Book excerpt: 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