Jill McDonough
#notallluchadors

Jill McDonough - #notallluchadors

Poetry
Jill McDonough’s books of poems include Habeas Corpus (Salt, 2008), Where You Live (Salt, 2012), and Reaper (Alice James, 2017). The recipient of three Pushcart prizes and fellowships from the… Read more »
Elinam Agbo
1983

Elinam Agbo - 1983

Fiction
Elinam Agbo was born in Ghana and moved to the United States when she was ten. She has since lived in Nevada, Kansas, South Carolina, and Illinois. A graduate of University of Chicago, she is… Read more »
Shane Griffin
Abandoned Kiddie Pool

Shane Griffin - Abandoned Kiddie Pool

Poetry
Shane Griffin is a graduate student at Iowa State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and the Environment. He is an award-winning poet and his non-fiction has appeared in… Read more »
R.M. Cooper
Border Patrol

R.M. Cooper - Border Patrol

Fiction
R.M. Cooper's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Adroit, Best American Experimental Writing, Cream City Review, Denver Quarterly, Fugue, Passages North, and Redivider, and has… Read more »
Dorene O’Brien
Eight Blind Dates Later

Dorene O’Brien - Eight Blind Dates Later

Fiction
“Eight Blind Dates Later” appears in Dorene O’Brien’s second fiction collection, What It Might Feel Like to Hope, which will be released by Baobab Press in 2018. O’Brien is an NEA and a… Read more »
Rachel Jamison Webster
Independence Day

Rachel Jamison Webster - Independence Day

Creative Nonfiction
Rachel Jamison Webster is the author the full-length collection of poetry September (TriQuarterly Press 2013) and the cross-genre book The Endless Unbegun (Twelve Winters 2015). Her essays and poems… Read more »
A. Muia
Las Salinas

A. Muia - Las Salinas

Fiction
A. Muia lives in Skagit Valley, Washington. "Las Salinas" is part of a novel-in-stories set in Baja California, Mexico. Other chapters from this collection have appeared in Image Journal, where she… Read more »
Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson
Ode to the White Lady Who Asked to Touch My Hair

Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson - Ode to the White Lady Who Asked to Touch My Hair

Poetry
Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson is an MFA candidate at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Salamander, Río Grande Review, and Sugar House Review, among others. She’s… Read more »
Len Lawson
Plan B

Len Lawson - Plan B

Poetry
Len Lawson is the author of the chapbook Before the Night Wakes You (Finishing Line Press) and editor of Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press). He is a PhD student in English… Read more »
Andrea Ruggirello
Proof

Andrea Ruggirello - Proof

Poetry
Andrea Ruggirello lives in Washington, DC by way of Seoul, New York, Boston, and West Virginia. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in Third Coast, Day One, Catapult, and other journals.… Read more »
Madeleine Wattenberg
Reconfiguration

Madeleine Wattenberg - Reconfiguration

Poetry
Madeleine Wattenberg’s work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Best New Poets 2017, Fairy Tale Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Mid-American Review.… Read more »
Dustin M. Hoffman
Snake in a Can

Dustin M. Hoffman - Snake in a Can

Fiction
Dustin M. Hoffman is the author of the story collection One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist, winner of the 2015 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. He spent ten years painting houses in Michigan before getting his MFA… Read more »
Ross Wilcox
Symptoms

Ross Wilcox - Symptoms

Fiction
Ross Wilcox is originally from South Dakota. His stories have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, Nashville Review, Green Mountains Review, North American Review, and… Read more »
Danielle Harms
The Tall Grass and the Long Night

Danielle Harms - The Tall Grass and the Long Night

Creative Nonfiction
Danielle Harms writes from Denver, Colorado, where she works in higher education. Her writing has appeared in Salon, The Offing, Cleaver, and in New South Journal. She has called Wisconsin, D.C.,… Read more »
Callista Buchen
Tornado

Callista Buchen - Tornado

Poetry
Callista Buchen is the author of the chapbooks The Bloody Planet (Black Lawrence Press, October 2015) and Double-Mouthed (winter 2016, dancing girl press). Her work appears in Harpur Palate, Puerto… Read more »
T. Lucas Earle
Trade

T. Lucas Earle - Trade

Fiction
T. Lucas Earle is a writer, filmmaker, and musician. His fiction has appeared in Electric Spec, Colored Lens, Razor Literary Magazine, and New Myths. His dark comedy, Abduction, premiered in LA Shorts… Read more »
Holly Mitchell
Turning Out (The First Year)

Holly Mitchell - Turning Out (The First Year)

Poetry
Holly Mitchell is a poet from Kentucky. A winner of an Amy Award from Poets & Writers and a Gertrude Claytor Prize from the Academy of American Poets, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from… Read more »
Florence Weinberger
We’ve Taken Care of Everything

Florence Weinberger - We’ve Taken Care of Everything

Poetry
Florence Weinberger was born in New York City, raised in the Bronx, educated at Hunter College, California State University, Northridge, and UCLA, and has worked as a teacher, legal investigator, and… Read more »

#notallluchadors

Jill McDonough

East Village. Susan and I are walking by
John Derian. A man in a red and white
luchador mask approaches, which makes me smile.
I smile at the luchador. Luchador keeps
walking, mask reflected in shop windows.
He says You Ladies Are Looking Pretty Today!
I keep smiling. He passes, says I'd Like
To Fuck You Both! How Much?! We all keep walking.
Susan and I stop smiling, raise eyebrows toward
each other. She whispers, Do we get to keep
the mask? But what I want to know is how
I’ll hold his severed head up, if I can't grab
it by the hair. I guess I'll grab the laces
at the back. In my head, I have a sword.
It's sharp, and his still-masked head is off
now, rolling here and there, a Holofernes
of First Avenue, stopping to bleed
into the dog-shit-studded pools of East
Village rain at our feet. I describe this scene
while we walk. Rage makes us feel better,
and we are back in our own selves again.
Read more »