We are pleased to announce the results of the Ninth Letter Regeneration Award for 2025. The Regeneration Award is a multi-genre contest presented in partnership with I-Regen and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to amplify work thematically connected to the idea of “regeneration,” especially revolving […]
We are pleased to announce the results of the Ninth Letter Literary Awards for 2025. The winners in each genre will be published in our Fall/Winter 2025-26 print issue and on our website. Honorable mentions will be published on our website. Online publication will be concurrent with the release of the print issue. Poetry Winner: […]
Selected for publication by Stephanie Anderson My Father Cooks My Mother Breakfast My father slits the skinand like a mouth the trout opens.Its language returns to him, the waygills punctuate the other cuts he will make.Morning comes late, and night still watcheswith its wide, flat eyewhile he pulls the head and gutsout of their silver […]
Read More… from Anne Menasché, “My Father Cooks My Mother Breakfast”
Generously sponsored by I-Regen at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Selected for publication by Stephanie Anderson * Correction: “Sundogs” is incorrectly attributed to Ashlen Renner in the print edition. Meghan E. O’Toole is the author of “Sundogs” and the winner of the Regeneration Literary Contest. Introduction Through the lens of childhood, Meghan E. O’Toole’s story […]
Selected for publication by Lena Valencia Hold Hands, Children It is Tuesday, and Georgie thinks, Tuesday is everything. Everything always happens on Tuesdays. Georgie walks after Luca. He has positioned himself behind Luca to watch the breeze lift the tuft of hair on the back of his head. The wind tickles it like the tail […]
Selected for publication by Kristen Millares Young Promiscuous Young Men[1] I am writing this anonymously,[2] with phrases and sentences that[3] I have borrowed from the library,[4] so nobody knows who did it.[5] If you recognize me[6]—no, you don’t.[7] Like many men, I have a ridiculous weakness for[8] cock and can easily kill[9] two or three […]
Selected for publication by Sara Borjas Facing It after Yusef Komunyakaa in response to “La Malinche,” a portrait painted by Alfredo Ramos Martínez of the Aztec girl whose language skills led her to serve Hernán Cortés as interpreter, guide, and later, mistress— I can almost say my name. Am almostsomeone I know. They say I was sold by […]
selected for publication by Robin Marie MacArthur She met him at Waffle House to tell him how much she hated him. He agreed to feeling the same. She spit in his scrambled eggs. He knocked over her mug of lukewarm coffee, and it dribbled into her purse. When she wasn’t looking, he pocketed the tip […]
selected for publication by Chet’la Sebree Servants of God after La Última Cena, Marcos Zapata, c. 1753 In the Last Supper painting that hangs at Cusco Cathedral eleven apostles and Christ flank the centerpiece a roasted guinea pig A bath of light overflows behind Christ’s head In-between two candelabra a window encases the first-quarter moon amongst […]
selected for publication by Janisse Ray In the winter of 1945, Olinka Verdian leaves the Shahumyan province by foot to trek the three miles to the next outpost where they say the telegram has arrived with the names of the dead. She treks through Verin Shen village, over the river, now frozen, through the woods […]
