Gary McDowell
Aliens Wrapped in Ravioli

Gary McDowell - Aliens Wrapped in Ravioli

Poetry
Gary McDowell is the author/editor of eight books, most recently Aflame (White Pine Press, 2020) and Caesura: Essays (Otis Books, 2017). His poems and essays have appeared recently or are forthcoming… Read more »
Wayne Mok
Currency

Wayne Mok - Currency

Fiction
Wayne Mok is originally from Hong Kong and now lives in Sydney, Australia. Read more »
Andrew Kozma
Dresses I Will Never Wear Again

Andrew Kozma - Dresses I Will Never Wear Again

Fiction
Andrew Kozma’s fiction appears in Apex, Factor Four, and Analog, while his poems appear in Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, and Contemporary Verse 2. His first book of poems, City of Regret, won the… Read more »
Mandy Moe Pwint Tu
Fable for a Father

Mandy Moe Pwint Tu - Fable for a Father

Poetry
Mandy Moe Pwint Tu is a pile of ginkgo leaves in a trench coat from Yangon, Myanmar, and the author of two poetry chapbooks, Monsoon Daughter (Thirty West Publishing House, 2022) and Unsprung… Read more »
Stephen Kampa
Impromptu for Future AI Overlords

Stephen Kampa - Impromptu for Future AI Overlords

Poetry
Stephen Kampa is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently World Too Loud to Hear. He teaches at Flagler College. His work appears in Best American Poetry 2024. Read more »
Tony Motzenbacker
Joy

Tony Motzenbacker - Joy

Fiction
Although born in England, Tony Motzenbacker has spent much of his time in America, and most of that in Southern California. His short stories have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Chariton Review,… Read more »
Julia Levine
My Grandson’s First Week Back in the World

Julia Levine - My Grandson’s First Week Back in the World

Poetry
Julia B. Levine’s poetry has won many awards, including a 2021 Nautilus Award for her fifth poetry collection, Ordinary Psalms (LSU press, 2021), as well as the 2015 Northern California Book Award… Read more »
Forester McClatchey
Ophelia

Forester McClatchey - Ophelia

Poetry
Forester McClatchey is a poet and critic from Atlanta, Georgia. His work appears in 32 Poems, The Hopkins Review, and Five Points, and it has been nominated for Best New Poets. He teaches at Atlanta… Read more »
Lindsay M. D’Andrea
Premonition

Lindsay M. D’Andrea - Premonition

Poetry
Lindsay M. D’Andrea holds an MFA in creative writing from Iowa State University. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has appeared in many print and digital publications including The Greensboro… Read more »
Andrea Bradley
Separation

Andrea Bradley - Separation

Fiction
Andrea Bradley is a mother, professor, and former lawyer living in small-town Ontario. She has published short fiction in several markets, including Grain Magazine and the Exile Editions anthology… Read more »
Coby-Dillon English
The Sleepwalkers

Coby-Dillon English - The Sleepwalkers

Fiction
Coby-Dillon English is a writer from the Great Lakes. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, they hold an MFA in creative writing from the University of Virginia, where they were a Henry… Read more »
Jarred Johnson
The Trout Patch

Jarred Johnson - The Trout Patch

Fiction
Jarred Johnson is from the Appalachian foothills in Somerset, Kentucky. He got his MFA in writing from UNC Wilmington. An essay of his is forthcoming in the anthology Queer Communion: Appalachian… Read more »
Jonathan Wood
The Urbanization of James Trumbull

Jonathan Wood - The Urbanization of James Trumbull

Fiction
Jonathan Wood is an Englishman in New York, albeit the state and not the city. He has previously published seven comedic fantasy novels and one fantasy novel that is only a little bit funny. He enjoys… Read more »
Mary Simmons
Trespass

Mary Simmons - Trespass

Poetry
Mary Simmons is a queer writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her poetry MFA from Bowling Green State University, where she also served as the managing editor for Mid-American Review. She has work… Read more »
Susan Comninos
Wild Joy of Receiving

Susan Comninos - Wild Joy of Receiving

Poetry
Susan Comninos is a widely published poet and author of a recent book of poems, Out of Nowhere (Stephen F. Austin Univ. Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her creative work has appeared in the Harvard Review… Read more »

Aliens Wrapped in Ravioli

Gary McDowell

My son just ran into the kitchen to show me a picture on his phone. Newly born stingrays. Don’t they look like aliens wrapped in ravioli? he says. The sunlight slides down the living room walls, and the robins and mourning doves peg grubs and worms from the freshly mown lawn. But he’s right, they do. There is almost the entirety of the world in him. He thinks he knows everything, as we all do when we’re newly learning how much there is to know, but to move into consciousness, he needs to talk, hear himself say the things he’ll one day understand are buttresses to deeper, more considered understandings. It’s not that he’s wrong. Humans have been wrong for as long as we’ve been human. The world is flat. Earth is the center of the universe. Fire is brought by the gods. Death is unnatural, accidental, avoidable. For the first time in my life, I saw a bird—a bluejay, last fall, dusk nipping at the afternoon—drop from the persimmon like a stone lobbed into a pond, but rippleless.
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