It’s the school’s loss, not Emma’s
Stephen King’s 20 rules for writers
The best of Writer Beware: 2022 in review
2023 entries into the public domain
Would you use these words?
The making of a six-figure author


For an Osage Orange Tree (and the names she’ll answer to)
by Angela Winsor
Say Bodark—for a pretty-leafed thing. / Hers are shiny, narrow, smoothed / curves.

Five Pieces to Assemble After the Quarantine
by Molly Lanzarotta
The lover who decides to stay / understands—like you, standing too close on the train— / it’s all about the distance we keep, or give away.

Pillow
by Claire Taylor
yes, my love / I know / a pillow can be forts and mountains / stepping-stones that slide / on hardwood floors and end / in tears.

The Poem of the World
by Scudder Parker
reveals itself / like a doe’s hoof tapping ice / till she can drink.

In Her Last Days
by Peter J. Dudley
the chemo has burned out / and hospice watches / with tender eyes

Directions Back to Childhood
by Judith Waller Carroll
Turn left at the first sign of progress / and follow the old highway / along the Stillwater River.

Saving Sgt. Billings
by Kari Gunter-Seymour
We did what we could, / hid the bottles, drove what / was left of him deep / into the yawning hollow

First Nail
by Brendan Constantine
I take your portrait down to clean / and notice the scar of another / hanging, painted over.

Thirteen
by Rebecca Foust
I was thirteen, and there was a boy’s mouth / where my legs met.

Satin Nightgown or Flannel Pajamas
by Claire Scott
Suspended between lover and caregiver and not doing either / especially well.