maryland after a career in teaching. She has been published in magazines such as The Delmarva Review, The Write Launch, The Bay to Ocean Anthology, Wildsound Writing Festival, and Here/Not Here Ekphrastic Collection by Salisbury University. She published her first collection of short stories, Circling the Inferno, in 2023 and first poetry collection, Birds Like Me, with Finishing Line Press in 2019. She is an avid gardener, teacher, grandmother and a rescuer of a bevy of dogs.
Confessions in Birdsong
Chapter 19The morning after the upheaval of the night protests, the city was surreally quiet. Waking in the parking garage, Eleanor lifted herself out of the nest of old coats and her backpack on the floor of the backseat. As she drove away from the one sanctuary she could think of as streets were shut down, Eleanor saw evidence of the night’s violence in the strewn litter, broken glass, and the watchful police presence.
Novel Excerpts
Issue 95, May 2025
Circling the Inferno
Limbo
Sometimes on the train in the morning, Melanie thought about failing to get off at her stop for work. She’d lean her head back on the tweedy headrest and close her eyes. If this was a real train instead of commuter light rail, she’d muse, perhaps she would stay on the train all the way to the next town.
Sometimes on the train in the morning, Melanie thought about failing to get off at her stop for work. She’d lean her head back on the tweedy headrest and close her eyes. If this was a real train instead of commuter light rail, she’d muse, perhaps she would stay on the train all the way to the next town.
Long Short Story
Issue 58, February 2022
Issues Archive