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 […]
selected for publication by Chet’la Sebree KP-Index 4.33 The room isn’t quiet but it issoft like too many blanketsor how the frozen sand lookedbeyond our towels hours beforewhere I sat with a boyI tried to love,the sky brightish and hazy, milkoozing through midnight’s pores,but I pretended not to see itbecause that evening, hours before,I told […]
selected for publication by Robin Marie MacArthur Orderly trunks of maritime pine forest plummet to marsh grass and beach sky where the narrow double lane becomes the Dauphin Island bridge. A brown pelican glides outside the car window as I coast onto the island proper, guiding me to this first Thanksgiving at Mama’s without Mama. […]
selected for publication by Craig Santos Perez sponsored by I-Regen at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign “Nahla,” the old woman says from the bed. “Nahla, it is past time. Kill me.” It is the same conversation they have had every day for the past six months. Nahla doesn’t answer this time. The generator-powered record player […]
selected for publication by Craig Santos Perez sponsored by I-Regen at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The second round of IVF failed exactly the same way the first did: the embryos simply stopped growing. Every other day the lab called with an update. Six embryos, then five, then three, then one. “There’s still one,” each […]
selected for publication by Debra Marquart sponsored by I-Regen at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Introduction by Guest Judge Debra Marquart This meticulously-researched piece of reportage begins by sounding an ominous bell about the state of the northern farm- and ranch-lands west of the Missouri River as the planet heads into fluctuations of climate that will […]
Poetry Winner: Rose Zinnia, “Constituting Mayhem (Derealized in the CVS),” “Look (Nonbinary,” “God Wifi Earth Ogn (Nonbinary),” and “ancient Wind, Empty Skyscraper, Golden Bear (Nonbinary)” Honorable Mentions: Rennie Ament, “In America” and Heather Lang-Cassera, “Upon Knowing Swan Song as Myth” Creative Nonfiction Winner: Jodie Noel Vinson, “Self-Portrait after COVID-19” Fiction Winner: Carly Rae Zent, “The […]
Winner Jeanette Lynes, “1979” Honorable Mention: Jacques Rancourt, “Crossed Signals” Finalists: Joshua Garcia, “Self-Portrait as Three Archetypal Media Images;” torrin a. greathouse, “Bondage Device: Cross;” and Brett Hanley, “Bondage Device: Meat Hoist” Special thanks to Tim Dean and Corey Van Landingham. […]
