Find the latest news from literary and alternative magazines including new issues, editorial openings, and much more.
The April issue of The Lake is now online featuring Melanie Branton, Luigi Coppola, Seth Crook, Melanie Hyo-In Han, Nels Hanson, Tom Kelly, Ibe Liebenberg, DA Maolalai, Megan McDermott, John Middlebrook, Lynn Pattison, Paul Waring.
New design. New writing from Cuba. New essays, stories, and poems—from Susan Daitch, Carl Dennis, Matthew Lansburgh, Charif Shanahan, and more. In our long-awaited translation feature of new writing from Cuba, you’ll find “hyper-real, speculative, socio-politically explicit, photographically existential, and experimental forms,” says translator Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann in her introduction. Read more at the New England Review website.
For this month’s Plume featured selection, Nancy Mitchell interviewed five Poet Laureates: Tina Chang, Elizabeth Jacobson, Paisley Rekdal, Levi Romero and Laura Tohe. In nonfiction: “Correspondence In The Air” by Ilya Kaminsky and “Twilight of the Theorists” by Doug Anderson. Andrea Read reviews Steven Cramer’s Listen.
Nonfiction by Jade Hidle and Emily Waples; fiction by Remy Barnes, Christine Ma-Kellams, Raquel Olive, and Keija Parssinen; and poetry by John Blair, Asa Drake, Giles Goodland, Aiden Heung, Patrick Holian, Avery K. James, David Klose, and Rooja Mohassessy. Find more info at the Southern Humanities Review website.
The Spring 2021 issue of The Writing Disorder features fiction by Alison Bullock, Jennifer Makowsky, Robert Collings, Wendy Maxon, and more; poetry by R.T. Castleberry, Nicholas Karavatos, Mark DuCharme, Natasha Sharma, Hana Jabr, and John Tustin; nonfiction by Katy Wright, Riley Winchester, and Donna D. Vitucci. Art by Stewart Francis Easton.
Guest Post by Christopher Nicholson.
The best friend I ever had was my dog Milo. He offered the best kind of love—not unconditional but predicated on the most reasonable conditions. I had to earn his love and could feel good about that, but he didn’t expect me to be perfect. This sensation is nothing new to most people who have had a pet.
In “Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door,” published in the Fall/Winter 2020-2021 edition of Magnets and Ladders, Bonnie Blose reminisces on sharing such a love with the titular cat, Honey, who found her at a local rescue shelter and chose her immediately. Honey had some traumatic experiences in her past that affected her behavior and didn’t make her an easy pet. Blose committed from the very beginning to give her the love she needed, no matter what, for however much time they had together. She did exactly that.
Blose extols her cat’s intelligence and emotion, painting her as almost human—or as Blose would insist, better than human. This is also a relatable mindset for me and other past or present pet owners. They are not mere accessories; they are our friends, our family, our confidantes. Honey shows as much personality in the story as any human character, and one senses that it’s true to life, that Blose isn’t just anthropomorphizing her for dramatic purposes.
Magnets and Ladders is an online magazine for writers with disabilities, and this story won first place in the nonfiction category of the National Federation of the Blind Writers’ Division’s 2020 contest, so the author’s disability is a constant subtext without ever being stated outright in the story. One gets the impression that Blose needed Honey as much as Honey needed her, that their relationship was symbiotic in a way. Many people are so preoccupied with finding romantic companionship to “complete” themselves that they overlook the potential of pets—but in this time when human connection is so limited, they may rediscover an appreciation for the one-of-a-kind bonds that animals can offer.
Take a few minutes, open your heart, and give this story a chance.
“Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door” by Bonnie Blose. Magnets and Ladders, Fall/Winter 2020-2021.
Reviewer bio: Christopher Nicholson is an English 1010 instructor and Creative Writing graduate student at Utah State University. He writes and blogs about all kinds of things at https://www.christopherrandallnicholson.com.
Guest Post by Mia Jensen.
“When the butterfly struggles out of its pupa, for three long hours its wings are wet and as utterly useless as a newborn’s hands.”
In “Life Inside,” found in Issue 211 of Cimarron Review, author Caroline Sutton contemplates the limitations of mortality and motherhood amid the upcoming birth of her first granddaughter. Sutton ingeniously weaves the eager experiences of her pregnant daughter with the vulnerable life cycle of monarch butterflies and their fruitless efforts for survival in a hostile world.
