STORY OF THE WEEK

Notes from a Breakup: A Field Guide through Heartbreak By Ola Szczecinska

Notes from a Breakup: A Field Guide through Heartbreak

By Ola Szczecinska
There was no better time for a renovation than when everything was destroyed.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Vivaldi in the Park By D. S. Waldman

Vivaldi in the Park

By D. S. Waldman
It’s just—a flautist? Drowned-out melody? C’mon. Stop with the firefly winking on, off, in turns. And the dimness between the trees.

ENTER TODAY

ENTER TODAY

We’re looking for short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, and excerpts from long fiction and nonfiction.

Please see the Guidelines.

FINAL WEEKS TO ENTER

FINAL WEEKS TO ENTER
Deadline: Fri., July 15, at midnight, PDT.

“Poetry is a tool for navigating transformation,” writes Joy Harjo. We agree and are seeking poets and poems to celebrate with prizes and publication.

Please see the Guidelines.

Spring Issue

FICTION

FICTION

FICTION

Spring Issue

FICTION

Big Mary By T. Coraghessan Boyle

Big Mary

By T. Coraghessan Boyle
What she did behind that microphone made everything I’d ever done and everybody I’d ever played with seem like filtered water.

FICTION

The Forgotten One By Madelena Grossmann

The Forgotten One

By Madelena Grossmann
It was the eve of my fifty-eighth birthday. I needed an ethical accounting of all the romantic affairs woven through my longish life.

FICTION

Commis By Don Lee

Commis

By Don Lee
“There are no other restaurants I want to work for, no other chefs,” I said. “There’s only this restaurant, and you.”

FICTION

FEATURES

NONFICTION

FICTION

Winter’s Gate By Shann Ray

Winter’s Gate

By Shann Ray
He was too urbanized now. He’d forgotten sinew, flesh, and bone. When he rose from the kitchen table he vowed to get back to the Beartooths.

FEATURES

The Runaways By Elizabeth Spencer

The Runaways

By Elizabeth Spencer
Supper finished, she was about to shower and go to bed, legs aching from the effort of the afternoon, when she heard a knock at the windowpane.

NONFICTION

Borderlines, Real and Imaginary: Elizabeth Spencer’s “The Runaways” By Ann Beattie

Borderlines, Real and Imaginary: Elizabeth Spencer’s “The Runaways”

By Ann Beattie
Little things—gestures, inhibitions, slipups, contradictions—reveal and betray us.

NONFICTION

INTERVIEWS

NARRATIVE 10

NONFICTION

The Most Dangerous Book: Ulysses at One Hundred By Bill Barich

The Most Dangerous Book: Ulysses at One Hundred

By Bill Barich
Those were heady days for me, newly in love and eager to explore the city, with Joyce as my guide.

INTERVIEWS

Narrative 10 with Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Narrative 10

with Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Q: Your cure for when the spirit flags?

A: Reading poetry. Going outside. Korean dramas, especially zombie movies (try it!).

NARRATIVE 10

Narrative 10 with Ottessa Moshfegh

Narrative 10

with Ottessa Moshfegh
Q: A line that continues to inspire you?

A: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

CLASSICS

POETRY

POETRY

CLASSICS

The Weary Blues By Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues

By Langston Hughes
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

POETRY

Return and Other Poems By Rachel Edelman

Return and
Other Poems

By Rachel Edelman
Descent jumps and jostles, nausea drops me back to the floodplain I fled. The taxi driver asks, Do you have some mixed blood?

POETRY

I Miss Somebody Still Alive and Other Poems By Loisa Fenichell

I Miss Somebody Still Alive and
Other Poems

By Loisa Fenichell
Time punctures the air like sounds from the old city. People leave.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Grand Island, Nebraska By Matthew Gellman

Grand Island, Nebraska

By Matthew Gellman
There was a ladder planted dead center in a field of high, thin grass.

POETRY

Worksong By J. P. Grasser

Worksong

By J. P. Grasser
“Like a Virgin” scaled the same air trumpet vines climbed, and “Smooth Criminal” settled like dust over the endless, rockbound, dusty ground.

POETRY

After the Shooting By Henry Hart

After the Shooting

By Henry Hart
At the memorial service, I could barely hear the student read: After great pain a formal feeling comes. The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Intertext By Ambalila Hemsell

Intertext

By Ambalila Hemsell
I am reaching for another poet’s heartbroken AI. I am reaching for another poet’s dead lover.

POETRY

Homily and Other Poems By A. D. Lauren-Abunassar

Homily and
Other Poems

By A. D. Lauren-Abunassar
In June the wheat got blue, and you got drunker still: on imagining the mudflats, the fields where sugar burned.

POETRY

Shadow in My Bed By Kiran Masroor

Shadow in My Bed

By Kiran Masroor
The human body can do more than breathe and bend. It can become heavy as a diving board or slick as rain.

POETRY

POETRY

Animals & Instruments by V. Penelope Pelizzon

Animals & Instruments

by V. Penelope Pelizzon
If nipped by even the smallest smiling baby mamba, you’ll want just three things: shade, some paper, and a pencil.

POETRY

Shamisen and Straw By Amy Uyematsu

Shamisen and Straw

By Amy Uyematsu
Tsunami

Snow on blue roof tiles—
sleeping village
     awakened by waves

POETRY

Northern California By Oswaldo Vargas

Northern California

By Oswaldo Vargas
Boys taller than me warned not to meet the river at its mouth. The reservoir insists I write a song for my breaking.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Arguing with Myself By Nikki Wallschlaeger

Arguing with Myself

By Nikki Wallschlaeger
“I know very well what happened last time,” says the heart. “You were there and didn’t listen to me when I told you something was wrong.”

POETRY

Redwoods Up the North Coast By Edward Wilson

Redwoods Up the North Coast

By Edward Wilson
We came among those trees—each an epoch with its origin and history, rising into night.

POETRY

Having Never Said the Kaddish By Laura Budofsky Wisniewski

Having Never Said the Kaddish

By Laura Budofsky Wisniewski
Having dreamed endless dreams of trains, always pulling away as I came too late to the station.

iPOEMS

iPOEM

iPOEMS

Finch Me By Michelle Bitting

Finch Me

By Michelle Bitting
I’m forced to telescope my lens, close up capture your needled feeding, thistle sock teat your sharpened beaks pierce.

iPOEM

Why Are You Afraid? By Yasmine Ameli

Why Are You Afraid?

By Yasmine Ameli
I gulped water in a bar then assessed a man’s height and weight, how hard a fight I’d give.

SIX-WORD STORIES

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

SIX-WORD STORIES

I’m Hot By Laura Judge

I’m Hot

By Laura Judge
A story about midlife transitions and waning human desire—all in just six words.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2022-06 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2022-06

By Various Artists
Cranky clams, lax security, and more, by Pat Byrnes, Dan Misdea, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Sam Patnoe, and Mick Stevens.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2022-05 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2022-05

By Various Artists
The road not taken, bad lighting, and more, from Pat Byrnes, Mary Lawton, Dan Misdea, Mick Stevens, and P. C. Vey.