All posts of Mia Pohlman

from the editor, Fall 2022: Stay

Camping is about surrender. That’s what I reflected on as I sat on my favorite rock in a valley of the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains on a recent packtrip with my dad. When camping, you wake up when it gets light and go to sleep when it gets dark. You talk, […]
3 years ago

Eating Together

A meal starts with a desire: to eat and be nourished. To know and be known. To slow down and grow in body, spirit and mind. In his book “The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection,” Robert Farrar Capon teaches us how to have a dinner party. His main theme — from the guest […]
3 years ago

meet along the way: Nora Speight

This story was first published as “Faces of Southeast Missouri: Nora Speight” in the July 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” Nora Speight’s love of flowers comes from her grandfather she calls “Paw Paw.” He lived on a farm in Marston, Mo., where Speight got paid $3 to pick 100 pounds of cotton as a […]
3 years ago

from the editor: movement, Summer 2022

I used to think I had to do everything I wanted to do in my life before I turned 30. Now, as I leave behind my 20s and move into a new decade, instead of feeling like a closing, life feels like it is opening up. And I’m pretty delighted by the surprise of that. […]
3 years ago

Taking a Step: All-female drumline leads band at Perryville High School

Drums are loud. They are visual. They are large and cumbersome, and they keep the band together. Historically, they are a male-dominated position within the band. But the Perryville High School Marching Buccaneers Drumline in Perryville, Mo., is changing that. During the 2021-22 school year, the drumline has been comprised of all female drummers, and […]
3 years ago

Madelyn Hussman: From the Pacific Crest Trail to the Cape Girardeau Studio

For six months, jewelry maker and leatherworker Madelyn Hussman and her husband Joe lived in a tent in what many consider some of the most beautiful places in the U.S., hiking 2,653 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border to the Canada-U.S. border through California, Oregon and Washington. After completing this thru-hike along the Pacific Crest Trail […]
3 years ago

meet along the way: Autumn Abernathy

This story first appeared in the May 2021 issue of “The Best Years (TBY).” Autumn Abernathy of Jackson was experiencing abnormal headaches, numbness and tingling, and none of the doctors she saw about it could tell her why. Her counselor  suggested she take up an activity she loved to do as a child. Abernathy liked […]
3 years ago

meet along the way: Melissa Scholes Young

This story was first published as “Examining Roots: Novel ‘The Hive’ set in Cape Girardeau” in the March 2022 issue of “TBY.” How did the recession in 2008 lead to the events and effects of the 2016 and 2020 elections? That’s the question Melissa Scholes Young set out to explore while writing “The Hive,” a […]
3 years ago