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New Book :: Drowning in Light

Drowning in Light poetry by Taylor Steele book cover image

Drowning in Light
Poetry by Taylor Steele
Platypus Press, March 2022

The poems in Taylor Steele’s Drowning in Light traverse the daily—the sickness, the loneliness, and the hope that yawns from within. There are continuous trails of light peeking through, hands grasping, fingers trailing—a notion of persistence, always. Taylor Steele is a queer, Black, NYC-born-and-based writer, performer, and photographer. Her poetry has been featured on Huffington Post, Brooklyn Poets, Button Poetry, and is a 2016 Pushcart Nominee. A triple-Taurus, she believes in the power of art to change, shape, and heal.

New Book :: Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful

Lost Hurt or in Transit Beautiful
poetry by Rohan Chhetri book cover image

Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful
Poetry by Rohan Chhetri
Platypus Press, June 2022

Selected as the winner of The Kundiman Poetry Prize, Rohan Chhetri’s collection of poetry Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful is a travelogue of belonging. In parts a separation, a crossing of borders and landscapes, in others the sorrow and depths of home. But ultimately, this is the journey of weary travelers making ghosts of the night. Rohan Chhetri, a writer and translator, is the recipient of a 2021 PEN/Heim Grant for translation, and his poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Revue Europe, AGNI, and New England Review and have been translated into Kurdish, Greek and French.

New Book :: Coining a Wishing Tower

Coining a Wishing Tower poetry by Ayesha Raees book cover image

Coining a Wishing Tower
Poetry by Ayesha Raees
Platypus Press, March 2022

Selected by Kaveh Akbar as winner of the 2020 Broken River Prize, Coining a Wishing Tower by Ayesha Raees is both story and song, a lyrical narrative that gathers and releases. There are moments of childlike wonder and of adult meditation — oftentimes one and the same. In fragments both real and unreal, this is a book of rituals, of history, of surrender. Ayesha Raees identifies herself as a hybrid creating hybrid poetry through hybrid forms. Raees currently serves as an Assistant Poetry Editor at Asian American Writers’ Workshop The Margins and has received fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Brooklyn Poets, and Kundiman. From Pakistan, she currently lives between Lahore and New York City.

Magazine Stand :: wildness – No. 29

wildness online literary magazine logo

Founded by Michelle Tudor and Peter Barnfather in 2015 as an imprint of Platypus Press, wildness is a biannual online literary journal publishing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction works in most styles, forms, or genres. The April 2022 issue includes poetry by Qudsia Akhtar, Lory Bedikian, Aaron Coleman, Patricia Gao, Laboni Islam, Mia Kang, Kimberly Kralowec, Caroline M. Mar, Shalini Rana, Darius Simpson, RaJon Staunton, Ọbáfẹ́mi Thanni, Caitlin Wilson, Shelley Wong, Serrina Zou, and non-fiction by Sharon Lin. All content is freely accessible for online reading, and writers are encouraged to read back issues before submitting.

wildness – November 2021

Featuring some wonderful poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction from: Geoff Anderson, Shuang Ang, Claudia Delfina Cardona, Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Stephanie Chang, Bryce Emley, Miguel Barretto García, Janalyn Guo, Bill Hollands, Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo, Karishma Jobanputra, Ravi Mangla, Shannan Mann, Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Robert Okaji, D. A. Powell, Monica Prince, and AM Ringwalt. Find this issue at the wildness website.

Sponsor Spotlight :: Wildness

Wildness logoFounded in 2015 by Michelle Tudor and Peter Barnfather, Wildness is an online literary magazine devoted to publishing poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction. They currently publish on a quarterly basis with new issues appearing in February, May, August, and November.

In December of 2019, they released the Wildness Omnibus through their parent company Platypus Press. This print anthology celebrates work published in their first twenty issues from Hanif Abdurraqib, Ruth Awad, S. Erin Batiste, Abigail Chabitnoy, K-Ming Chang, Leila Chatti, Chen Chen, Nina Li Coomes, Kyle Dacuyan, Geffrey Davis, Dalton Day, Shastra Deo, Theophilus Kwek, Peter LaBerge, Tariq Luthun, Irène Mathieu, Anis Mojgani, Mary Mussman, Patricia Patterson, Janel Pineda, Jeremy Radin, David Rompf, Omar Sakr, Raena Shirali, Clint Smith, Maggie Smith, Bethany Swann, An Uong, Marco Yan, and Sylvia Watanabe.

Stop by their listing to learn more.