Coffee Boobs 101By Ghia Vitale  Photo Credit: Maxpixel.net Emojis: Wikimedia Commons & Needpix.com Most people don’t know this, but caffeine can cause breast pain. When that happens, you get a condition that I’ve named “coffee boobs.” No, I’m not a doctor or health professional, but I’m speaking based on personal experience and research related to the subject.
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You Can’t Stop This Fatty From Embracing Self-LoveBy Ghia Vitale  I refuse to stop embracing self-love just because it makes others uncomfortable. Loving myself has changed my life so much, I won’t engage in self-hatred or self-loathing just because that’s what society thinks that’s how fat people like me should feel. Warning: This article talks about graphic self-harm ideation and actions I engaged in while I was struggling with an ED.
Justice & Responsibility: The Plight of the Immigrants from Central America By Mark D. Walker  “Migrant Caravans,” made up of large groups of children and adults from the Northern Triangle of Central America, heading to our border to seek safety and a better life is problematic, both for those coming and for those waiting for their arrival in the U.S. The influx of undocumented immigrants has reached a ten-year high, with 66,450 entering recently, according to the Customs and Border Patrol. The existing frenzied political debate and the false narratives it often generates make it difficult, if not impossible, to turn this crisis into an opportunity to better appreciate why so many continue to seek refuge here and to understand our own role, and that of our government, in sorting out the situation, responding in a humanitarian way to those coming and creating some viable solutions to our immigration policies going forward.
Dr. Manicure, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Paint My NailsBy Melina Bee  A couple years ago, my workplace had an intern, let’s call her Summer, who only lasted a week at the agency but impacted my life forever. She got me really into nails, ultimately teaching me how to love my hands and perceive my entire being in a new light.
See, I've never really liked my hands. They are ridiculously small, even for a person of my petite stature. My fingers have always seemed short and stubby. I hoped to be reborn with the hands of a mannerist portrait. It turns out I just needed to rebrand myself. Breaking Out at 61 Local
By The Editors
Quail Bell Magazine founder Christine Sloan Stoddard read the words of Caroline Ashby, an incarcerated writer, at the Sept. 23rd, 2019 edition of Big Words, Etc. at 61 Local in Brooklyn, NY. This edition of Big Words, Etc. was done in collaboration with PEN America and The Poetry Project for the series "Break Out: a movement." The above video shows an excerpt from the reading.
Listening With A PencilBy The Editors  We celebrated our founder Christine Sloan Stoddard's new book, Desert Fox by the Sea, at Quimby's Bookstore in New York City last night. Christine invited folks to grab a mini notepad from a basket that went around, so they could draw or write anything that caught their fancy during the reading. Her husband, David Fuchs, used the opportunity to do sketches of the readers. Here they are in all their pencil glory!
When Archives Meet Art and ContestsBy Ghia Vitale  Photo Credit: Christine Sloan Stoddard. Harbour Ghost (2017). REMIX is a contest that showcases archive-inspired art and literary submissions. Check out this exclusive interview with Sonya Coleman, the coordinator of REMIX.
A Grotesque, Three-Headed MarionetteBy Christoper Sloce  Politicians lie. Politicians lie because all professions lie, as a series of conspiracies against the laity.
So under that understanding, what do we call a lie, then? Is a statistically convenient talking point a lie? Wicked Cool and Fighting BackBy Rachel Rivenbark  Photo Courtesy of U.S. Girls Website Sometimes in life, there are people and groups that you will have the great fortune of encountering who have this seemingly undefinable, magnetic energy about them. This is particularly applicable in the music industry, where blood and tears and loss and ecstasy intertwine and breathe life into otherwise unnameable emotion... Falling under the wicked cool musical genre of experimental pop, U.S. Girls is one such group.
Founded in 2007 by Illinois native Meghan Remy (born Meghan Ann Uremovich), U.S. Girls has risen to stardom through their beautifully surreal, deep-cutting performances that just earlier this year earned them a spot at Coachella, where they positively shone. And just earlier this week, I was extremely fortunate to get the opportunity to interview the esteemed Ms. Remy herself, about both the formation of U.S. Girls and her upcoming plans for the group. Reflecting On A Comic, Almost A Decade Later Sometimes it takes so long to complete a creative project that you wonder if it will come into the world full of cobwebs. I wrote the script for Bus 900 while studying at a summer writers and artists workshop my university held at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. The year was 2010 and I was 21 years old. I had recently founded Quail Bell Magazine and spent much of my study abroad experience envisioning where to take it. At that point, I didn’t have much to show for it, except for a simple live website with a few stories, poems, and illustrations published on it. During that time, I was visiting haunted castles, volunteering for a nonprofit theater, and immersing myself in Scottish literature and art. I remember late nights spent reading, writing, drawing, and editing video. There was also plenty of goofy GChatting with my then-boyfriend (now husband!) and the person engaged to my brother-in-law back then. The Geneva-based fiancée was restless because she had no friends in her study abroad group and wanted to talk to someone in the same time zone. In the exploitative way many of us writers are guilty of, I used her for more than one character study. I don’t know what she’s up to now, but I recognize her in some of my characters when I read my old stories. To be clear, Bus 900 is not one of them.
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