Night Picnic is a bilingual journal of literature and art which publishes work in both English and Russian. This issue begins with the novella Sauerkraut Yankee by Kaier Curtin. The protagonist is a German-American teenager who stowed away on a cattle boat bound for war-torn Europe. Not only does he have threatening adventures at sea, but also has many others in British-occupied Germany and England. The novella Чёрточрев (Democorp) by Igor V. Zaitsev takes place in Moscow where a man gets possessed by a demon which creates terrifying chaos. Mysticism and phantasmagoria are tightly bound together in the plot of this novella, as well as in the short stories following the novellas. The pieces of prose are very different in style and genre and the only thing that they have in common is the warning sign: buckle up! Deep in our journal the reader will find the pearls of our first issue – poetry of different ranges and form. Unbound by a particular theme, they will intrigue, enchant, beguile and even scare you. Authors & Titles: Kaier Curtin, Sauerkraut Yankee (novella) Igor V. Zaitsev, Democorp (novella) Edward Ahern, The Hunter’s Moon (short story) Igor V. Zaitsev, Disappearance of Time (short story) Rachel Anne Parsons, Open Window (poem) Laura Manuelidis, The Play Never Ending & other poems Travis Stephens, Burn the Journals & other poems Gordon Stumpo, Rose Colored Sky & Empty School Hall (poetry) Aaron Laughlin, Expression’s Veil (poem) Andrew Lafleche, incisor (poem) Natalie Kaia Christiansen, Sunrays Think They’re So Special (poem) Simon Tertychniy, Foe (poem) Igor V. Zaitsev, My corpus tristis & other poems

The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet “illuminates the shadow side of life in poems as perfectly formed and directed as the beam of a flashlight” (Booklist). The poems in Charles Simic’s new collection evoke a variety of settings and images, from New York City to small New England towns; from crowds spilling onto the sidewalk on a hot summer night to an abandoned wooden church and a car graveyard overgrown with weeds. His subjects range from a bakery early in the morning to the fingerprints on a stranger’s front door; from waiters in an empty restaurant to the decorations in a window of a funeral home; from a dog tied to a chain to a homeless man sleeping at the foot of a skyscraper; and other moments of solitude and clear vision. “What is beautiful,’ he writes in one poem, “is found accidentally and not sought after. What is beautiful is easily lost.” Simic is the metaphysician of the ordinary, a poet who reminds us of the mysteries of our daily lives. “This first book of poems since 1999’s Jackstraws continues Simic’s familiar, unsettling methods and extends them into the terrain of older age . . . Simic remains a powerful, and funny, chronicler of an individual world one where pastry, omelets and queen-size beds offer their ambiguous pleasures, and where, inseparably, ‘the butchery of the innocent/ Never stops.’ It is a world that should be familiar.” —Publishers Weekly “Nabokovian in his caustic charm and sexy intelligence, Simic perceives the mythic in the mundane and pinpoints the perpetual suffering that infuses human life with both agony and bliss.” —Booklist

Picnics and outdoor meals are a classic theme in British food. Afternoon tea in the garden on a golden afternoon in late summer, a packed lunch consumed on a hilltop while the eyes feast on a magnificent view, and the tantalising smell of grilling from a barbecue are all part of this. Being outside sharpens the senses and the appetite, refreshes the soul and gives different perspectives – and National Trust properties provide a wealth of different environments in which to enjoy food outdoors. The book will include over 100 recipes covering picnics, barbecues and campfire food. They range from bresola rolls and lemon gin to be enjoyed as a punting picnic, to a warming minestrone and spiced parkin for bonfire night, a baba ganoush made with aubergines chargrilled on the barbecue, and mussels wrapped in seaweed and cooked on the embers of a campfire. Author Laura Mason gives tips on transporting and cooking the food in the great outdoors, as well as giving historical context to the recipes and suggesting the best National Trust places to eat outdoors.

Once upon a time in the Night Garden... The Pontipines were looking for the perfect place to have a picnic. They try the stones, the log, the pebbles and then the branch. Will they find the perfect spot? This beautiful storybook is perfect for In the Night Garden fans.