Issue 2.1

Home

Dear ,

Listen, strawberry has a language.

Nowhere Near Home: An extract

The Language of Strawberries By Maja Milanovic

A single hair follicle, sticks out from the smoothly cut hair, of a nine–year–old boy’s head, while he balances on his toes, trying to reach for the eyepiece of a seriously advanced telescope. The tripod, taller than him, doesn’t provide an obstacle between him and the sky that expands above the house. Stars, like achenes, decorate the sky as a whole, and yet just like the little strawberry seeds, each contain a life, a fruit, a story of their own.

For this nine–year–old with whom I share words in three different human languages, it is not a matter of if he will fly to Mars one day, it is just a matter of when. Our Mother Tongue seems to be native to different planets, even though I am the first one who whispered language through his ear canal— to awaken his essence.

About the Author

Maja Milanovic awarded short films Welcome (wrote and directed) and Veta (co-wrote) went to many international festivals. Her plays have been read and performed from the stages of NY to London and Macedonia and she had a stint writing for Croatia’s first TV soap opera. Today she writes for Tarantula: Authors and Art

***

A Stripy Call

Submissions for Stripes Literary Magazine Issue 6.1 — Places closes on the 28th of February 2026.

We are waiting for work that understands place as more than location.

We publish raw, divergent writing and art. While Stripes is not yet a paying magazine, we actively promote the work we publish and nominate selected pieces for Best of the Net.

What to send:

~ 1–3 poems

~ or 1–3 art / photography pieces

See Full Guidelines

Stripes Literary Magazine

Stay Stripy