Bramble Fall 2024 print issue is now available.

Editor’s Note

Diving into these poets’ work, I was struck by the diversity of themes, the authenticity of the voices, the richness of imagery, and excellence of craft. The poets gathered here share, to my mind, a sense of urgency—these are poems that needed to be written. They pulse with an electricity and a freshness that runs through the best writing. Their subjects range from the change of the season to life changes, transcendent moments in nature, revelatory stories and histories, and myths which demand to be challenged. I feel humbled and honored to share them with you.

Many thanks to Christina Kubasta for her editing expertise and guidance, Tori Grant Welhouse for her layout and design, and Christine Alfery, an artist living in the Northwoods whose paintings, including “Boreal Forest” featured on our cover, continue to amaze.

Beth Tornes
November 2024

Elizabeth Tornes

Elizabeth (Beth) Tornes has published four award-winning poetry collections, Northern Skies (Muriel Press, 2023), Between the Dog and the Wolf (Five Oaks Press, 2016), New Moon (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and Snowbound (Giiwedin Press, 2011). Her poems have been published in American Poetry Journal, Blue Heron Review, bornmagazine.com, Boulevard, Bramble, Main Street Rag, The North American Review, Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, Yellow Medicine Review, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell Colony and Yaddo Colony for the Arts. She’s also published a collection of Ojibwe oral histories, Memories of Lac du Flambeau Elders (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004). She earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Utah. She lives with her husband Bill in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.

Artist Bio

Academic:
BA MA MFA and PhD (ABD) University of Wisconsin-Madison, Curriculum & Instruction

Work Experience:
Art Educator 30+ years K-University Level
Worked with distributors and manufacturers in the home furnishings industry, High Point, North Carolina, 9+ years
Participated in National competitions from 2009 to present

Distinctions:
Signature member of 15 national watercolor societies.

Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Illinois Watercolor Society, Missouri Watercolor Society, Western Colorado Watercolor Society, Red River Watercolor Society, Kentucky Watercolor Society, Montana Watercolor Society, San Diego National Watercolor Society, NorthStar Watercolor Society, Texas Watercolor Society Sage Brush Signature Status – Purple Sage Signature Member, International Society of Experimental Artists, Georgia Watercolor Society, Northwest Watercolor Society, Pittsburgh Watercolor Society

Artist Statement

I am drawn to all things I call the yes, yes, and yeses in my life, which means I am drawn to all things in nature; I am drawn to the earth. Nature and the earth have an endless energy source and an infinite source of movement that intermingles textures and provides me with an intimate and complex understanding of life and the changes it brings. Like art, nature is unique to everyone’s experiences of it. Nature reminds me that if I did not need to push on, to discover, to explore, and find new meaning and change in our lives and things, life would be terribly monochromatic, and we would all match our sofas and each other.