The way to her mother’s apartment is long. She passes a gothic building choked by creepers and the roots of proud mangroves, the glorious archways chipped, peeling into a heavy sky. Monsoon season. In an hour or two, the rain will pummel down, as if the sky could hold it no longer. Neha feels a … More Juhu by Katherine Kesner
His body was strung upside down so that his head was five feet from the floor. The harness distributed his weight but gave the illusion that he was bound at the ankles. A vat above him dripped the caramel made from his own surgically removed fat down the nylon suspension and over his body. Below … More Something to Sink Your Teeth Into by Katie Kalahan
The sun dove as I reached the main square—sunstroked, boozy tourists mingling with buskers and vendors hocking beads and tees, washing like tide from buzzing, shoe-closet bars and markets clutching sweating beers, yapping like parakeets. I ambled, trying to decide between empanadas or burgers, when I crossed a dark avenue leaking strings and timbales and … More Xibalba by Stephen Ground
Four years have passed since the woman I knew as Mother enclosed me in my tower. Mother claimed the confinement was to protect me from the world’s cruelty. “Zel, your oddness and ugliness grow each day, and men destroy the things they find hideous.” Mother left me only one toy, a gilt-framed mirror, which helps … More Stealing from Windowsills by Judy Darley
Aisha and Ahmed’s fingers are interlaced and black with dirt. They trudge a pock-marked Syrian road, half pavement, half sand, that winds from Kafr Halab, the western Aleppo countryside, to the Mediterranean sea. Once in Latakia, their intention is to travel by boat to Cyprus. Dressed as boys, each wears a takiyah over shorn curls … More Hardened Road by Deborah Trowbridge
The interest of a photographer lies in experiments with transparency, explorations of the frame, and interrogations of perception. I first toyed with these ideas in September, when I took a photo of my friend wading into a pond. He wore only boxers and looked out at trees reminiscent of summer time. James’ emaciated body bore … More Cantilevered Ponds by Brianna Di Monda
Hon. Alexander P. HemmingsFounder and Executive DirectorHemmings Institute for Advanced Applied Astrophysics1493 South Benham RoadBaltimore, Maryland 21206 Re: The Last List Dear Alexander: I finally compiled the list. It has taken too long but, looking back now, I believe the time spent was well worth the sacrifice. But I can’t … More The Last List, by Arthur Davis
by Courtney Brooks
Author Dana Diehl has a complicated obsession with reality TV shows, particularly those one can find on TLC. Diehl’s fascination with the lives and struggles of the characters she watches on shows such as Dance Moms, Cake Boss, Sister Wives, The Bachelor, and House Hunters made way for the stories in her new chapbook, TV Girls. … More Dana Diehl Talks About TV Girls and What She Loves in Reality TV
Ann sat at her kitchen table, snipping coupons from the weekly mailer. $.25 off Tampax, $.50 off Garden Burgers, buy one bottle of Suave, get the second bottle free. Ann placed these beside an envelope marked “Jennifer Dion.” $.60 off AXE deodorant. A free one-month membership to Sam’s Club. A whole page of Pizza Hut … More Out of Reach, by Shana Genre
Recipient of the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (2015), Ross Gay shapes language, roots fused with variegated ash, to chronicle experiences, the profane crafted sacred through simple gestures of doing and undoing, buttoning and unbuttoning, while resisting the need to dissect his artistry with “an X-Acto knife.” When asked what … More Lovingly Grateful: An Interview with Ross Gay; Interview conducted by Laine Derr
