Fiction from Olabisi Bello
Photo: Dan-Cristian Pădureț A Perfect Canvas We didn’t want her. No, we didn’t. We really didn’t. She’s an accident. A leftover. A babe dropped on the outskirts of our town with nothing but a swaddle to her name. Who would have wanted someone like that? We wanted to return her, But there was no one […]
Poetry from Margarita Serafimova
Photo: Sixteen Miles Out The Passing Holder I have names, I have days, I have lands – with unevennesses, with long laid grasses – they are not mine, but I have them. . . Margarita Serafimova is the winner of the Inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize (2021), the 2020 biennial Tony Quagliano International Award for […]
Fiction from Carolyn Fagan
Photo: Adrienne Merritt Graveyard Girls The five friends were buried together. The sixth one couldn’t make it. She needed to be buried with her husband, her children—her family, she said. The five had sensed this long before the planning and planned accordingly when it came time. By the time the sixth friend needed to be […]
Poetry from Steve Carter
Photo: IamCristian Translucence take an apple green place it in a room fill the room with green paint a picture of it take a red wheel barrow place it in the rain red against white paint a picture of it don’t say a word about it . . Steve Carter is a writer and jazz […]
Fiction from Deirdre Danklin
Photo: Dex Ezekiel Father Whatawaste He was handsome like a ’50s superman. Hair so black it was almost blue. Eyes the color of Listerine. Our mothers called him Father Whatawaste. This was before we knew about the things priests do to children. We still thought the collar meant close to God. God’s mouth on Earth. […]
Poetry from John T. Leonard
Photo: Umberto Instability There were shards everywhere for a while but then I forced the nausea down and crept my way to the front door, hands shaking as I limped across the neighbor’s lawn and tapped on their door. Picture frames, road maps from the 1960’s, our parents’ wedding blanket—children in a sea of things […]
Fiction from Chelsea Stickle
Photo: SHOT Belly Full of Witch’s Stew The luxurious smells that came from the witch’s house at the end of Watercress Lane made everyone wish they had problems monumental enough to bring her. It was said that when it was your time, you’d feel compelled to buy a bundle of meat and appear on her […]
Fiction from Jill Witty
Photo: JR Korpa Glossary: An Enlightening Encircle When a newcomer arrives, we will all bow in reverent welcome. We will clasp our arms around her and dance a sacred circle of belonging. We will calm her fear. Enfold We will choose a comfortable fabric that breathes and sways. We will drape a sheet over her, […]
Poetry from Rhienna Renèe Guedry
Map Source: Mapgeeks Map, Quest The book I haven’t finished takes place somewhere I can’t get back to, it’s the heartburn of longing, senses I have to fictionalize (so there’s sadness too): the specificity of jambalaya songs and Google Image Searching along the basins and backroads of Louisiana, a route eclipsed by water and waterways […]
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