“Hyperphantasia” and “Dear Phanta” from Hyperphantasia (Rescue Press, 2022) by Sara Deniz Akant. Published with permission of Rescue Press. Sara Deniz Akant is a Turkish-American poet, educator, and performer. She is the author of Hyperphantasia (Rescue Press 2022), Babette (Rescue Press 2015), Parades (Omnidawn 2014), and Latronic Strag (Persistent Editions (2014). She teaches poetry as Professor of the Practice […]
The Wait | Lauren Bo
I contemplate the exhaustion of grief. Perhaps I’ve never truly known it, having never known the loss of a parent, spouse, or child. Please doctor, when will this unending grieving end? You were wrong. I grieved for six months, 180 days, 4000 hours, 15 million seconds. I did my duty.
Two Poems | Andrés Cerpa
Andrés Cerpa is the author of The Vault, longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award: Poetry, and Bicycle in a Ransacked City: An Elegy from Alice James Books. He was raised in Staten Island, NY.
LINGUINE NINETEEN (CITY CENTER) | tilghman goldsborough
Tilghman Alexander Goldsborough (b. Richmond, VA, USA, 1991). Poet. His work has appeared in The Mall, the Leveler, and Nomaterialism (vol II). Forthcoming work includes The Western with 1080 press and object 7 ( ,a subject loosely, ,bundled in a frame, ) with Futurepoem. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Cigarette | Gemini Wahhaj
She watched him from the back, the red glow of his cigarette a lone light against the black sky. Sometimes, she went out to join him, hastily dressed in a cotton kamiz and shalwar, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. He turned around and gave her a smile with his stained yellow teeth, then turned back to gaze at the street below with his large, almond-shaped eyes.
Three Poems | Emily Chan
Emily Chan lives and teaches in Iowa City, where she recently completed an MFA as the Iowa Arts (2021) and Alberta Metcalf Kelly Fellow (2022) of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. These pieces belong to a poetry collection in progress, entitled “Meta Verse.” Her work has appeared in collaboration with Hester Street and […]
Purity Culture: A Comedy in Seven Acts | Mikayla Schutte
I am fourteen. I am depressed. My doctor puts me on Zoloft, which decreases sex drives in adults, and prevents me from developing a sex drive in the first place. My fatal flaw is that I do not know this. Instead, I believe I am holy.
Like Jousting | James Yu
I crash cars. Or rather: I crash my body into cars. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. An aspirational statement. Here’s the truth: only twice in my life have I done this.
Of Calving | Taeyin Kang ChoGlueck
Taeyin Kang ChoGlueck (they/them) is a Korean writer born in Minneapolis and raised in S. Korea & the American Midwest. They’ve been a finalist for the Firsts! Kelsey Street Prize judged by Bhanu Kapil and the Kay Murphy Prize judged by Myung Mi Kim. They are a Lambda fellow of […]
An Interview | Finding a Speaking Voice: Colm Tóibín’s “Vinegar Hill”
Irish politics, gay saunas, Expressionist painting, and the influence of Ashbery, Binchy, and Bishop on Tóibín’s captivating new book from Beacon Press, Vinegar Hill.
Hunter’s Moon | Olga “Regina” Doi-Kollegger
If the harvest nights are clear, adults stir.
If comfortable, they talk about past loves. Accidents and hope. They complain about jobs and get even with the boss. They search for life’s rhythms. Delighted by the rhyme, they explore the possibilities of change. Then they lounge, drunk upon words.
Three Poems | Vi Khi Nao
VI KHI NAO, 2022 Lammy Award Winner of the Jim Duggins, PhD: Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, is the author of 17 books, including: A Brief Alphabet of Torture: Stories, which won FC2’s 2016 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize; the novels Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016) & Swimming with Dead Stars (The University of […]
Against Duplication | Chinekotam Yagazie
I remember these images in no particular order: _the fragility of his body, the sparkling nerdiness of his glasses, or the shimmering brilliance of his palm oil complexion. I was still thinking of bodies in terms of complexion when we first met. Although America has a way of taking away […]
Miracle as Archive and Event: A Review of Renee Gladman’s “Plans for Sentences”
The concept of the line that runs through a line of text is just that—a concept independent of its communications. That conceptual value is uncannily visualizable in Gladman’s drawings, which sometimes flash approximations of words or phrases. The “languageness” of the drawings is radiant but unintelligible.
The Real Thing | Chris Arp
Myrtle told Horace the plan. They would take the 7:14 train to the city, to a bar called The Pit Stop.
“It’s a gay bar,” she said. “But this one has a back room. Do you understand me?”
An interview | Robert Jones Jr. on Black Love, Community, and Resistance in The Prophets
Robert Jones, Jr. is the author of The New York Times Bestselling novel, The Prophets, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction and has been translated into nineteen languages. He was born and raised in New York City and received his BFA in creative writing […]
A Visitor Comes to Rondo | Debra Stone
In the backyard of 841 Rondo Avenue, the barbecue cloud floated above them, wrapped around the house like Grandma Essie’s arms. As usual, Grandpa Joe’s stubby brown cigar, clamped tight between his lips, rested in the corner of his mouth. In one hand, a sweating bottle of Grain Belt Beer. In […]
Missoula Stop-gap | Chris Potter
Two blue hiking poles stood upright in the snow. Two stories up, dark hair spilled over the balcony. The apartment complex looked deserted, yet there he was. “You came back!” Cash called down to me. “I had no choice. They closed the campgrounds.” “Want to unload the truck?” “No. I […]
A Scandal in Peril | Cedar Sigo
Cedar Sigo is a poet and member of the Suquamish Tribe. He studied writing and poetics at Naropa University. His most recent books are (poetry) All This Time and (lectures) Guard the Mysteries both published by Wave Books in 2021. He received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artist’s […]
of course | Louise Akers
Louise Akers is a poet living in Brooklyn, NY. They earned their MFA from Brown University in May of 2018. Their chapbook, Alien year, was selected by Brandon Shimoda for the 2020 Oversound Chapbook Prize. Akers’s work can be found in the Berkeley Poetry Review, MIDTERM, Bat City Review, bæst […]