Reflecting on her own complicated pregnancy decades before, Sutton likens the near loss of her infant to the toxic consumption of milkweed leaves. Monarch mothers lay eggs on milkweed plants and milkweed plants alone, for when monarch larvae ingest the plant’s toxic properties, predators avoid the black and yellow creature. Sutton thinks back to her traumatic delivery and questions her blind trust during the delivery, her assumptions that everything would be alright because it always was, because mothers always offered protection. But, in a world strung with chaos and turmoil, perhaps there are some obstacles a mother cannot predict.
Sutton concludes by comparing her daughter’s upcoming delivery with a caterpillar’s metamorphic emergence. Rather than reflecting on the cliché symbol of hope, Sutton contemplates the feebleness of the new creature. Its wings, wet, useless, and unable to defend against predators looking to “attack and devour the butterfly, toxins and all, before the wings ever open fully.” Although monarch mothers provide protection from larvae to pupa, they cannot predict the perils awaiting beyond the chrysalis.
“Life Inside” by Caroline Sutton. Cimarron Review, Spring 2020.
Reviewer bio: Mia Jensen is a graduate student at Utah State University studying creative writing. She loves horror novels, trail running, and her Australian Shepherd.
This annual issue of Rathalla Review is comprised of the best work from the Spring and Fall issues during the pandemic. In these pages, we showcase the best poems, essays, stories, and art we received during a time when all our lives were changing. Gale Acuff, Jay Julio, Bina Ruchi Perino, David Wright, and more.
The spring issue of The Shore is bursting with breathtaking poetry by Dana Blatte, Jessica Poli, Matthew Tuckner, CD Eskilson, Dakota Reed, Kelsey Carmody Wort, Martha Silano, SK Grout, Hilary King, Babo Kamel, Noa Saunders, Jeremy Michael Reed, Lucy Zhang, C Samuel Rees, Becki Hawes, Kevin Grauke, Jenny Wong, Steven Pfau, Ashley Steineger, Danielle Pieratti, Eric Steineger, Farnaz Fatemi, Scarlett Peterson, Sarah Elkins, Katie Holtmeyer, Robert Fanning, Jean Theron, Heidi Seaborn, Caroline Riley, Sarah Stickney, David Keplinger, Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan, Tara A Elliott, Laren Mallett, Richard Prins and Sam Sobel. It also features dazzling art by Joshua Young.
Radar Poetry’s newest issue features poetry by Geula Geurts, Despy Boutris, K. D. Harryman, Jennifer Beebe, Marietta Brill, Kathryn Haemmerle, Michelle Menting, Julia Paul, Amanda Chiado, Jane Zwart, Meggie Royer, Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones, Janine Certo, Cynthia White, Rachael Inciarte, Josh Exoo, Casey Patrick, and Ruth Dickey, as well as accompany art by artists such as Ethan Pines, Tema Stauffer, Lava Munroe, Honour Mack, and more.
This issue of Qu features “Rogue Valley” by Midge Raymond, “Social Studies” by Stephany Brown, “The Summer of Disappearing Moms” by Kristin Gallagher, “Brooklyn” by Roy Bentley, “survival float” by Rachael Gay, “Touch Starvation” by Rachael Gay, “Last Seen Leaving Campus with Unnamed Male” by Mary Wolff, “A Marriage of Lies and One Truth” by Mary Wolff, and more.
The Winter 2021 issue of The Fiddlehead features creative nonfiction by Chafic LaRochelle, Jen Ashburn, and Emira Tufo; fiction by Elise Thorburn, Liz Johnston, Dylan Taylor, and more; and poetry by Don Domanski, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Phoebe Wang, Keith Taylor, Rose Maloukis, LN Woodward, Monica Rico, and more.
In this issue: Diane Seuss, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Kathleen Ossip, Kaitlyn Palmer, Ricki Cummings, John Gallaher, Timothy Liu, Maureen Seaton, Bernard Welt, and more. Read more at the Court Green website.
Guest Post by Tyler Hurst.
In “She,” published in Issue 18 of Into the Void, author Grace Camille begins with an inventory of the things that the she has chosen to hold onto. Through the memories the objects invoke, we are introduced to the narrator’s own addiction, a need to belong, to be a part of something and to nurture “a proper addiction” that “began as a Hail Mary plan to be accepted by sleek, serious coworkers.”
