Molly O’Dell lives in southwest Virginia. She received an MFA from the University of Nebraska and has published several collections, including a chapbook titled Off the Chart, the multi-genre collection, Care is A Four Letter Verb, and Unsolicited 96 Saws and Quips from the Wake of the Pandemic. Certain Future She cuts or tears one…
Peter Leight lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has previously published poems in the Paris Review, AGNI, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, FIELD, and other magazines. Care When I’m being careful I walk around the room and pick up some things in order to put them down, taking a pill or two to…
Jeffrey Tao has had a career as conference interpreter at the United Nations and has written many travelogues chronicling his impressions of international destinations. His literary work includes haikus on a variety of subjects and translations of poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, some of which have been published in magazines such as Adelaide, Belle…
Kimberly Kralowec is the author of The Saplings Think of Us as Young (Kelson Books, 2023) and a chapbook, We retreat into the stillness of our own bones (Tolsun Books, 2022). Her poetry appears in journals such as The Shore, wildness, Twyckenham Notes, and The Inflectionist Review, and she was recently named a finalist…
WAITING after Beth Stahlecker What can I do? Wish the day over like macular clouds making the palms waver under the pressure? I look through a thousand fronds diffused with sun flashing above visions of a beach set loose in the street and dull surfboards. Either she wasn’t at yoga or…
Stephen Behrendt is a native of northern Wisconsin, transplanted to Nebraska some forty years ago and now the George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, where his special interests are in the literature, art and culture of the “long” Romantic period. His poetry has been widely published and includes four book-length…
Ruth Carr was born in Belfast, educated at Queen’s University, Stranmillis College and the University of Ulster, and has been a tutor in adult education since the early 1980s. She worked in community education at BIFHE (The Belfast Met) for over 15 years, mainly in adult literacy, inclusive learning and creative writing. Since then she…
Alex Wylie is a poet and critic who lives in Leeds. His debut collection, Secular Games, was published by Eyewear in 2018, and a book on the later work of Geoffrey Hill, entitled Radiance of Apprehension, is forthcoming shortly. ALIEN POWERS ‘Have I really been in a battle?’ wondered Stendhal’s hero after…
Kate H. Koch is a graduate student at Harvard Extension School, where she is pursuing an ALM degree in Creative Writing and Literature. Kate is fascinated by all things macabre, and you can find her work in The Metaworker, Club Plum, BOMBFIRE, Cholla Needles, and Minnesota’s Best Emerging Poets of 2019: An Anthology, as well…
Porsha Monique Allen is a resident and native of Richmond, Virginia. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. Her work has appeared and is forthcoming in Scene & Heard Journal, Apricity Press, Obsidian, Scalawag Magazine, and Rattle. She was selected as a semi-finalist for Naugatuck River Review’s 12th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest. Burning…
Amanda Cleary is a high school student in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She began writing in third grade and hasn’t stopped since. She plays the mellophone for her school’s marching band, and spends the rest of her time reading and talking to her parakeet. RHODE ISLAND Rain falling past a red truck…
Jeffrey Tao holds a degree in Russian Studies from Sussex University. He has had a career as conference interpreter at the United Nations in New York, continuing to serve the organization on a freelance basis. He has translated poems from the Tang Dynasty and prose writings from the 20s, 30s and 40s. He has written…
Charles Rafferty’s twelfth collection of poems is The Smoke of Horses (BOA Editions, 2017). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, O, Oprah Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and Ploughshares, and his stories have appeared in The Southern Review and Per Contra. His story collection is Saturday Night at Magellan’s. He has won the 2016 NANO…
Aidan Coleman’s poems have appeared in Glasgow Review of Books, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review among others. His first two collections of poetry, Avenues & Runways and Asymmetry, both published by Brandl & Schlesinger, were shortlisted for national book awards in Australia, and his third book of poems, Mount Sumptuous,…
Barbara Daniels’s Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press in 2020. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Lake Effect, Cleaver, Faultline, Small Orange, Meridian, and elsewhere. Barbara Daniels received a 2020 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. WISTERIA An emerald leaf pales to…
Ellis Elliott is a ballet teacher and writer in Juno Beach, Florida. She is currently pursuing an MFA at Queens University in Charlotte, NC. Her work can be found in Neologism Poetry Journal, Literary Mama, and upcoming in Evening Street Review. TEACHING BALLET TO CHILDREN ON ZOOM DURING A PANDEMIC First, you…
Akiko Hara lives in Hakone, Japan. She works as an illustrator and gardener’s assistant. She has been published in 森林浴 and The Silent Hand, and has a small pamphlet of poems entitled, Flinch. On the wet fields, shining silver after rain, I lie under the sun, thinking of nothing. I take long lonely walks;…
