[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] After Bruce Weigl “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” — Anne Frank Or: the white cottage next door, the one with the boy. The blossom of the first bomb one… Continue reading Melody for Light
Katherine Vandermel
Overall Winner, International Young Writers Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] in the first grade i remember hanging my head low when my umma introduced herself as yoojin. i remember feeling so grateful that my name was not korean, for i had shed that name in skins. i’d already… Continue reading dear franny choi
Esther Kim
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] In your local 7-Eleven, follow the unearthly scent of cologne. He’ll be sitting in a freezer box, venting to the frozen dinners about how he resembles “dope with venom entailed.” Proceed with caution. At first, he won’t look… Continue reading to hell with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
my love letter to Susan Vance
Sylvia Nicholas-Patterson
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Mother, in her slight accent, calls olives “Oliver.” She loves Oliver, brine salty in her mouth. Almost twenty-five years in America and she cannot differentiate between a man and a fruit, but what is the difference, really? Both are green,… Continue reading Zodiac Year of the Lamb
Grace Wang
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Lately I’ve imagined prettier iterations of my body turning cold: gleaming pearlescent, floating quietly towards the shoreline. Kneeled before a bird’s nest, cheekbones dressed with blood. One night, I found myself lovelier than ever, torn to pieces all over the… Continue reading July, 1913
Annie Cao
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] [After Zoe Leonard] I want a man who is kind for the sake of communism, I want the neighbor’s dog to pee in rain gutters and storm drains, I want the New York Times editor to turn into falcon-goat… Continue reading I Want a Brand-New Precedent:
Elizabeth Shorkey
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The ground had already baked to a deep, sunburnt orange. Grains of dust lingered in the air, and I stared at the remains of my family’s farm. From the hill, I could see the empty pastures where our livestock used to reside,… Continue reading Abiogenesis
Katherine Wong
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “If he but fail to recognize himself, a long life he may have.” – Ovid’s Metamorphoses Imagine! If we think of ourselves divided into separate entities of existence from the time we are born until we draw our last breath,… Continue reading The Narcissist’s Cure for Aging
Sydney Alexander
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Baby sits in the corner, rag doll in hand. Mother begs the man gripping her hair like a leash to please, at least take this to another room, the baby is watching. Baby clutches the doll close. Black yarn is… Continue reading Theory of Mind
Onassa Sun
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Disclaimer: As I write this essay, attempting to embody rebellion and denounce society, I must also recognize that by writing this essay I am only fulfilling my predetermined role in society—this is a scheduled epiphany. I am a high… Continue reading Scheduled Epiphany
Samantha Haviland
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “A boy salutes as he has learned in the school, and cries umfundisi. He waits for no response, but turns away and gives the queer tremulous call, to no person at all, but to the air. He turns away and… Continue reading The White Man
Anya Shukla
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] —after Ocean Vuong 1981’s April. Sweats pearled the shades of dawn. Sunlight inked into your clothes. How everything stilled in the carving heat. You both were young and had numbered days to count. You both worked as factory laborers… Continue reading There is a name for our present tense
Duy Quang Mai
Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction
[av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’default’ shadow=’no-shadow’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=’#8f2f66′ src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” attach=’scroll’ position=’top left’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” av_element_hidden_in_editor=’0′] [av_heading tag=’h1′ padding=’10’ heading=’Prize Winners’ color=’custom-color-heading’ style=’blockquote modern-quote modern-centered’ custom_font=’#ffffff’ size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading] [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’30’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#a6ce39′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’… Continue reading Prize Winners
