Stephanie Dickinson
Big-Headed Anna at the Ice Cream Social

Stephanie Dickinson - Big-Headed Anna at the Ice Cream Social

Fiction
Stephanie Dickinson is an Iowa native who lives in New York City’s East Village. Her novel Half Girl and novella Lust Series are published by Spuyten Duyvil, as is her just-released novel Love… Read more »
Stevie Edwards
But Nothing’s Fair after Love

Stevie Edwards - But Nothing’s Fair after Love

Poetry
Stevie Edwards is a poet, editor, and educator. She is Editor-in-Chief at Muzzle Magazine and Acquisitions Editor at YesYes Books. Her first book, Good Grief (Write Bloody, 2012), received two… Read more »
Zana Previti
Caedra

Zana Previti - Caedra

Fiction
Zana Previti was born and raised in New England. She earned her MFA in fiction from the University of California, Irvine and is currently pursuing her MFA in poetry from the University of Idaho. Her… Read more »
Matthew Hobson
Dream Car

Matthew Hobson - Dream Car

Creative Nonfiction
Matthew Hobson's work has appeared in literary journals including Hayden's Ferry Review, The Chattahoochee Review, River City, South Dakota Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and Driftless Review… Read more »
Elena Kua
Engraving

Elena Kua - Engraving

Creative Nonfiction
Elena Kua is a freelance editor-writer in Malaysia. Her work has appeared in Newfound Journal. Read more »
Annie Reid
Last Song

Annie Reid - Last Song

Fiction
Annie Reid is a double expat American currently residing in Sweden after a decade in Canada. She writes apocalyptic video games for a living and fiction for her sanity. She has stories published in… Read more »
Katie Knoll
Louise Bourgeois to Her Husband, on Love and Her Father’s Mistress

Katie Knoll - Louise Bourgeois to Her Husband, on Love and Her Father’s Mistress

Poetry
Katie Knoll is currently a MA student of fiction at the University of Cincinnati. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative, Nimrod, and Rattle, among others. Her poetry and prose have been… Read more »
Gabe Herron
Mr. Kimberk's Kindness

Gabe Herron - Mr. Kimberk's Kindness

Fiction
Gabe Herron lives outside a small town near Portland, Oregon with his wife, son, and daughter. He's had a winning story in Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. His fiction has appeared… Read more »
Eliana Ramage
Mr. Longley’s Paper Suns

Eliana Ramage - Mr. Longley’s Paper Suns

Fiction
Eliana Ramage holds a BA and MA in creative writing from Dartmouth College and Bar-Ilan University, respectively. A proud Cherokee Nation citizen, she is at work on a collection of linked stories… Read more »
Cal Freeman
Our Father, the Lost Geometer

Cal Freeman - Our Father, the Lost Geometer

Poetry
Cal Freeman was born and raised in Detroit. His poems have appeared in many journals including The Journal, Commonweal, Berfrois, Birmingham Poetry Review, RHINO, and The Drunken Boat. His first… Read more »
Adam Clay
Performance Art

Adam Clay - Performance Art

Poetry
Adam Clay is the author of A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, 2012) and The Wash (Parlor Press, 2006). A third book of poems, Stranger, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions.… Read more »
Megan Grumbling
Persephone’s Blues Song

Megan Grumbling - Persephone’s Blues Song

Poetry
Megan Grumbling’s Vassar Miller Prize-winning poetry collection, Booker’s Point, is forthcoming from the University of Texas Press in spring of 2016. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Iowa… Read more »
Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer
Piedmont

Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer - Piedmont

Poetry
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer is a poet and installation artist in St. Louis. She has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her poems have appeared in… Read more »
Marlys West
Regret and Other Bodies

Marlys West - Regret and Other Bodies

Poetry
Marlys West is an award-winning writer living in Los Angeles. She has been published in journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Burnside Review, Duende, Fence,… Read more »
Amy Wright
The Crystal Lattice

Amy Wright - The Crystal Lattice

Creative Nonfiction
Amy Wright is the author of Everything in the Universe and Cracker Sonnets, both forthcoming in 2016. She is also the Nonfiction Editor of Zone 3 Press, Coordinator of Creative Writing and Associate… Read more »
John Sibley Williams
The House Winter Built

John Sibley Williams - The House Winter Built

Poetry
John Sibley Williams is the author of eight collections, most recently Controlled Hallucinations, and the editor of two Northwest poetry anthologies. A five-time Pushcart nominee, John serves as… Read more »
Venita Blackburn
Ways to Mourn an Asshole

Venita Blackburn - Ways to Mourn an Asshole

Fiction
Venita Blackburn earned her MFA from Arizona State University in 2008. Her stories have appeared in Pleiades, Madison Review, Bat City Review, Nashville Review, Smoke Long Quarterly, Café Irreal,… Read more »

Louise Bourgeois to Her Husband, on Love and Her Father’s Mistress

Katie Knoll

Robert, you might not remember but once, drunk,
you told me of your first time: you were twelve; it was brief.

Like houses collapsing under wind, and like you,
my young father gave too quickly. To my mother—

his house, a ring, my brothers, me. To me, his name, Louis.
Like a runt, Sadie came last, received little.

I’d like to say she got nothing, but there is the burning house
smell of her curling her hair at the bureau, laughing

when Father came from behind, cupped her eyes,
set before her a chocolate wrapped in gold foil.

Robert, we will have no daughters—I learned early on
how a house will give under too many girls.

Of my mother’s death, the reports say consumption,
but it was a house that fell on her, and when it fell

she burst, and steam came, and burned my father,
and his Sadie, sweet governess, who taught us the words

on loan, and to fold a crane from foil left after chocolates
have been eaten. Robert, I can promise you only houses split

with guillotines, iron spiders who in my voice say your name,
and my stomach rounding to you, filling our house,

and also our sons, someday, with stitches from thrown rocks
and our love. This is love, we will say, showing them a flower

with two heads, x-rays after accidents: how broken bones
rebuild cells, coming always back to each other.
Read more »