Chris Souza
All Gratitude Being Mine

Chris Souza - All Gratitude Being Mine

Poetry
Chris Souza lives and works in Massachusetts. Previous publications include: Gulf Coast, Bellingham Review, Connecticut Review, New Delta Review, West Branch, and Laurel Review, among many others. Her… Read more »
JJ Mitchell
Dead Letter Drop

JJ Mitchell - Dead Letter Drop

Poetry
JJ Mitchell is an essayist who writes widely on environmental and socio-political issues for the Huffington Post and other publications. His poems have either appeared or are forthcoming in Tar River… Read more »
Leila Chatti
Narcissus Brings Me Flowers

Leila Chatti - Narcissus Brings Me Flowers

Poetry
Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and received her MFA in poetry from North Carolina State University. The recipient of fellowships from Dickinson House and Quest Writers Conference and awards… Read more »
Jessica Goodfellow
Nocturne without Counterexample

Jessica Goodfellow - Nocturne without Counterexample

Poetry
Jessica Goodfellow’s books are Mendeleev’s Mandala (Mayapple Press, 2015) and The Insomniac’s Weather Report (Isobar Press, 2014). Recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from the Beloit Poetry… Read more »
Chris Harding Thornton
Providence

Chris Harding Thornton - Providence

Poetry
Chris Harding Thornton is a seventh-generation Nebraskan who writes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. She holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, an MFA in… Read more »
Peter LaBerge
Smoking Magnum, 1991

Peter LaBerge - Smoking Magnum, 1991

Poetry
Peter LaBerge is the author of the chapbook Hook (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), recently included on the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow List. His work appears in Beloit Poetry… Read more »
Merrill Oliver Douglas
Summer, in My Early Twenties

Merrill Oliver Douglas - Summer, in My Early Twenties

Poetry
Merrill Oliver Douglas lives in Vestal, NY, where she does freelance writing for trade magazines, university publications, businesses and nonprofits. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an… Read more »
Lisa Grove
There Are More Storm Clouds than What You See Outside Your Window

Lisa Grove - There Are More Storm Clouds than What You See Outside Your Window

Poetry
Lisa Grove's poems and translations have appeared in Poetry, Beloit Poetry Journal, A cappella Zoo, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles, where she's a senior editor for the California Journal of… Read more »
Robyn Anspach
What Barren Means

Robyn Anspach - What Barren Means

Poetry
Robyn Anspach has an MFA from University of Michigan. She currently works as a data analyst at Google. Read more »

What Barren Means

Robyn Anspach

The way fields look when we walk past them,
dried tangles of hair. We leave our heads
bare and wind comes in like breath
off the desiccated fields. The husks
of cornstalks grasp pointlessly at sky.
We do not stop to touch them. We are going
somewhere, which is to say elsewhere,
because we are just walking the way
we do when the gray sets in, walking
down any of the roads that lead from town
to empty fields, with heads bare and heat
twining like cigarette smoke around us. Another
neighbor is pregnant. We saw her laying her right
hand on her belly the way pregnant women do.
Outside cornstalks bob their heads like bodies
propped up on stakes. Another harvest is over.
Read more »