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=‘100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] When I began reading The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, I had the expectations of a story about an author’s liberation from a country ravaged by war. But then I got something much better than that. The Dragons, the Giant,… Continue reading A Review of The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, and an Interview with author Wayétu Moore
by Amara Nicole Okolo
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Ross Gay seems like a pretty delightful guy. Just watch any video of his poetry readings or his interviews, and you’ll see. His face is disproportionately made up of smile, and despite his tall frame, he exudes a warm approachability. Then go… Continue reading Ross Gay’s Book of Delights and Jericho Parms’ Craft Module: Forms of Joy
by Sara Stancliffe
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=‘100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] It’s a gray Tuesday evening, rainy and cold, when I FaceTime with my former professor David Shields from my apartment in Montpelier, Vermont. He’s walking in Seattle, where, much to my surprise, the sun is shining brilliantly. He wears sunglasses,… Continue reading An Interview with David Shields
by Amanda Leahy
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] From the first frame, it becomes quite clear that Todd Phillip’s Joker won’t be an easy watch; we dolly in slowly on what looks like a male clown-for-hire, mid-construction. He stops in the middle of it to grin in the… Continue reading The Making of a Monster: A Craft Analysis of Joker
by Noni Salma
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=‘100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Virginia Booth: Amahl, I’m really curious to hear more about your participation with the Climate Change Theatre Action, and your play Oh, How We Loved Our Tuna! Amahl Khouri: How did it start? That’s a good question. I was invited by… Continue reading An Interview with Amahl Khouri
by Virginia Booth
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] At the age of thirty-two I started to lose weight quickly. I have never been overweight, so this became a serious issue. In less than a year I’d dropped to under a hundred and thirty-five pounds. I am over six… Continue reading How Humor Can Help Us Face Difficult Times:
Life Lessons Learned from the Craft of Comedy and Satire
Philip Shackleton
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Kevin Noble Maillard’s children’s book—filled with inspiration for adults—illuminates the complexities of culture through food. Bread, the stuff of life, is the medium to enlighten our understandings of history and diversity. His book is authored with the youngest readers (up… Continue reading Raising Consciousness in Our Youth:
A Review of Fry Bread
by Antonio Brown
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Looking Outside Airplane Windows I expect to see that boy in the clouds, sad faced, barbed wire tattoo ablaze where no one can see it— not a tattoo but a scar wrapped around his belly like a belt cinched… Continue reading Three Poems
W. Todd Kaneko
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Efes Wrestling with the Poet Who Won’t Look Away To set fire to warships in the water cast your mirror as parabola. You still won’t quiet these waters. Finite are bodies to drown. Infinite only the quarks & electrons that you… Continue reading Two Poems
Rosebud Ben-Oni
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] She was still sick from the Lortab they had given her in the emergency room, but at least she was finally sitting up, finally drinking a Met-Rx shake through a silly straw, her jaw wired shut. All of this beneath the camper… Continue reading Narrowing
Mark Powell
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Red Running Into Water tsi’naajinii nishłí pronounce the ł as water whistling through shadow on black bark the í as boy wearing only yucca lake colored tábąąhá báshíshchíín the í is now mouth of narrow stream inside a pink… Continue reading Two Poems
Jake Skeets
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] A forty-something-year-old woman is probably not the target audience for Brooklyn-based band Wives’ debut album, So Removed, but I’m here to tell you that what they’ve got going on is ageless. I would’ve listened to this album at any point… Continue reading A Review of Wives’ So Removed
by Tracy Haught
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Excerpt from Postpartum Confinement Akiko Yosano, translated from Japanese by Marissa Skeels A nurse waits in the prep-room next door. There is a small cooking stove in there, tea ware and hand towels, and a supply closet. It seems the sort of… Continue reading Excerpt from Postpartum Confinement/
産褥の記 の書き抜き
Akiko Yosano,
translated from Japanese by Marissa Skeels
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Has customs kept us from saying our favorite words as we cross? (madrugada, residiente, dentures,) or has customs left these worlds, sorry words, here in the desert to get picked at by the cultures, (ah! I keep tripping over these… Continue reading The Border Simulator
(Is This Language A Desert Also?)
