Travel Selfie at Peradeniya Junction
by Kristen Swan Morrison
[Editor’s Note: Click on the triptych below to view it at full size.]
Kristen Swan Morrison’s stories have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Grain, and Wigleaf. She’s completing an MFA through The University of British Columbia. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, she currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she’s working on a novel and a collection of short stories.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Travel Selfie at Peradeniya Junction”? The kernel of this piece started in British Columbia in 2018, a year before I went to Sri Lanka. My partner, his sister, and I hiked a steep trail to the peak of a mountain. All afternoon, helicopters whirred overhead. We sat on the summit to check the news. Apparently, hours earlier, three YouTube/Instagram influencers disappeared over Shannon Falls, recording themselves with a quadcopter. One fell. Two jumped in to save her. I think about them often. Their adventures still live online. My breath catches when I imagine the girl’s foot slipping on wet rock.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
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