Clara Burghelea is a Romanian-born poet with an MFA in Poetry from Adelphi University. Recipient of the Robert Muroff Poetry Award, her poems and translations appeared in Ambit, HeadStuff, Waxwing, The Cortland Review and elsewhere. Her collection The Flavor of The Other was published in 2020 with Dos Madres Press. She is the Translation/International Poetry…
Boris Kokotov is a poet and translator, the author of several poetry collections. His translations of selected poems of contemporary Russian poets to English appeared in Adelaide, Blackbird, InTranslation- BrooklynRail, Poet Lore, and Washington Square Review, among others. He lives in Baltimore. Vadim Molodiy was born in Moscow, 1947. He studied medicine and received a…
Rachael Hershon’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in failbetter, Amaryllis, and Bop Dead City, among others. A proud Massachusetts native, she currently teaches English in the greater Boston area. Landscape, Childhood City Stars sink behind duplexes, snow-worn streets, press thin light onto pavement. Saxonville, I must leave you, but tomorrow they…
Bangladeshi-born Sujash Purna is a graduate student at Missouri State University. A poet based in Springfield, Missouri, he serves as an assistant poetry editor to the Moon City Review. His poetry has appeared in Naugatuck River Review, Kansas City Voices, Poetry Salzburg Review, English Journal, Stonecoast Review, Red Earth Review, Emrys Journal, Prairie Winds, Gyroscope…
Zeli M. Miceli is a recent graduate from the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College. Their work in drama has been staged at Dixon Place and The SoHo Playhouse. Their other literary work has appeared in Foglifter Press and QC Voices. Zeli teaches at Queens College and lives in New…
Abby Caplin’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Love’s Executive Order, Manhattanville Review, Midwest Quarterly, Salt Hill, TSR: The Southampton Review, Tikkun, and elsewhere. She has been a finalist for the Rash Award in Poetry, semi-finalist for the Willow Run Poetry Book Award, finalist for the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award, and a winner…
I often do things I don’t care about, I think I’m not going to, and then I do, that’s all it is. Just to make sure I can. I’m not even strong enough, I believe it’s related to the capacity, as when a disk is corrupted— I’m feeling weak, or I’m actually weak, which…
Cordelia Hanemann is currently a practicing writer and artist in Raleigh, NC. She has published in such journals as Turtle Island Quarterly, Connecticut River Review, Mainstreet Rag, and Laurel Review and in several anthologies: The Well-Versed Reader, Heron Clan IV, and Kakalak 2018. She has published a chapbook, Through a Glass Darkly, and her poem,…
Charles Rafferty’s most recent collections of poems are The Smoke of Horses (BOA Editions, 2017), Something an Atheist Might Bring Up at a Cocktail Party (Mayapple Press, 2018), and The Problem With Abundance (Grayson Books, 2019). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, O, Oprah Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, and Ploughshares….
Emily Hyland’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Review, Neologism Poetry Journal, Sixfold, The Virginia Normal, and Stretching Panties. A restaurateur and English professor from New York City, she received her MFA in poetry and her MA in English education from Brooklyn College. Her cookbook, Emily: The Cookbook, was published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, in…
Christie Towers is a poet living in the Boston area. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her work can be found in Narrative Magazine, the Ohio Edit, SummerStock and Reality Hands. PYRITE The first poems I ever wrote for you, you requested. And now we’re…
Matt Dennison’s work has appeared in Rattle, Bayou Magazine, edivider, Natural Bridge, The Spoon, River Poetry Review and Cider Press Review, among others. He has also made short films with Michael Dickes, Swoon, and Marie Craven. TAP WATER Cool drink of water from the kitchen sink at midnight, faucet turned as the rain…
None have seen the Barnacle Goose’s nest or egg; nor is this surprising since such geese are said to have spontaneous generation. When the fir masts or planks of ships have rotted in the sea, a kind of fungus breaks out upon them in which after time the form of birds may be seen;…
Transverse Orientation To watch moths as a pastime is known as mothing. Nothing is known about what makes one inclined to mother or less inclined to that sort of glow curio. Moth-er with — unexpectedly — the short O of body rather than the O Oh of that longer load zooming in on the…
Michael H. Brownstein’s book, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else: A Poet’s Journey To The Borderlands Of Dementia, was published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018. He presently lives with his wife in Missouri. from The Tattoo Garden of Cappela Now the wheat grass starts to wade away, the anger in the valley growing softer,…
Medbh McGuckian was born in Belfast in 1950. She studied at Queen’s University, earning a BA and MA, and was later appointed the institution’s first female writer-in-residence. She has won the National Poetry Competition, The Cheltenham Award, The Rooney Prize, the Bass Ireland Award for Literature, the Denis Devlin Award, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize…
Courtney Cook is an MFA candidate at the University of California, Riverside, and a graduate of the University of Michigan. She has been published in the Cerurove, the Manifest-Station, Thought Catalog, and Soapvox, and is the winner of a Hopwood Award in Nonfiction. BAY BLUES i. We sparked a joint called Tango Haze,…
