Dariel Suarez
Beets

Dariel Suarez - Beets

Fiction
Dariel Suarez is a Cuban-born writer who came to the United States in 1997. He earned his M.F.A. in fiction at Boston University, where he was a Global Fellow. Dariel is a fiction co-editor at Blood… Read more »
Margaret Adams
Burnt

Margaret Adams - Burnt

Creative Nonfiction
Margaret Adams is a Maine-born writer and registered nurse living in Baltimore, Maryland. A former columnist for The Bangor Daily News and a Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has most recently appeared… Read more »
Jami Nakamura Lin
Dreamscape #2: Dear Pinocchio

Jami Nakamura Lin - Dreamscape #2: Dear Pinocchio

Creative Nonfiction
Jami Nakamura Lin received her MFA at the Pennyslvania State University. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Passages North, Monkeybicycle, r.kv.r.y, Escape Into Life,… Read more »
Jacqueline Kolosov
Equine Character: A Meditation

Jacqueline Kolosov - Equine Character: A Meditation

Contest - 2nd Place
Jacqueline Kolosov is Professor of English at Texas Tech where she teaches in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing program. Her third poetry collection, Memory of Blue, is forthcoming from… Read more »
Bob Haynes
Force of the Sonogram

Bob Haynes - Force of the Sonogram

Poetry
Bob Haynes lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he teaches at Arizona State University and online at Writers on the Net. Some of his poetry has appeared in North American Review, New Letters, Nimrod,… Read more »
Linda Parsons Marion
Jesus Bread

Linda Parsons Marion - Jesus Bread

Poetry
Linda Parsons Marion is an editor at the University of Tennessee and the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Bound. She served as poetry editor of Now & Then magazine for many years… Read more »
Michele Morano
Learning Curve

Michele Morano - Learning Curve

Creative Nonfiction
Michele Morano is the author of the travel memoir, Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Her essays have appeared in anthologies and literary journals such as Best American Essays, The Fourth… Read more »
Victoria Bosch Murray
Migration

Victoria Bosch Murray - Migration

Poetry
Victoria Bosch Murray’s poetry has appeared in American Poetry Journal, Booth, Field, Greensboro Review, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Salamander, Tar River Poetry, The Potomac, and elsewhere. Her… Read more »
Lewis Turco
Monologue in a Bar

Lewis Turco - Monologue in a Bar

Poetry
Lewis Turco is the inventor of the verse form called the “bluesanell,” and a contributor to the recently-published Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776, edited by Dennis… Read more »
Maureen Alsop
Onychomancy

Maureen Alsop - Onychomancy

Poetry
Maureen Alsop, PhD, is the author two full collections, Apparition Wren and Mantic, as well as several chapbook collections. Her poems have appeared in a variety of print and online publications… Read more »
Janice Greenwood
Patience

Janice Greenwood - Patience

Fiction
Janice Greenwood’s writing has appeared in Cider Press Review, Cimarron Review, and New England Review. She was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She received her BA from the University of… Read more »
Marjorie Stelmach
Perfected

Marjorie Stelmach - Perfected

Poetry
Marjorie Stelmach’s most recent volume of poems is Bent upon Light (University of Tampa Press). Individual poems have recently appeared in Arts & Letters, The Cincinnati Review, Image, The Iowa… Read more »
Micah Dean Hicks
Raising Houses

Micah Dean Hicks - Raising Houses

Creative Nonfiction
Micah Dean Hicks usually writes magical realism, southern fairy tales, and other kinds of magical stories. You can find his work in places like New Letters, Indiana Review, and New Orleans Review. His… Read more »
Alisha Karabinus
Siri on Lesbian Sex

Alisha Karabinus - Siri on Lesbian Sex

Contest - 3rd Place
Alisha Karabinus is co-founder and Executive Editor of Revolution House magazine and an MFA candidate in Fiction at Purdue University, where she is also the Managing Editor of Sycamore Review. Her… Read more »
Leatha Kendrick
Sleep in Summer

Leatha Kendrick - Sleep in Summer

Poetry
Author of three volumes of poetry, Leatha Kendrick leads workshops in poetry and life writing at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, a community literary center in Lexington, Kentucky.… Read more »
Marcia Aldrich
Swimmers

Marcia Aldrich - Swimmers

Contest - 1st Place
Marcia Aldrich is the author of the free memoir Girl Rearing, published by W.W. Norton and part of the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Series. She has been the editor of Fourth Genre:… Read more »
Jesse Donaldson
The First Moons of Sitting Bull

Jesse Donaldson - The First Moons of Sitting Bull

Fiction
Jesse Donaldson is a graduate of Kenyon College and The Michener Center for Writers. He's worked as a groundskeeper for the Houston Astros, a maintenance man, and a professor. His work has recently… Read more »
Robert Guthrie
The Glass

Robert Guthrie - The Glass

Fiction
Robert Guthrie lives in Little Rock, AR with a pair of red-headed women. Aside from the story featured in this issue, his fiction has appeared most recently in Northwind and Cloud 9 magazines. Read more »
Dick Allen
The House With Only The Sound
of A Dog Barking Inside

Dick Allen - The House With Only The Sound
of A Dog Barking Inside

Poetry
Dick Allen’s forthcoming eighth poetry collection, to be published by St. Augustine Press in Fall, 2013, is This Shadowy Place—winner of the 2013 New Criterion Poetry Prize. It’s his first… Read more »
Emari DiGiorgio
Understanding Dear Alice’s Dilemma

Emari DiGiorgio - Understanding Dear Alice’s Dilemma

Poetry
Emari DiGiorgio makes a mean arugula quesadilla and has split-boarded the Tasman Glacier. She is Associate Professor of Writing at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and a NJ State… Read more »

The House With Only The Sound
of A Dog Barking Inside

Dick Allen

after a line from Haruki Murakami

On my morning paper route, I passed it every day,
the house with only the sound of a dog barking inside
out on the edge of our village—its curtains never parted,
its small porch always empty, nothing in the front yard
but yellow grass.  From the tenor of its barking, the dog
was medium-sized, probably a mongrel, not really in distress,
but lonely, mildly afraid, needful of someone to hear him
and to somehow respond. . . . One summer, more or less
feeling sorry for the dog, I mock-barked back while I pedaled
my bicycle into, then out of its earshot.  Yet since the house
wasn’t a customer on my route, I never gave any more
than that minute or two of attention as I tossed
my papers onto adjacent porches and I never once
saw whoever fed and kept the dog inside that house.
Read more »