Diana McClureLazuli Literary Group, co-founded and co-edited by Diana McClure and Sakina B. Fakhri along with illustrator Evgenia Barsheva, is a platform for the cultivation and advocacy of the imaginative faculty through a small publishing press, contests, and a online/print literary journal, AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought. At a time when "facts" are so readily available through technological means, it is no longer necessary to invent a solution when you can "search" for one. In this context, the ability to imagine as a form of agency becomes paramount. We believe the value of creative writing and narrative fiction as tools to engage with social opinions, histories, and moral codes is vital to personal, political and social evolution. On the level of craft, we advocate creative writing's ability to reveal interiority and its ability to transform, heal and act as a catalyst for the full self-actualization of individuals and society. Aesthetically, we love work that is explicitly demanding of the reader linguistically, intellectually and emotionally.  Read More Read Less