Public Republic

By Ellie Ivanova Ponti

As I stopped by Leo’s workplace the other day, I noticed that almost 30% of the cars in the parking lot bore vanity license plates. That struck me as unusual – I think that among the general car population, vanity plates don’t exceed 5%. Are those car owners identity-challenged or, on the [...]

I am surprised it is not a common expression of disdain: “That’s as useless as putting a suit on a short man.”

Ivor Hogg

Photo: peasap
The veils grow thin on all souls eve
and vengeful ghosts are free to leave.
The kingdom of eternal night
to seek revenge and vent their spite.
On erst while relatives and friends,
Who have not tried to make amends.
Insults offered before they died
long brooded on and magnified.

Zoya Marincheva

Photo: paper or plastic?
On day one of the new year they went shopping for new hides.
Angular roofs towered over creamy facades with rococo beams.
His epidermis grayed in distress. Hers oozed a passion for style.

Kristin Dimitrova

Photo: Andrew Turner
(The following is an excerpt from a novel)
(Some remarks, inconsiderable events and traits of the characters are stolen from reality, but the novel is entirely fictional. A myth, however, is true because of the bigger story it relates, and not because of the costumes the characters wear at every appearance.)
…Sabazius – [...]

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Photo: friggy_30
The eighty-five year old widower was crossing the park with his cane, working to maintain a slow, steady speed. He knew his friends were waiting for him – a thinning group of retired grandfathers, spotted with age like leopards, wearing wrinkled berets and hand-me-down clothes from their children.

Donna Ison

Photo: Victor Bezrukov
It was homemade spaghetti sauce that opened my eyes to the dysfunction that was my childhood—Molly Woodford’s mother’s marinara to be exact.
Molly Woodford was in my Brownie troupe. Her cocoa-colored uniform was always whistle clean and smelled of fabric softener. Mine was usually wrinkled and stained and smelled like whatever barnyard [...]

Julie Farkas

Photo: le_don
Fenner sat on a bar stool and watched Wenz stroke the cue stick through his fingers several times, then become very still. With a flick of his wrist, the cue ball raced for the eleven. When it collided at an angle, the eleven coasted towards the side pocket. But the cue ball kept [...]

Dear friends,
We are now “officially” starting our Public Republic project in English!
Encouraged by the exciting success of the journal in Bulgaria (www.public-republic.com) and by the enthusiasm of our US-editor Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, we prepared the site in a similarly broad manner as the Bulgarian edition. We believe, we will soon have many contributions, a lively [...]