Rural is plural

Alex Joyner

Alex Joyner is a writer and pastor on Virginia’s eastern shore, a place he often calls “the edge of the world and the verge of heaven.” He is the author, most recently, of A Space for Peace in the Holy Land: Listening to Modern Israel & Palestine (Englewood Review, 2014).

EssayFebruary 14, 2017

Rural is plural

By Alex Joyner

We were in danger of becoming a caricature. When a parent stood up at a local school board meeting and expressed her dismay at…

EssayNovember 9, 2016

The endurance of Jaxon’s

By Alex Joyner

These days I can get a pretty good green chile breakfast burrito and sit in trendy comfort at a table not three feet from…

EssayOctober 5, 2016

A bridge to somewhere

By Alex Joyner

Something there is that doesn’t love a bridge. At least on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Oh, we’re proud of the engineering marvel that connects the…

EssayFebruary 8, 2016

Taking it on the chin

By Alex Joyner

The first time I got socked in the jaw it came as a total surprise. At 14 years old, I was already close to…

EssayDecember 9, 2015

The mad and the mundane

By Alex Joyner

According to Google (and who would ever argue with them…it?), thrift reached its zenith sometime just before the Great Depression and has been in…

EssayOctober 19, 2015

The wisdom of a lonely, tidal land

By Alex Joyner

ary Lee came to visit this spring. Possessed of an impressive set of teeth and a wandering spirit, she just showed up one day…

PoetryOctober 6, 2015

Close to Lupe

By Alex Joyner

I was bumping through the desert my knees to my chin in the passenger seat of a VW bug. Early December in southern Mexico….