Barbara Daniels’ book, Rose Fever was published by WordTech Press, and the chapbooks Black Sails, Quinn & Marie, and Moon Kitchen by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review and elsewhere. She received three fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. WRITING ENGLISH GRAMMAR…
Ted McCarthy is a poet and translator living in Clones, Ireland. His work has appeared in magazines in Ireland, the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia. He has had two collections published: November Wedding, and Beverly Downs. SUGAR CUBE There is no thirteenth floor where they sit watching the river carve its…
Megan Waring is a poet, playwright and fiber artist who currently resides in Boston. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Virginia Tech and is currently earning her MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her work is forthcoming or published in Salamander, Nailed Magazine, Mortar Magazine, The Legendary, and Pulp Literature,…
When the daylight fades & the florescent harshness envelops you both, you see the steady lines & try to remember the reasons & how you were once contented with cold church steps & shared cigarettes. You remember how the heap of clothing you slithered out of after lunch resembled a lost hound in…
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is The Osiris Poems published by boxofchalk, 2017. For more information, including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com. From far…
DS Maolalai is a poet from Ireland who has been writing and publishing poetry for almost 10 years. His first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden, was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press. He has a second collection forthcoming from Turas Press in 2019. 3 guys on holiday we took the boat…
Mark Seidl lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, where he works as a rare-books librarian. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Hotel Amerika, Unbroken Journal, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Water Jug You want pure attention like hers to whatever is going on in the…
Kathleen Hellen is the author of The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin (2018), the award-winning collection Umberto’s Night, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net, and featured on Poetry Daily, her poems have been awarded the Washington Writers’ Poetry Prize,…
Julia’s Child I wrote a poem for us, you say Silence Go on then A tendril of hair pushed back behind an ear You look grave, and somehow your mouth is sexier — I want to bite your lips It’s called ‘The Orchard’ Like the play? Yes, like the play. Though not,…
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is The Osiris Poems, published by box of chalk in 2017. Untitled 1 You dead still look out at water are sheltered inside these row-houses laid down along the…
Leontia Flynn is the author of three collections of poetry. Her most recent, Profit and Loss, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her work has received many accolades including an Eric Gregory Award, the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She lives in Belfast where she…
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is The Gibson Poems published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, 2019. For more information including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website…
James Owens’s most recent collection of poems is Mortalia (FutureCycle Press, 2015). His poems, stories, and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in The Fourth River, Waxwing, Adirondack Review, Tule Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and Southword. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in…
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection, The Osiris Poems, was published by box of chalk in 2017. For more information, including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities”, please visit his website at simonperchik.com….
Peter Leight lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has previously published poems in the Paris Review, AGNI, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, FIELD, and other magazines. The Struggle Falling back when the others advance, advancing when they fall back, we live in reverse. throwing away our calendars— in a hurry but not rushing, this…
Christie Towers is a poet living in the Boston area. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her work can be found in Narrative Magazine, the Ohio Edit, SummerStock and Reality Hands. No Sense today my friend tells me she doesn’t understand god and later…
We bring our handsome spouse to a party in the afternoon lights where the trees talk of winter and young girls photosynthesize the talk. Most of the guests find us dull, and we comply. There is little to say to winter. The girls bring their trees to talk. The other adults, who…
Alex Wylie is a poet and critic who lives in Leeds. His debut collection, Secular Games, and a book on the later work of Geoffrey Hill, Radiance of Apprehension, are both forthcoming in 2018. Sweets for Breakfast Sweets for breakfast, all the crap of the day complete in one convenient sitting like…
LEAVING HUMBOLDT REDWOODS STATE PARK Now, the Michigan trees are too small. I long for the low hum of those long lives, with their enormous thirst for the cool mists off the ocean, and the calm I felt even as the dark waters rose, threatening to pull me down. My beloved joined me…
This is an extract from a longer poem still in progress, ‘The Tipping Line’, written to the son of my friends Ken and Jane Vickers. Rowan studied drama at Julliard and is now acting professionally in New York. Earlier sections of the poem reference WWI veteran James Whale who found fame in 1928 directing R…
