Gabo Prize Winner
Magkano?
by mari britt
How much is the land? How
much to get fish fresh from the market
and how much for the fishermen
to feed their families? How much for
a loved one who doesn’t leave?
How much for irrigation systems
a washroom that won’t get your feet
wet, pipes that aren’t flimsier than
rice paper? How much to become
a dual citizen of crisis, convoluted,
coffee staining the skin of your
poor country and with a body?
[…]
Young Adult
The Re-Naming of Things
by Sadie McCarney
- The Juvenile Psych Ward, where we are right now, is not a “Psych Ward.” It’s a “Child Development Unit.”
Calling it a Psych Ward is like admitting the thing on your foot really is a toe fungus. It’s gross; you’d rather not look at it; and in certain situations it’s downright embarrassing (“Rebecca, how are your college applications going?” “They were going well, Mr. Peters, but then I spent a month on the Psych Ward, and now I’ve missed all the financial aid cutoffs”). […]
Diana Woods Prize Winner
Scarifying
by Christina Hennemann
I’m in bed. The house is silent, no one’s here but me. Me and my demons. Don’t think of what most scares you, I tell myself. Don’t let fear invade you. Of course, I know the pink elephant trick: my mind instantly wanders back to my most haunting ghosts. Tonight it’s an eerie scene from a murder mystery I watched. Silly me, why do I keep doing this to my hyper-sensitive hippocampus? […]
Fiction
Waiting for Bones the Tigers Left
by Michelle R. Brady
Every year, the ocean pulls itself to either side so that mothers can be reunited with their children. So, that is where we waited, Yi-Jin and I—on Jindo Island. Hundreds of years ago, the small island across from Jindo, called Modo Island, became overrun with tigers that viciously attacked the villagers. […]
Poetry
Ars Poetica at the Bar Formerly Known as The Wall
by Jacob R. Benavides
haute couture, touch parade, codex of refusal, faux doughnut, authentic glaze, fat white, flat cat
hair, stick & poke baby, poetry is willing the infection out the page, a strain of silk like a virus up
the esophagus & into another’s mouth—
Lunch Special
Morgan Parker on Poetry, Prose, and the Power of Curiosity
Interviewed by Paula Williamson
After wrapping up a whirlwind book tour and closing the chapter on her latest essay collection, You Get What You Pay For, poet, essayist, and novelist Morgan Parker is taking a moment to reflect and reset. […]
Flash Prose
Garbage Bags
by Stephyne Weathersby
If the world ends in fire, my family will survive. Here’s the truth: after the house burned down, I was restless for twenty moons and filled with more shame than the prosecuted. […]
Interview
Liars And Wives in the “Drag Show of Nuclear Familyhood:” an interview with Sarah Manguso
Interviewed by Scott LaMascus
Sarah Manguso’s new novel, Liars, is her ninth book and was released in the summer of 2024. Placed in the long context of women’s literary protests against the abusive nature of marriage, Manguso’s will be distinguished for its accumulation of powerful and telling details that deeply plumb the coercive and pervasive nature of abusive marriage. […]
