Spoken word poem earns golden buzzer on AGT
Court dismisses motion to block Mary Trump book
Bolton book released
Dawn Frederick of Red Sofa threatens legal action against critics
Internet Archive retreats amid lawsuit
Recent Fiction
Joshua, by Jordana Jacobs
Inside the ovaries of my husband’s grandmother, Sylvie, resided an egg the size of a grain of sand that would have been Hannah, my brilliant and accomplished mother-in-law.
Recent Poetry
Upper Peninsula, by Andrew Hemmert
If the places you go become you, / you must account for the drive-through / liquor store housed in the old carwash.
Recent CNF
Big Girls Like Us, by Kelly Flynn
Every time I see my father, he asks me if I have lost weight. He has done this since I was a child.
Eyes of the Day
by Tim Craven
I recall as kids when our obsession would / lead us into the thick backwoods / next to the decommissioned railway / line, our pockets stuffed with ribbons
Mrs. Shelton
by Michael C. Ahn
Even on weekends Mrs. Shelton wouldn’t leave my head. I thought of her on the bus, at my desk, and in my bed. I suspected my mother noticed me at times, gazing at or playing with my food.
Nightfall
by Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
translated by Jacqueline Michaud
The sun slept this evening in clouds of mounting gray / Tomorrow will bring the storm, and evening, and night
Pornography and Poetry
by Isabella David
“Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembr’d” has always seemed to me the most perfect pickup line, although it didn’t work so well on Ophelia.
History
by Cezarija Abartis
The Medici coat of arms, with its shield and crown, hung on a pole on the sidewalk here and everywhere throughout the city, still asserting ownership.
My Patent Leather Shoes
by Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou
I feel my stomach bubble all day today. It’s my birthday and godfather will be here in a minute or so. He’s promised to bring me a pair of new leather shoes.
Backspace
by Tracy Harris
We used typewriters decades ago, and carbon paper and different colors of white-out. If we made a mistake we could correct not just the original letter but each carbon copy as well, in the correct color.
Things I Did Not Learn From Dead White Male Authors
by Jennifer Zobair
I have loved books by white, male authors. I have stayed up all night with them, avoided studying for the bar exam with them, sought refuge from broken hearts or unrealized dreams with them.
The Three Graces of Ana Lydia Vega
by Alison McMahan
Recently my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary, spending the day at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, originally a palatial Miami home built in 1916 by industrialist John Deering.
The Difference Between Being a Slut & a Racist: Pocahottie Hottentot
by Ruth Hopkins
Ahh, yes. Halloween is just around the corner. Time for pumpkin carving, Trick-Or-Treating, and women dressed like two-dollar hookers wearing headdresses.
Fireside
Required Reading
*
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
The First 100 Words
by Stephen Parrish, with the editors of The Lascaux Review
The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen
by Kari Gunter-Seymour
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
The Geek’s Guide to the Writing Life: an Instructional Memoir for Prose Writers
by Stephanie Vanderslice