Gabriel Dozal
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] I Haven’t Masturbated in Five Daysfor Fear of Crying her eyes closed the way my eyes sometimes close when I reach a hand between my thighs pretend they’re someone else’s fingers that slide the unsexiest pair of panties I own… Continue reading Two Poems
Eloisa Amezcua
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] on Meng Haoran’s “Spring Dawn” for Hong Kong 春曉 春眠不覺曉， 處處聞啼鳥。 夜來風雨聲， 花落知多少。 —孟浩然 0. The seasons have changed with a sudden force and the birds, who know, cannot keep the peace. 1. The peace, we know,… Continue reading Transformations
Theophilus Kwek
2020 Deadline is March 1! Enter the contests here. The 2020 judges are: Claire Vaye Watkins – Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize Robin Black – Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction Prize Vievee Francis – Ruth Stone Poetry Prize Sara B. Larson – Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing Claire Vaye Watkins is… Continue reading Announcing Our Guest Judges for the 2020 Hunger Mountain Writing Prizes
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] I Believers stream out the strip mall church: women with flowers in their hands, praising, as they walk toward the paletero. Timing his arrival to maximize sales to girls wearing white fold over socks, boys in ostrich boots and ties.… Continue reading Rio Grande Valley Triptych
Lauren Espinoza
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The worst thing that ever happened to me happened to someone else. You know that story. About how I was there. How it was so loud, that field where we stood. How I saw the shuttle go up and up.… Continue reading Extermination
Tiphanie Yanique
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] To set fire to warships in the water cast your mirror as parabola. You still won’t quiet these waters. Finite are bodies to drown. Infinite only the quarks & electrons that you won’t see keeping you as one. As more than. Similar. Don’t… Continue reading Efes Wrestling with the Poet Who Won’t Look Away
Rosebud Ben-Oni
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] How to Make Art Even when I’m sick, when I feel the thorn of a sore throat prick my right tonsil, and I purr through a stuffed nose while I dream of spilling my coffee because I’m stumbling through… Continue reading Three Poems
Lizzy Fox
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] On the Day of the Dead, souls of the departed return to earth to commune with loved ones. But I wasn’t at my mother’s grave in Phoenix, I was at a bar in Tucson, waiting for the parade. The silver… Continue reading Muertos
Gabriela Denise Frank
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Mario Talarico’s Peonies My favorite variety is the Eleanor Roosevelt. I am very conscientious in the spring. I stake and cage the plants. I am careful to deadhead the side branching buds to lessen the weight. I know, you are… Continue reading Two Monologues from Winesburg, Indiana, a small town between Fort Wayne and South Bend and not that far from Warsaw
Michael Martone
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Most writers are familiar with the advice, “Show, don’t tell.” It is as simple as it is vague and like many aphorisms, it’s largely not practical or useful on a daily basis. A quick word on telling—there are numerous places… Continue reading Show & Tell: Making Body Language Work for Your Story
Molly Martin
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Mario Talarico’s Peonies My favorite variety is the Eleanor Roosevelt. I am very conscientious in the spring. I stake and cage the plants. I am careful to deadhead the side branching buds to lessen the weight. I know, you are… Continue reading Four Monologues from Winesburg, Indiana, a small town between Fort Wayne and South Bend and not that far from Warsaw
Michael Martone
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “The company had pulled its employees from the facility earlier this week out of concern for their safety, and warns that it expects more of the chemical storage containers to rupture as the materials degrade and burn. Residents within a… Continue reading The Arkema Plant—Crosby, TX
Lupe Méndez
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The first five days read yellow against the window shade. The water pressure barely knew its way through the pipes. We accordioned the hours on a damp queen with pale green sheets. It was always morning. The dew always… Continue reading Long Dash
John A. Nieves
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] On a windy autumn morning in the city of Gholàr, Par and his mother set off for the Otchka. They left their small apartment pushing and pulling a massive old cart that shuddered and groaned at every cobblestone bump. Objects bounced, straining… Continue reading The Otchka
Noah Weisz
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] I wake in the middle of the night to whimpers. An angel shivers beside me, translucent as shadow. It vomits a chrysalis into my hand, sticky and green. Its red eyes ripple like pools. Where are the others? But the room contains… Continue reading Crystal Vision, with Chrysalis
Jade Hurter
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Fashion, 1860 Ballerinas were particularly vulnerable, the tarlatan and gauze. But all girls could light like chimney fires— the bells of their hollow hoop… Continue reading Fashion, 1860
Lizzy Fox
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] On Power “As a man’s knowledge grows, and his power increases, the road he takes grows ever narrower, until at last he does… Continue reading On Power
Lizzy Fox
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] How to Make Art Even when I’m sick, when I feel the thorn of a sore throat prick my right tonsil, and I purr… Continue reading How to Make Art
Lizzy Fox
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Because you are five, I say airplanes crashed and you say where is our flag and I say look at those roses, breaking open—little mouths on our walk to school. You scuff and work out the equation: if airplanes crashed… Continue reading Morning Walk: September 11, 2018
