Warner James Wood
A game of hold ‘em

Warner James Wood - A game of hold ‘em

Contest - 3rd Place
Warner James Wood graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Human Evolutionary Biology before completing his MFA in poetry at the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. He now… Read more »
Sarah Cedeño
Aftermath

Sarah Cedeño - Aftermath

Creative Nonfiction
Sarah Cedeño’s work has appeared in New World Writing, The Rumpus, Hippocampus Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Redactions, Literary Mama, and elsewhere. She lives in Brockport, NY with her… Read more »
Richard Becker
Chesapeake

Richard Becker - Chesapeake

Poetry
Richard Becker’s poetry has appeared in America: The National Catholic Review, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose, Cold Mountain Review, Two Words For, among others, and his sequence,… Read more »
Caitlin Garvey
Doll Hospital

Caitlin Garvey - Doll Hospital

Creative Nonfiction
Caitlin Garvey is a student of creative nonfiction in Northwestern University's MFA program. She has an MA in English Literature from DePaul University, and she teaches English composition at a… Read more »
Michelle Matthees
Homemade

Michelle Matthees - Homemade

Poetry
Michelle Matthees’ poems have appeared in Memorious, PANK, The Prose Poem Project, and numerous other journals. Her first collection, Flucht, will be published by New Rivers Press in October of… Read more »
Greg Allendorf
Hominids

Greg Allendorf - Hominids

Poetry
Greg Allendorf is originally from Cincinnati, OH. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from such journals as Smartish Pace, Subtropics, The Portland Review, Narrative Northeast, The Journal,… Read more »
Trent Busch
Lit

Trent Busch - Lit

Poetry
Trent Busch is a native of rural West Virginia who now lives in Georgia where he makes furniture. His poems have appeared in many journals including The Best American Poetry, Poetry, The Nation,… Read more »
Keith Dunlap
Motorboat Motorboat

Keith Dunlap - Motorboat Motorboat

Poetry
Keith Dunlap’s first collection of poems, Storyland, was published in June 2016 by Hip Pocket Press. His work has appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Brooklyn Review, The Carolina… Read more »
Melissa Llanes Brownlee
My Kuleana

Melissa Llanes Brownlee - My Kuleana

Fiction
Melissa Llanes Brownlee is a writer born and raised in Hawaii. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with an MFA in Fiction. She then moved to Japan to teach English, where she… Read more »
Eleanor Stanford
November, your metal teeth

Eleanor Stanford - November, your metal teeth

Contest - 2nd Place
Eleanor Stanford is the author of two collections of poetry, Bartram's Garden and The Book of Sleep. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon… Read more »
Michael Homolka
Rhapsody with Impasse

Michael Homolka - Rhapsody with Impasse

Poetry
Michael Homolka is the author of Antiquity, winner the 2015 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry from Sarabande Books. His poems have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The… Read more »
Amy Krohn
The House in Illinois

Amy Krohn - The House in Illinois

Poetry
Amy Krohn lives with her husband and three children in rural Wisconsin. Her poems have been published in Hummingbird, Kindred, Mason’s Road, Red Savina Review, Seems, Third Wednesday, and Time of… Read more »
James Gyure
The Meter Reader

James Gyure - The Meter Reader

Fiction
James Gyure lives, writes, and makes wine in western Pennsylvania, where he had a long career as a college administrator. His recent work appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Gravel, Hot Metal Bridge,… Read more »
Terri Trespicio
The Rules of Boxball

Terri Trespicio - The Rules of Boxball

Contest - 1st Place
Terri Trespicio is a New York–based writer, speaker, and branding expert. A former senior editor and radio host at Martha Stewart, she recently delivered a TED talk ("Stop Searching for Your… Read more »
Allegra Hyde
Why I Killed My Canary

Allegra Hyde - Why I Killed My Canary

Fiction
Allegra Hyde's short story collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award and will be published in October 2016. Her writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Missouri… Read more »

Chesapeake

Richard Becker

Dying embers of the sun
blink along the shore
at Yankee Point.

In the forecastle
I face your face asleep.
Dogs bark. Doves reply.

Many thoughts are one.
We lie inside our skin
where flow a million tiny suns.

And the mast ticks stars
across the sky recalling
the silver yad that plotted

a maiden voyage through
the parchment Torah’s
terrible beauty.

And on the sea we dream
of the sea that dreamt
all being into being.
Read more »