A trilogy of difficult years for our world softened by beautiful stories, lovely poems, and the everlasting connection and thread of hope, welcome to The 2022 Annual. As our world continues to witness war destroy cities, families, livelihoods, historical monuments, as we watch famine spread far and wide, affecting more people than ever before, while humans empower political powers to overtake and alter existing agreements and entities, and as we all live with lack of supplies with higher demands and pay inflated prices as they rise across every land, we humans have been challenged this year like never before. ...and we thought 2020 was a challenge.

For the third year, Stella Samuel delivers prose and poetry from around the world. Words threaded with love, loss, and the will to keep going. Arzono Publishing is honored to present this year's anthology of short stories and poetry in hopes our stories of humanity continue to bring us together. We may not each agree on everything, but maybe... just maybe... if we can all agree to press forward with patience and kindness, with open minds and giving hearts, we'll get through each challenge presented to us individually and as a world with grace, empowered to wake up tomorrow and do it all again. In hopes of sparking conversation and igniting passion for humanity, ARZONO Publishing is proud to present these stories from authors and poets from around the world in our 3rd Annual.