Camille’s loneliness becomes our loneliness through the use of the third person, creating an emotional distance from events that still allows the reader to recognize. When she meets “him,” he makes her feel needed, wanted. When he leaves for the Peace Corps, the world becomes one of routines. “She jogs in the evenings, washes her hair weekly, flosses daily, eats sometimes,” and the list goes on. One-hundred-and-three days later, she’s still wishing after him, remembering him and longing for what she cannot hold. While she “reaches for his hand,” he is “reaching for a firefly,” revealing the futility of trying to hold onto that which does not wish to be held.
“She” by Grace Camille. Into the Void, 2021.
Reviewer bio: Tyler Hurst is a graduate student at Utah State University studying creative writing while completing his last semester there.
This issue’s theme is “My Deep Love of Place.” Featured writers include Melodie Corrigall, Suzanne Finney, Catherine Young, Amy Cotler, Jeri Ann Griffith, Lawrence Gregory, Sue Schuerman, Cayce Osborne, Penny Milam, David Denny, William Bless, Barbara Cole, Rosalie Sanara Petrouske, and Teresa H. Klepac. Featured artists include Catherine L. Schweig, Walt Hug, Birgit Gutsche, MJ Edwards, and Barbara Anne Kearney. Find more info at the Still Point Arts Quarterly website.
The Spring 2021 issue of Rattle features a Tribute to Neurodiversity. This issue’s conversation features Michael Mark, who discusses how dyslexia has contributed to his life and work, as well as advertising, ghost stories, Buddhism, and many other topics. The issue includes another exciting and highly varied open section, presenting poets such as Skye Jackson and Stephen Dunn, covering a wide range of subjects and styles.
The March-April 2021 issue of Hippocampus Magazine is now at the Mag Stand, and it’s full of CNF goodness for you, including work by Scott Bane, Paul Crenshaw, Bethany Kaylor, Anya Liftig, Francisco Martinezcuello, Tiffany Mathewson, Sheila Monaghan, Jim Ross, Michelle Strausbaugh, Kareem Tayyar, and Lish Troha. Also in this issue: a book review by Emily Dillon, a craft essay by Michelle Levy, and Robin Wheeler on “Going Mobile.”
The poems inside this issue of Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review speak to our moment in different and unpredictable ways. Maurice Manning attempts to capture the past; Lauren Slaughter faces mourning head-on; and Ed Falco wonders fitfully about Narcissus. And maybe Narcissus can be a mascot of sorts for this weird moment of ours—how so many of us have stared at our own faces on Zoom and felt paralyzed, perhaps not by self-regard, but by something still inevitably bounded by the self. Hopefully, the poems and interviews in this year’s issue of HSPR will help break you out of whatever trance you might be in.
The Georgia Review’s Spring 2021 issue begins our seventy-fifth number, features new writing from T Cooper, Eloghosa Osunde, Kazim Ali, Heather Christle, Nikki Wallschlaeger, and many more. Spring 2021 features new translations of work by Alain Mabanckou, Hiromi Itō, and Toshiko Hirata and a special section with Julie Iromuanya and Virginia Jackson’s writings on Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: An American Conversation. This issue’s art portfolio presents Yaron Michael Hakim’s innovative anti-colonial artworks, as seen in two distinctive series, with an introduction from editor Gerald Maa.
The Spring 2021 issue features nonfiction by Molly Rogers; fiction by Kathryn Harlan; and poetry by Genevieve Payne, T. Dallas Saylor, and Emma Lewis. Also in this issue: Tim Erwin, Holly Goddard Jones, Monica Macansantos, and more. See other contributors at the Colorado Review website.
This issue’s themed art exhibit is “Exotic,” and our featured poet is “Stephen Kampa,” interviewed by Chelsea Woodard. Other poets in this issue include Tim McGrath, John Beaton, Richard Cecil, Estill Pollock, Bruce Bennett, Anne Delana Reeves, Elise Hempel, Terese Coe, Verga Ignatowitsch, Dan Campion, and others. Plus, a selection of book reviews; essays by N.S. Thompson and Christopher Rivas; and an international fiction special feature. See more contributors at the Able Muse website.
Online literary magazine Flash Frog delivers up one story under 1,000 words weekly with an accompanying original artwork created just for that piece.
Founded just this year, their focus is on “language that jumps off the page” and “stories that linger for days” as they like their stories as they like dart frogs: small, brightly colored, and deadly to the touch.
