Gary L. McDowell
A Fish So Large

Gary L. McDowell - A Fish So Large

Creative Nonfiction
Gary L. McDowell is the author of American Amen (Dream Horse Press, 2010) and co-editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry (Rose Metal Press, 2010). His recent poems, essays, and… Read more »
Robert Evory
Astronomers

Robert Evory - Astronomers

Poetry
Robert Evory is a creative writing fellow at Syracuse University and the Poetry Editor for Salt Hill and thepoetsbillow.org. He earned his Bachelor degrees from Western Michigan University in Creative… Read more »
Peter Vilbig
Buckets

Peter Vilbig - Buckets

Fiction
Peter Vilbig is a writer and teacher in Brooklyn, New York. His most recent story, “Receptacle,” can be read in fall issue of the Saranac Review. His short fiction has appeared in Drunken Boat,… Read more »
Phillip Sterling
Cycling

Phillip Sterling - Cycling

Poetry
Phillip Sterling’s most recent book is In Which Brief Stories Are Told, a collection of short fiction (Wayne State University Press, 2011). He is also the author of the poetry collection Mutual… Read more »
Jeanne Wagner
Graphology

Jeanne Wagner - Graphology

Poetry
Jeanne Wagner is the recipient of several national awards, including 2011 Inkwell Prize and the 2011 Beullah Rose Prize from Smartish Pace. Her poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, RHINO,… Read more »
John Drury
How to Stay Awake

John Drury - How to Stay Awake

Poetry
John Drury is the author of The Refugee Camp (Turning Point Books, 2011), as well as two earlier collections, Burning the Aspern Papers and The Disappearing Town, and two books about poetry, Creating… Read more »
Yian Chen
In Praise of Bao

Yian Chen - In Praise of Bao

Creative Nonfiction
Yian Chen was born in Shanghai, China. He and his parents immigrated to the Chicago suburbs when he was little. He studied biology at Yale University and moved to Baltimore in 2008 to attend medical… Read more »
Gerardo Mena
January's End

Gerardo Mena - January's End

Gerardo Mena is a decorated Iraqi Freedom veteran. He spent six years in Spec Ops with the Reconnaissance Marines and was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal with a V for Valor for multiple acts of… Read more »
Nicholas YB Wong
Museum of Septum

Nicholas YB Wong - Museum of Septum

Poetry
Nicholas YB Wong earned his MFA at the City University of Hong Kong and is the author of Cities of Sameness. He is a finalist of New Letters Poetry Award and a semi-finalist of the Saturnalia Books… Read more »
Jenny Martin
My Promenade

Jenny Martin - My Promenade

Creative Nonfiction
After receiving two degrees in English literature from Colorado State University, Jenny Martin moved back east and began a 23-year career in defense contracting. She currently works for an engineering… Read more »
Nick Sawatsky
Nourish

Nick Sawatsky - Nourish

Fiction
When Nick Sawatsky isn't writing, he's studying writing at Hiram College. Or editing said writing or submitting to literary magazines or drooling over MFA program webpages. Or watching Here Comes… Read more »
Kyle Bilinski
Paint and Ink

Kyle Bilinski - Paint and Ink

Creative Nonfiction
Kyle Bilinski lives in northern California where he works as a flight attendant and painting contractor. He recently received his MFA in Writing from Pacific University, and some of his stories and… Read more »
Peter Leight
Shape Shift

Peter Leight - Shape Shift

Poetry
Peter Leight lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has previously published poems in Paris Review, Partisan Review, AGNI, and other magazines. Read more »
Sarah Giragosian
The Condor

Sarah Giragosian - The Condor

Poetry
Sarah Giragosian is a PhD candidate in Contemporary North American Poetry and Poetics at SUNY Albany. Her poems are forthcoming or published in such journals as Crazyhorse, Copper Nickel, and Measure,… Read more »
Naomi Kimbell
The Dress

Naomi Kimbell - The Dress

Creative Nonfiction
Naomi Kimbell lives and writes in Missoula. Much of her work focuses on facets of mental illness as well as reflections on her declining status as part of the middle class. She earned her MFA in… Read more »
Adam Scheffler
Walking Around: The Sixth Wave of Extinctions

Adam Scheffler - Walking Around: The Sixth Wave of Extinctions

Poetry
Adam Scheffler grew up in Berkeley, received his MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa, and is currently a PhD candidate in English at Harvard. His work has appeared in the Colorado Review,… Read more »
Martin Ott and John F. Buckley
What I Watched On My Summer Vacation

Martin Ott and John F. Buckley - What I Watched On My Summer Vacation

Poetry
Martin Ott and John F. Buckley began their ongoing games of poetic volleyball in the spring of 2009. Poetry from their previous collaboration Poets’ Guide to America on Brooklyn Arts Press, has been… Read more »
Phillip Gardner
Winner Take Nothing

Phillip Gardner - Winner Take Nothing

Fiction
Phillip Gardner’s stories have appeared in Euphony, New Delta Review, Interim, The North American Review and LIT. He is the author of two story collections, Somebody Wants Somebody Dead and Someone… Read more »
Philip Fried
Words at War

Philip Fried - Words at War

Poetry
Philip Fried has published five books of poetry, the most recent being Early/Late: New and Selected Poems (Salmon, 2011). Publishers Weekly called this book "skillful and memorable," and Tim Liardet,… Read more »
Jordan Rossen and Paul Rossen
You Thrive Now

Jordan Rossen and Paul Rossen - You Thrive Now

Fiction
Jordan Rossen’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Albion Review, Apalachee Review, Fourteen Hills, and elsewhere. He has received a Hopwood Award for short fiction from the University of… Read more »

Cycling

Phillip Sterling

You get out the bike your son
left behind. Something you
haven't done in years. Wipe
off the dust. Pump air into
the tires, which feel chalky
but still seem pliable. You're
hopeful. So you wheel it
to the bike path the township
has paved, the path your taxes
pay for, and you think: One
never forgets how to ride
a bike (or some other nonsense
meant to buoy your aging
confidence). But now you can't
recall the last time you rode
a bike, or even the first time,
for that matter, and as you
consider the idea further, and
with a certain gravity, you
begin to question if you'd ever
ridden a bike at all, for if
you hadn't, you wouldn't have
forgotten how. And yet,
the vocabulary is familiar:
wobble, teeter, swerve, veer . . .
Don't your eyes recall a flash
of asphalt? Can't your ears
summon a whistle of air? You
look at the bike beside you, gray
as an elephant, and the color
brings to mind the ballsy
Hannibal, his elephants and Alps
and great assault, and how
when he'd grown tired of it
and could no longer mount
or ride, he took his life. Ready?
Read more »