Amelia Martens
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Maurice Milkin, Eraser Carver I go to the Pink Pearl factory store at the factory and buy the ones, discounted, beyond their expiration date. Stale erasers. I have been sculpting for years. Sculpting is about seeing what is not there,… Continue reading Two More Monologues from Winesburg, Indiana, a small town between Fort Wayne and South Bend and not that far from Warsaw
Michael Martone
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] It’s a circular night and my blood is itchy. As soon as the now is over, I’m going to disentangle the amnesic kilowatts nestled inside these invisible particles. The house is still as a sleeping animal, and I’ve had it… Continue reading No Tomorrow
Brad Rose
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] My mother fills paper boats with pastel mints, juice glasses with bourbon. The room shimmers with lit cigarettes. We watch the perfumed players sneak peeks at other hands, bet and bluff . Out back my father beats hedges with rusted… Continue reading In the Embassy of Silence
Tina Carlson
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=‘100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] There is nothing boring about Ann Dávila Cardinal, from her well-paced horror story Five Midnights (Tor Teen, 2019), to her extreme love of biking in all four seasons of Vermont, to her amazing pair of glasses—which she said took her two… Continue reading What Lurks in the Shadows:
In Conversation with Ann Dávila Cardinal
by Ma’ayan D’Antonio
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] after “Benson James, drifter. Route 66, Gallup, NM 1979” by Richard Avedon Drift to drift is to be carried by current of air or water but men are not the teeth of their verbs they pry nouns open with… Continue reading Drift(er)
Jake Skeets
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] tsi’naajinii nishłí pronounce the ł as water whistling through shadow on black bark the í as boy wearing only yucca lake colored tábąąhá báshíshchíín the í is now mouth of narrow stream inside a pink mobile home with white skirting… Continue reading Red Running Into Water
Jake Skeets
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] He forked a cube of tofu and stuck it in his pretty mouth. The sound of him chewing. Clink of metal against the ceramic I later cleaned, have always cleaned, can already see me cleaning, like the good wife I… Continue reading The Real Housewife of Orange County
Paul Tran
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Give me now what scalds and reeks. Give me chilis and garlic raw. Give me dropwort and chrysanthemum greens. Buckwheat and tea. The bite of a well ripened kimchi. Let me wrap my meat in what others mistake for spoil.… Continue reading Benediction as Disdained Cuisine
Jihyun Yun
Issue #24 is themed Patterns. Deadline is October 15th! Submit here. Poetry: TC Tolbert identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, mover, and poet. And, s/he’s a human in love with humans doing human things. S/he is author of Gephyromania (Ahsahta Press 2014), 4 chapbooks, and co-editor of Troubling the Line: Trans and… Continue reading Announcing our Guest Editors for Issue #24
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Lauren played her Gibson on the phone for me. Voodoo Child. Learning Hendrix one blistered finger at a time. Stairway to Heaven. A poster of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant hung on her bedroom wall. Plant made love to the microphone in… Continue reading Birth of Cool
Rita Banerjee
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Abuela screams my name nightly. BEMBÉ! BEMBÉ! BEMBÉ! She calls me a descarada: a short skirt, stubby legged whore who wears hoops the size of her padre’s wagon wheel. She asks me how fat the ox is, pulling at my… Continue reading Beautiful Bembé
Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
First Place, Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
Son of Chuquín I often wonder who would I be without this stubborn, perennial image—my mother in bed in the dark, lying like a corpse, only her eyes and her mouth moving, talking to me as if reminiscing and at the same time prescribing a course for my life, anticipating perhaps losing me sooner rather… Continue reading The Anglo-Saxon Conspiracy
Willy Lizárraga
Runner Up, Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Sometimes you picture what it must be like on Pluto. You picture the stillness. You picture that special kind of silence that pounds beyond the ears, into the airways, past the base of the throat—a choking kind of silence. You… Continue reading Sunrise on Pluto
Arielle Schussler
First Place, Creative Nonfiction Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The four of us kids crowd into the green Chevy Impala that looks and moves like an alligator. At three years old, I am small enough to fit on Ma’s lap in the front. My sister Xuan gets a window seat in… Continue reading The Alligator
Katie Trang Quach
Runner-Up, Creative Nonfiction Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Cathedrals [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Tío, the desert is a skin too. It peels off just like anything else. I’d like to think you loved nopales—that you went to market,… Continue reading Three Poems
Daniel Arias Gómez
First Place, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] There are days I live named not good for anybody. A single misstep shakes awake the whole sleeping house. I stand in front of a mirror that’s upside-down, do my hair around the crack in the well of my worst… Continue reading Dizzy // House
Hannah Erickson
Runner-Up, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Chapter 1 Larken brought up the mound of dough and slammed it down with a thwap, flour billowing before her. She smacked her hand down again and again, air bubbles exploding beneath her palms. Each time she brought her hand… Continue reading Autumnal Tithe
Hannah Parker