Recent stories include “And This is How You Fade Away” by Tyrel Klessinger; Shannon Layne’s “All the Ways We Tried to Kill My Father”; and “Man on the Moon” by Patricia Q. Bidar.
They are open to submissions year-round and do not charge a submission fee. Hop on over to their listing on NewPages to learn more.
A new Tint Journal is out. Read 25 new literary creations by ESL writers from all around the world online and for free at our website. Each text is accompanied with visual art creations by international artists, and many feature audio recordings of the writers reading their work. The 25 new poems, short stories and essays by writers identifying with 19 different nationalities and speaking 18 different mother tongues are just as diverse in their subject matter: Ranging from immigration, food, loss, LGBTQ+ and race to horror and romance, they will cue readers to think about the pressing issues of our time and open new literary landscapes to enjoy.
This month’s Plume featured selection includes an interview with Ann Arbor by Leeya Mehta with a selection of work by the poet. DeWitt Henry reviews Petition by Joyce Peseroff. In nonfiction: “Overdetermination (It’s Not as Boring As It Sounds)” by David Kirby.
In addition to the 2020 Short Nonfiction Contest winners, Miriam Grossman, Mary O. Parker, and Stella Li, the Mar/Apr Kenyon Review includes “Nature’s Nature,” our seventh annual special poetry section centered on “nature, the environment, and ecological witness,” as Poetry Editor David Baker describes it in his introduction.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
The Winter 2020 issue of the Missouri Review includes a selection of blackout poetry by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth. These poems move beyond the traditional blackout poem, though, and move into a realm beyond, each poem a well-crafted work of art. The variety in style is inspiring as she demonstrates the creative ways one can manipulate text. The art speaks as much as the selected words do. Each turn of the page reveals something inventive and exciting, a treasured find in this issue.
The Winter 2020 Issue of SRPR is now available. You will find cover art by Jessi Simpson; The SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with new poetry by Carlo Matos and Amy Sayre Batista, with an interview of the poets by Simone Muench and Jackie K. White; The Editors’ Prize-winning poem by David Groff, as well as runners-up poems by Todd Copeland and Erica Bodwell, honorable mention poems by Kelsey Taylor, Cody Smith, and Gabriel Dozal.
New poetry by Heather Lang-Cassera, Wale Ayinla, Suphil Lee Park, Anne Champion, and others; fiction by Joseph Bathanti, Natanya Ann Pulley, and Grant William Currier; and essays by Tariq Al Haydar, Karen Salyer McElmurray, and more. Plus Patrick Hicks reviews Angel Bones by Ilyse Kusnetz. Read more at the South Dakota Review website.
Mudfish 22 is here and is bursting with poems, prose and art, that are revelations, that grab you by the lapels, that defy forgetting. They are before and after visions and celebrations of our world today. Guest art editor John Yau has filled the pages with work from young New York-based artists that is immediate and sparkling.
Inside the latest issue of Missouri Review: first fiction from Isabelle Shifrin. Featuring poetry by John Gallaher, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Teresa Ott, fiction by Drew Calvert, Yxta Maya Murray, Mehr-Afarin Kohan, and Sam Dunnington, essays from Molly Wright Steenson and Phillip Hurst, and more, including a Curio Cabinet piece on Hans Christian Andersen.
In this issue of Gargoyle: family and relationship works, a thread of Greek myths, bullies, and a couple NASA poets. Nonfiction by Anne McGouran, Frances Park, Marilyn Stablein, and D. E. Steward; fiction by Sean Gill, Frederick Highland, Len Kruger, Jillian Oliver, Max Talley, Curtis Smith, and more; and poetry by CL Bledsoe & Michael Gushue, Roger Camp, Kathleen Clancy, German Dario, Holly Day, Alexis Draut, Robert Estes, Michelle Fenton, and others.
New poems by Diane Thiel, Simon Anton Niño Diego Baena, Ronda Piszk Broatch, Moriah Cohen, Aran Donovan, and more. Anagrams and polysemic drawings by Sally Van Doren. See a full contributors list at The 2River View website.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
I’ve been watching a lot of comedy movies and TV shows lately, enjoying the much needed escape from reality, so it makes sense that I’d gravitate toward Wesley Korpela’s “An Email to the Rose Creek School Board” in the Fall 2020 issue of Emerald City.
