Poetry from Candice Kelsey
Photo: Patrick Tomasso Reading Camp at Santa Monica College I’m sorry we made you go no one teaching you and your friends camp songs no chipped red picnic table half in the shade half in giggles the only woodland creatures balloon-like illustrations in oversized books no counselor weaving lanyards only Teacher Chris — whose listening […]
A Statement from Atlas + Alice’s EIC
A Statement from Atlas + Alice’s EIC It has come to my attention that a past contributor to A+A was recently barred for life from teaching in Florida public schools due to inappropriate communication with one of his students. This incident took place within the past year, yet I did not learn of it until […]
Fiction from Christine Offutt
A Hand on My Shoulder I am the girl with a hand on my shoulder. I don’t mean like a leg on a foot, which is just another way of saying “a foot at the end of a leg”. I don’t mean the hand of comfort, or an ally, I mean a hand, literally, a […]
Poetry from Ace Boggess
Photo: Robert Zunikoff I Watch a Drug Deal Happen by the dumpster. Don’t mind me. I’ve been where you are, holding twenties cupped in my crooked palm, pleading hurry. That orange bottle looks familiar, filled with tickets to the show you’ve seen before. But why the Chihuahua? The long red leash? I don’t remember needing […]
Nonfiction from DiAnne Malone
Photo: Keith Misner Home Training “She didn’t say come in,” my sister whispers. She places her fingertips on my forearm as if that would stop me from opening the door, but my hand is already twisting the knob; my foot hangs, mid-step over the front door threshold at the house where my ancestors worked as […]
Fiction from Sutton Strother
Photo: Michael Prewett When I Say You’re Welcome What I Mean is My Pleasure Over the wine coolers we’ve smuggled into her dorm room, Jenni confesses she’s never touched herself. I thought it was dirty she murmurs like she’s still not certain it isn’t, and suddenly I wish I was someone better than the girl who […]
Fiction from Benjamin Niespodziany
Photo: Luke Southern Guadalajara Funeral Parlor I am in an apartment in Guadalajara across from a 24 hour funeral parlor that never stops partying. In this dream, children grip pistols that shoot black flags. Pristine limousines breathe tattered tassels. The bereaved own the district. They stuff trumpets in each hearse and blurt dirges through the […]
Poetry from Judith Roney
Photo: Alexander Andrews Confirmation Number The Verizon associate …………who had a thick accent took my credit card number, …………the expiration date and the three numbers …………on the back of the card that seem to carry so much weight …………you can’t buy food without them. The monthly bill for two phones …………and an Apple watch was […]
Nonfiction from Jennifer Fliss
Photo: Kris Mikael Krister My Body Is an Aquarium Up to 60% of a woman’s body is made of water. There was a time I was so sick I ate nothing. My illness lasted for three months and doctors could not figure out what was causing me such pain. I worked at an aquarium […]
Fiction from Cathy Mellett
Photo: Honey Caranzo The Green Bridge My mother Marnie was visiting us again. She said she left her husband for good this time. It was always for good, and she always went back to him. But for now, she was living with my grandmother and me. The first day Marnie was home, she phoned a […]
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