Overall First Place, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The cave remembers. More than remembers, the cave sees far past the surface under which she sleeps. Her tributaries of tunnels, like hollow fingers, spread underground for hundreds of miles. They touch acre after acre, town after town, and county… Continue reading The Cave Sighs
Ellen Goff
Young Adult Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] One Santa Ynez Beach, California 1976 Mandalay Bates skipped across the sidewalk, so white hot, it scorched her sandals. Sun blistered the eucalyptus trees, setting their leaves a-shiver. The Santa Anas gushed through Mandalay’s hair. They weren’t playing, these winds.… Continue reading When Everything Was Whiskey Creek
Anna Craig
Middle Grade Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing
Dedicated to the curiosity and wonder of my daughters. This story was born out of a question from my seven-year-old, Zara. She asked, “Why does the Ratoncito come to our house and not the Tooth Fairy?” It begins with magic and love, with hope and wonder … Hundreds of years ago, when girls and boys… Continue reading El Ratoncito (The Mexican mouse that became a fairy for a night)
Adriana Martinez
Picture Book Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Yes, ya’ll, Erin Stalcup is the badass new Editor of Hunger Mountain literary journal. Erin joined the faculty of the MFA in Writing & Publishing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts this past September. She is the author of the story collection, And… Continue reading Meet Hunger Mountain’s Badass New Editor: Erin Stalcup
by Tracy Haught
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” —Toni Morrison On the first-grade attendance sheet, Jessica’s legal name is the same as her Korean one, and Mrs. Powell stumbles. Min see oh? Min ee soh? Laughter… Continue reading Hyphe(nation)
by Kaylee Y. Jeong
International Young Writers Prize for High School-Aged Writers
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Along with editing Hunger Mountain, students in the Publishing and Fieldwork class also met with each of our visiting writers. Our first guest was Matthew Olzman on Friday October 5th. Matthew is the author of two collections of poems, Mezzanines, which… Continue reading An Interview with Matthew Olzmann
by Nicholas Howard
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg began her visit to Kellogg-Hubbard Library on October 11th by reading from her latest release Miriam’s Well: A Modern Day Exodus. She shared with us the opening chapter when the story’s main character Miriam, her brother Aaron, their… Continue reading A Profile of Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
by Nicholas Howard
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” admin_preview_bg=”] Sharma has said—in an interview with James Everington—that she “think[s] [she] write[s] speculative fiction because [she is], in truth, an escapist.” It was effortless to slip into a world of visceral horror and cruel intrigue.… Continue reading Review: All The Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
by Jordan Glynn
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#339999′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] My favorite male character is Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. He values manliness, and this often is synonymous to violence. He abhors everything his late father Unoka stood for: gentleness, love for music, showing emotion, idleness. And… Continue reading Giving a Sexist Character Texture
by Ukamaka Olisakwe
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#1f4e78′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] I met Jen Currin several years ago when we were both invited to do readings for a trans friend’s top-surgery benefit party in Portland, Oregon. I felt immediate kinship with Jen, both as a writer and an amazing human being.… Continue reading The Practice of Joy: An Interview with Jen Currin
by Rebecca Jamieson
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#372a55′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Teczotchicin Vine The vine’s voraciousness dwarfs even the kudzu of the Southern United States, whose growth of one foot per day is a snail’s pace compared to the Teczotchicin’s rate of up to twenty-five meters. It’s one of the rare… Continue reading Invasive Species & Their Habitats
Alexander Weinstein
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2866′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] When my six-year-old son was painting birds during art class his principal ordered a full lockdown because an armed man was spotted skulking nearby. When I got the news I could feel my heart throb in my neck. If you pushed even a single… Continue reading Necks
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
The New Hunger Mountain Digital Magazine is now live! Visit the new site for updates, contest announcements, and more! View Page [av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100′ custom_border_color=’#a6ce39′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”]
“Masturbation” is the ideal form of sex activity of this trans-gendered subject.” —Slavoj Žižek Love in this omnivorous air this weave of straps & copper we must look like a long woman who can’t stop touching herself A tangled braid of bone A prairie of orchids speckled in amber in pudendum in hooks Lean closer & hear the cries crackling… Continue reading Aubade with Ball Gag
R. Cassandra Bruner
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2866′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] You were not as I had imagined the ones that came before—the poems in which I conjured you, dreaming darling girl, stunned sister. You flew at me like a kiss, a hard slap upon the hood of my car. Behind… Continue reading Codetta (or Collision)
Eve Alexandra
[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2866′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] I am a white horse wandering an empty planet. Everything on this planet is beautiful, untouched and clean. And I am so beautiful too, and strong. Sometimes, I spend a whole week being a white horse. But in real life,… Continue reading I Am a White Horse
Zachary Schomburg