Korpela writes an email to the “Members of the Facilities Committee” from Genevieve Powers-Harrison’s point of view. Genevieve requests the elementary school’s name be changed to honor her still-living ex-husband Carl. Carl’s obsession with getting on the show America’s Funniest Home Videos drives the couple apart, but ultimately Genevieve believes he deserves the award as “a ‘win.'” After all, “he’s a nice enough man.”
I loved the voice Korpela gives to Genevieve and found the obsession with AFV to be a fun and fresh twist on the divorce story. There’s no ill-will between the two, just many failed attempts at five seconds of fame. A good, silly story is just what I needed.
Contributors to the March 2021 issue of Poetry include Jacqueline Woodson, Luis Daniel Salgado, Cornelius Eady, Marilyn Nelson, Mariana Llanos, Nour Al Ghraowi, Mosab Abu Toha, Nikki Grimes, Renée Watson, Michael Simms, Margarita Engle, Linda Sue Park, Elizabeth Acevedo, Kimberly Blaeser, Chen Chen, Pat Mora, Kim Stafford, Ari Tison, and Heid E. Erdrich.
The March issue is now online featuring Clair Chilvers, Oz Hardwick, Elaine Lambert, Alex McConochie, Ronald Moran, Rebecca Myers, Angela Readman, Jay Sizemore, Sam Smith, Julia Stothard, Mark Totterdell.
Jewish Fiction .net is thrilled to share something joyful in these challenging times: our beautiful new issue (#26)! 23 marvelous stories originally written in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, including one about Purim (“The Feast of Esther”), two about Passover (“What Elijah Brought” and “Plagued”), and a story that is intentionally set in between these two holidays (“Serah”). The first two of these four stories also take place during Covid. We hope all of these 23 wonderful works bring you insights, solace, and pleasure.
This issue features poetry by Kamilah Aisha Moon, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Daniel Schonning, and Amy Fleury; fiction by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, Mi Jin Kim, and Jack Ortiz; and essays by Dawn D’Aries. Read more at the Crazyhorse website.
Welcome to the first edition of Allegro for 2021. Enjoy poems by Anthony Lawrence, Marc Woodward, Roger Bloor, Robin Helweg-Larsen, David Harmer, Glenn Hubbard, Jane Blanchard, Craig Coyle, Sophia Agyris, Robert Ford, Ian C Smith, Marius Grose, Phil Vernon, James Dowthwaite, Rebecca Gethin, John Rogers, Judy Clarence, Helen May Williams, Carolyn Oulton, Sean Chapman, Barbara Parchim, and more. See a full contributor list at the Allegro Poetry Magazine website.
Writers and artists follow the theme of “Not of This World” in the Spring 2021 issue of THEMA. Some of the authors’ takes will definitely surprise readers. Contributors include Kayleigh McKee, James Swafford, Lynda Fox, Emily Hanlon, Margo Peterson, James Armstrong, Jennifer Erickson, Linda Berry, John Grey, Tricia Lowther, and more.
In this issue of River Styx: poetry by Nin Andrews, Gabriella Balza, Talia Bloch, Bruce Bond, Lyn Li Che, Jeff Gundy, David Kirby, Jenna Le, Timothy Liu, Adrian Matejka, Miho Nonaka, Emily Ransdell, Erin Saxon, Troy Varvel, Kiani Yiu, and more; fiction by Winston Bribach, Michael Byers, Jack Driscoll, and Andrea L. Rogers; essays by Maura Lammers, Jennifer Murvin, and Kerry Neville.
A journal of personal stories exploring mortality, death, and dying related topics. This issue of Months to Years features work by Gaye Brown, Helen Bowie, Patti Santucci, Briana Gervat, Mari-Carmen Marin, Michael Biegner, Bethany Bruno, John Timothy Robinson, Mary Ann Noe, Patricia Miller, Mara Lefebvre, Lee Landau, Sherri Levine, Susan Robison, Jeremy Gadd, and more.
In the final issue of The Chattahoochee Review, find poetry by Darius Atefat-Peckham, John Brandon, Jesse Breite, Taylor Byas, Luis Alberto de Cuenca, Maria Castro Dominguez, Courtney Faye Taylor, Bethan Tyler, Joke van Leeuwen, L. A. Weeks, Ross White, and more.
