Bennington Review Issue 15 is themed “The Secret History” issue and invites readers in with the startling, unsettling cover photograph by Jonathan Kline, and goes on to include work by seventy-one poets, seven fiction writers, and eleven nonfiction writers, as well as a conversation poet Camille Guthrie conducts with the poet and translator Donna Stonecipher.

On the theme of “The Secret History,” the editors in their introductory note write that this issue’s, “various poems, short stories, flash fictions, and essays are interested in public and private histories, shared and individual traumas that consume us as we try to bury them, the intersections between the personal and the global, ancient violence and the well-worn path from Babylon and the Old Kingdom of Egypt . . . to the 20th and 21st century Ages of Exhaust and Exhaustion.”

Contributors to this issue include Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer, Chris Stroffolino, Rob Schlegel, Adam Clay, Matthew Gellman, Katharine Whitcomb, Mary Jo Salter, H. M. Cotton, Bob Hicok, Madilyne Igleheart, Elizabeth Robinson, Genevieve Kaplan, Nicholas Montemarano, Gilad Jaffe, John Gallaher, Orlando Ricardo Menes, James Kelly Quigley, Mark Nowak, Jehanne Dubrow, Nikola Champlin, Margaret Yapp, Malachi Black, Michael Chang, Elise Thi Tran, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Donna Stonecipher, Laura Bandy, Julie Hanson, Allan Peterson, Dana Isokawa, Sara Rose Nordgren, Kami Enzie, Stella Wong, Lynn Pedersen, Daniel Bouchard, Phillip B. Williams, Aimee Bender, Amelia Gray, Keith Pilapil Lesmeister, Jin Zhao, Laura Eve Engel, Philip Metres, Germain Lee, Tiffany Troy, Su-Yee Lin, and Carrie Cogan among many more.

Editor Michael Dumanis opens Bennington Review Issue 14 reflecting on the power of language — its creative limits in art, its manipulation in politics, and its real-world consequences — from Russia’s censorship during the Ukraine invasion to the U.S. government’s rhetorical distortions. Like many efforts in the arts, the NEA withdrew Bennington Review‘s funding due to newly politicized priorities. Dumanis acknowledges the support of readers for sustaining the journal and introduces the writing and art that challenge language’s constraints.

Contributors to this issue include Natalie Shapero, William Ward Butler, Aaron Baker, Steve Fellner, Lauren Swift, David Baker, Jen Frantz, Daniel Borzutzky, Randall Potts, Paul Ilechko, Jonathan Duckworth, Stevie Edwards, Michael Quattrone, Maggie Dietz, Delilah Silberman, Sébastien Luc Butler, Maja Lukic, Julia Thacker, Jenny Grassl, Johanna Magin, Angie Macri, Yerra Sugarman, Chelsea Desautels, Joe Hall, Xiadi Zhai, Virginia Konchan, Chris Vasantkumar, Austin Araujo, Jill McDonough, Aza Pace, Sasha Burshteyn, William Virgil Davis, Jeff Hardin, Michael Waters, Kirsten Kaschock, Kevin Mclellan, Beth Weinstock, D.C. Gonzales-Prieto, Olatunde Osinaike, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Matthew Klane, John Dermot Woods, Tyler Barton, Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom , Tom Howard, Jordan Hubrich, David Stuart Maclean, Daniel Kleifgen, Aryn Kyle, Brian Schwartz, Laurence Ross, George Choundas, Emmeline Clein, and Justin Quarry.

Bennington Review Issue 13 is themed “Family Gathering,” about which Editor Michael Dumanis writes in the “Note From the Editor, “While two-thirds of Americans have attended a family reunion and over a quarter say they attend them annually, high numbers report approaching them with dread. So why do we still gather?” Contributors to this issue exploring possible answers to this question include Rachel Lyon, Douglas W. Milliken, Angela Ball, Joanna Luloff, Rick Barot, Cole Swensen, Wayne Koestenbaum, Iain Haley Pollock, Adrienne Raphel, Stella Wong, Ish Klein, and Anne Waldman, who is also interviewed by Sandra Simonds. Cover art by the Thai-Australian ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa.

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