Mother of God, Child of Zeus

Writer Jessica Benko and photographer Bear Guerra examine gold, mercury, poverty and profit in the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios, Peru:

“The struggle continues in Peru over who will receive the benefits of the gold that is so damaging to obtain. Many Peruvians resent and distrust the succession of unstable governments, stretching back to the time of the country’s conquest and marked by rulers unable or unwilling to care for the needs of the poor. Since the profaning of the Incas’ sacred gold, since the Spaniards melted offerings to the gods into bars of money, the poorest of Peru have received little of the security that the gold of their lands has given others. They see little hope in a future where foreign companies control their resources.”

Source: VQR
Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 32 minutes (8,141 words)

La Moretta

[National Magazine Awards finalist] [Fiction] A honeymoon set in Eastern Europe in the 1970s:

“Since the beginning of their honeymoon, whenever something went wrong she had been eager to remind him. Is this enough of an adventure for you? Aren’t adventures fun? But here they were, in Bucharest, sitting on the edge of a fountain and looking at an elegant, dormered building that could have been in Paris except for the soldiers standing guard in ill-fitting green uniforms.”

Source: VQR
Published: Sep 1, 2011
Length: 33 minutes (8,259 words)

The Dogs In Renoir’s Garden

(Fiction) Her little Renoir painting which she missed most was not allowed her. The insurance company had pronounced the security at the nursing home inadequate. May considered that ironic. She had found the security so effective that in the year and ten months of her stay, and in spite of the unlocked doors, she had never ventured out of the home by herself. But then her daughter had placed her there, and May was always ready to accept the appraisal of others.

Source: VQR
Published: Jan 1, 1982
Length: 14 minutes (3,730 words)

Lust, Devotion, & the Binary Code

The sexual energy was not confined just to parties. Walking down the street as a lone woman in Tehran, it didn’t take long to have a man or two following me. Sometimes they would drive by in their cars, slowing down at the curb, calling out something suggestive, but they were not too persistent when I kept my eyes glued to the ground and ignored them. Despite so much effort by the Iranian government to remove sex from the public sphere, it seemed to be on the very air itself.

Source: VQR
Published: Jun 1, 2010
Length: 27 minutes (6,952 words)

The Hunters

Author: Rick Bass
Source: VQR
Published: Jul 10, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,173 words)

Tropical Depression in Cuba

August in Havana is a mounting wave of heat—so consuming, the sun so piercing, it can warp your sense of reason. Tempt you to surrender. Make you flirt with insanity. The pained faces around you are covered in grimy sweat, a haze of resignation in the eyes. Here or there a woman fans herself, perhaps with some ladylike, store-bought thing, but more often with a stray scrap of cardboard. Inside, heat radiates from every surface, the temperature rising as the torridity soaks deeper into the concrete walls. Outside is worse. Few dare venture into the scorching light.

Source: VQR
Published: Apr 11, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,267 words)