Some decades ago I unwittingly fathered a baby girl. Through some trick of fate or the magic of genetics, that baby girl helped me develop into something loosely resembling a poet. I say “loosely” because part of me believes that…
A Conversation with Tasha Cotter
An interview by Alicia Cole. Tasha Cotter is the author of the poetry collection Some Churches (Gold Wake Press, 2013) and the chapbooks That Bird Your Heart and Girl in the Cave. Winner of the 2015 Delphi Poetry Series, her…
Guest Post: The Art of Construction by Shaina Clingempeel
Oftentimes, people picture the modern poet as an outspoken individual. This individual shares even her early scraps. I, however, differ from this image. Throughout college, I dreaded the workshop circle. While I like the concept of collaboration, I struggle to…
A Conversation with Jen Knox
An interview by Alicia Cole. Jen Knox is a writing coach and the Writers in Communities program director at Gemini Ink. Her short fiction and nonfiction appear in over seventy publications, including The Adirondack Review, the inaugural issue of Black…
Guest Post: Laryngitis by Diana Conces
Laryngitis is, of course, a temporary loss of voice. You try to speak, and what comes out is this awkward, hollow hiss, like a particularly disgruntled ghost dragging a rusty pitchfork across a chalkboard, and then everyone around you puts…
Secretary by Megan Roberts
I was called a secretary again. When I hear the word, it makes my blood boil. I know my master’s degree is sitting on the shelf laughing at the way my face contorts when my co-workers spew their venom. The…
A Conversation with Vanessa Blakeslee
An interview by Alicia Cole. Vanessa Blakeslee is the author of the debut novel, Juventud (Curbside Splendor, 2015), hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as a “tale of self-discovery and intense first love.” Her story collection, Train Shots (Burrow Press) won the…
Guest Post: A-merica, our home and native land… by Garreth Chan
I spent two months of my summer entangled and confused in an endless jungle of a fantastically exotic city. Glass and cement twisted into a permanent tango, childish handwriting in chalk emblazoned across uneven sidewalks, slowly scrubbed away by the…
A Conversation with Kate Samworth
An interview by Alicia Cole. Kate Samworth grew up in the DC area, where she played bass in a band and made art before moving to New Orleans. She studied and then taught painting at the New Orleans Academy of…
Guest Post: You Are Stronger Than You Think You Are by J. B. Howard
As a child, I had terrible asthma. I spent hours every evening breathing fumes out of a noisy machine called a “nebulizer,” and most days I required puffs from my collection of inhalers—the blue one made me shaky, but the…
Guest Post: Fantastic Voyage: The Phenomenon of Human Emotion – Part II by Dr. Jodi De Luca
Life within itself is a fantastic voyage. And during this journey of our lives, more often than not we can unexpectedly find ourselves hurled into un-chartered territory, especially where emotions are concerned. Perhaps the fact that we can’t ‘see’ our…
Guest Post: Pull That Trigger (and I Don’t Mean Guns) by Tobi Alfier
In the old days (think Centennial by James Michener), I was afraid of nothing and no one. I flew hot air balloons, jumped out of airplanes, was kicked awake by the police while sleeping on a pier in Monte Carlo,…