The Winter 2021 issue of Baltimore Review features poetry and prose by John Van Kirk, Mary Ardery, Tara Lynn Masih, Shailen Mishra, Basmah Sakrani, LeRoy Sorenson, Susan Messer, Alden M. Hayashi, Gregory Byrd, Emily James, and more.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
The Winter 2020 issue of The Malahat Review opens with the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke Prize for Creative Nonfiction: “On Playing Double Jeopardy!” by Christina Brobby. This piece works through the different money categories in a game of Jeopardy all on the theme of photographic terms. Like the show, Brobby is given the answer and she responds with the appropriate question as she connects the term to her life.
I enjoyed the set-up of this piece. It flows seamlessly, Brobby always taking care to weave the photographic terms into the moments of her life. She examines how she presents as her race, in her adoptive family, as a wife, a partner, a mother. When she gives the answer of “What is a filter?” she ends the section turning it back inward: “Be more or less vibrant, act more coolly, like when the man after your husband said you were too emotional and that’ s not what he was signing up for. You donned your neutral-density filter . . . ”
This piece is a great opener for the issue, and well-deserved of taking home the Constance Rooke Prize. It immediately caught my eye and drew me in with its unique format, something greatly appreciated in the these days of shortened attention spans.
The Winter 2020 issue of New England Review is by turns bracing, inspiring, surprising, and devastating. Like every issue of NER, it gives readers a chance to expand their sense of the known world through language, image, and narrative. But what’s different is that emerging writers almost entirely populate this issue, and for many this is among their first publications.
We are honored to present the very first Massachusetts Review issue focused on Native American writing. The issue’s poetry and prose show the depth and range of Native writing in our current moment. We put forward work by both new and established Indigenous writers that is diverse in its aesthetics and comes from tribal people who live all over the country. Essays by Tiffany Midge, Shaina A. Nez, Chandre Szafran, and more; stories by Stephen Graham Jones, Chip Livingston, Erika Wurth, and more; and poetry by Lemanuel Loley, Stephanie Lenox, Bojan Louis, Jessica Mehta, and more. Plus novel excerpts and hybrid texts. Read more at The Massachusetts Review website.
This issue features work by Tawahum Bige, Megan Butcher, Rachel Lachmansingh, and Aaron Schneider. Plus the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke CNF Prize: Christina Brobby who is also interviewed.
In this issue of The Main Street Rag, find a featured interview with Ellen Birkett Morris by Beth Browne. Fiction by Ellen Birkett Morris, Lawrence F. Farrar, Michael Graves, Kathie Giorgio, and Steve Cushman. Poetry by Carrie Albert, Diana Anhalt, Rose Auslander, Joan Barasovska, Brenton Booth, Raymond Byrnes, Robert Cooperman, Rachel Dixon, Richelle Buccilli, Angela Gaito-Lagnese, Martha Golensky, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ted Jonathan, Elda Lepak, Anne Hall Levine, Vikram Masson, Ken Meisel, David Mills, Randy Minnich, Harry Moore, Gail Peck, Ann Pedone, Gary V. Powell, Charles Rammelkamp, David Rock, Seth Rosenbloom, Russell Rowland, Tom Wayman, and more.
This issue features Notes on Writing from Maria Reva, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Joshua Whitehead. Also in this issue: nonfiction by Darlene McLeod; fiction by Dian Parker, Stephen Guppy, and Dennis McFadden; and poetry by Ashley Hynd, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rose Hunter, Natasha Zarin, Peter Richardson, Thomas Mixon, Nate Logan, Jean Van Loon, D.S. Martin, and more. Read more at the EVENT website.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
Issue 212 of Cimarron Review includes what feel like the comfort food of poetry. After a long week, it felt good to sit wrapped up in a blanket with this issue in my lap.
Victoria Hudson offers warmth to readers of “11th & Quaker.” Inside the apartment, the speaker and another person complete a crossword and watch well-known The Office. There’s comfort in the familiarity of both tasks, a quiet intimacy surrounding them.
Kim Kent’s “At the YMCA” shows us a different scene of intimacy as YMCA lifeguards practice CPR on one another “just to be sure,” all of them “generous with our drowned / and undrowned lips.” Kent kindles the heat of summer and the closeness of the two bodies with expertise.
David Ruekberg offers a “Cure for Thought” with a list of instructions that both calm and inspire the reader. He quietly guides us to observe and imagine until we reach the final, always useful step: “Listen.”
Make time to stop and listen to the words of the writers in this issue of Cimarron Review and find your own comfort poems.