STORY OF THE WEEK

The Istafahan Bowl

By Peter Matthiessen
The delicate thing was a symbol of a new beginning, but the bowl, put away for a better occasion, was forgotten altogether as the marriage came apart.

POEM OF THE WEEK

In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive & You Were Full of Joy

by Michael Wasson
You have never once betrayed your god, your thirst. I read the backs of hands like books.

OPEN TO ALL WRITERS

Narrative contest winners have gone on to win many other prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer, the Pushcart, and Best American prizes.

Please see the Guidelines.

NONFICTION

The Making of
a Writer

By Gail Godwin
March 18: I am learning what it is to create something meaningful out of my own experiences. Learning to make every word count.

N30B WINNERS

First Place



Second Place



Third Place

N30B WINNERS

First Place

All the Girls Are Fat in Heaven

By Madison Dettlinger
The thing about not eating is it takes strength. Secret strength too, which is the hardest kind.



Second Place

Reading Rilke and Other Poems

By Aria Aber
The men here don’t know where to place me, call me exotic grail, call me Ariana. Any other they know.



Third Place

Asteroid B612

By Anna Besh
Once I drove your car home after an entire night spent in the dark—a group of us trudging along to the top of a mountain.

FICTION

FICTION

FICTION

FICTION

Vieques

By Kevin A. González
She unfurled a Puerto Rican flag, pulled a Luger automatic from her purse, and yelled “¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!”

FICTION

Merry Elf

By Tom Jenks
You’re not yourself, his wife Ana said. It was what she always said. She was right, in a way.

FICTION

Out to Lunch

By Marian Thurm
His marriage is none of your business, Eric keeps reminding her. Don’t even think about spilling those crappy beans.

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

Dante on Broadway

By Hal Crowther
Who benefits when we obscure, neglect, and trivialize the accumulated knowledge of the past and its printed artifacts?


NONFICTION

Pilots

By Bridget Quinn
Our unspoken family motto, revered as any coat of arms, was something like We Shall Take No Shit.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Affliction Parish and Other Poems

By Wendy Barnes
Under the numb of sunrise, our synapses atrophied in sweet tea, we watch the floodwaters seethe then recede.

POETRY

Winnipesaukee and Other Poems

By Heather Christle
Some years a truck fell through the ice, and others someone would lean back too far laughing at a joke. The boat’s motor would take off their legs.

POETRY

Dear John and
Other Poems

By Lisa Fay Coutley
From the other side of the wall I hear the woman who could just as easily be me in my bathroom repeating I  am  forty.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

First Law of Thermodynamics and Other Poems

By Courtney Flerlage
Sam from the balcony above mine, at night I can’t see the stars above me because your balcony is in the way.

POETRY

Annunciation of the Self-Enclosed God

By Gina Franco
Once summoned, what is left but to become a flash of angel, or ghost, a bar of time, motionless but about to move.

POETRY

Exhaling and
Other Poems

By Bob Hicok
I was a skinhead in look and seem, a balding guy trying out the future with a shaved head while wearing blue jeans and a white T.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Anemoia and
Other Poems

By Keetje Kuipers
Already my daughter’s learned nostalgia by example, what to feel at a loon’s call or when passing a blue door.

POETRY

Oh You Little Faith

By Robin Myers
What if you really have, by now, acquired everything you need from the people who made you because they wanted to make you.

POETRY

Kunitzieform

By Sharon Olds
When Stanley’s thought was done, he turned his long, loping engine toward the task of telling it, word by word.

POETRY

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

POETRY

Orisha Poems

By Leslie Sainz
Mother, I am not married but I give, am giving, fullness. Am conjuring. Egret in flight. Scent of powder, sea foam.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-02

By Various Artists
New laughs from Seth Fleishman, Sam Marlow, Kim Warp, Sofia Warren, and P. C. Vey.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-01

By Various Artists
New art and humor from Pat Byrnes, Maddie Dai, Joe Dator, Sara Lautman, and David Rowles.