Fiction from Frances Gapper
Photo: Tuva Mathilde Løland Stepmother Is neurotic / very highly strung. Stepdaughter, I trust you not to murder me. But in my experience bad dreams often come true. Fact: I just want her to eat you know something. Garden strawberries probably ok. But make sure they’re clean she says. Soak for at least 15 minutes […]
Fiction from Elena Zhang
Photo: Pranjall Kumar Once, a Long Time Ago We leave home and fall asleep in apple orchards. We sink teeth into red skin and white flesh, and we learn about carnal sins, awakening lust and licking mirrors with our reflection pooled on the surface. We invite wolves into our beating hearts and consume our ancestors. […]
Poetry from Elizabeth Porter
Photo: Nataliya Smirnova Custody Exchange Driving home, the fields glow violet with snow. The rarest natural color must be this—amethyst pastures draped in winter’s discarded robe. From the back my children exchange jokes in their secret language, passing over the 30-mile stretch between homes & weeks & towns. Their laughter hovers like mist on the […]
Nonfiction from Daniel Choe
Photo: Pexels Frozen I was thirteen, and my brother eight, when I first heard mom wailing that she couldn’t live, that she was ripped in two. I was vibrating, but not actually moving. Numbed. From the top bunk, I heard nothing from my brother. I understand now that he was shadowing me, learning to hide […]
Poetry from Lou Sutherland
Photo: Kseniya Lapteva Eyes on Me . . Lou Sutherland (she/they) is a poet and prose writer from the South who is fascinated by the bridge between the psychological and the fantastical. Their writing tends to focus on elements of nature, mythology, and aging across the lifespan. You can read more of their work in […]
Nonfiction from Abigail Myers
Photo: Simon Berger Transfiguration Motherhood did not imbue me with radiant strength or peace. Mothering meant that my days and skillset drastically changed but I was shocked to realize that my many human frailties and vulnerabilities remained, despite the fact that I’d attained Madonna status. —Sara Petersen Then from the cloud came a voice that […]
Poetry from Hari B Parisi
Photo: Peter Mason As a girl 1 Grew up near a river. Not a Mississippi or Columbia. It had no paddlewheels. Looming dams. No sweeping wonder. Swam it where it ran slow. Deep waters that lifted a burning day. My mother didn’t bare her sex. Never learned to swim. . 2 Played solitaire in an […]
Poetry from Donna Vorreyer
Photo: John Silliman Possible Exit Strategy #1 I would kiss the sun goodbye to embrace the monster that I am —the moon is the point, isn’t it, the baying chase it inspires? I swallow then bite my spoon to mute that roundness, pull my lips over my teeth, use proper sounds, each tone bent to […]
Fiction from Brett Biebel
Photo: Oleksandr Akulenko Song of Myself, Six Months Postgrad and Still in Moline I heard about a gunfight, and I went. It was one of those old-fashioned ones. Ten paces. Turn, draw, etc. They held it in a basement, and the second you walked in you could feel the radon. There was a lot of […]
Poetry from Daniel Lehan
The Common Census . . Daniel Lehan studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, England, and later studied Art Therapy at Goldsmiths College, London. He has lived in New York, Florence, Finland, and Quebec, and now lives in Dungeness, on the south coast of England. His work has been published in various print and […]
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