Six Poems by Lily Mazzarella
All summer, the road was littered / with songbirds, their heads smashed in / I was poisoned by absinthe, and set a field / on fire, and spent the… More
The PEN Ten with Domenica Ruta
I don’t care about fashion. Great minds paired with enormous hearts will always transcend fashion, no problem. The public intellectuals who are to remain vital will have to be… More
Three Poems by Kiki Petrosino
You died in the pith of August. You left us. / In rageful choke, in dust: you left us. // On your coffin lid: Going Home. A bluebird. /… More
The PEN Ten with Alissa Nutting
"I think writing should be a sacrifice, and feel like one—how else could the act of constructing narratives, stories, lies, deceptions, ever be kept honest, if not through demanding… More
Another Door
It’s simple enough to completely plow me over. / Some static in the radio’s belly, a sandwich / aglow in an empty room, love letters without / margins, and… More
Five Poems by Susan Scarlata
That no one uploads // this moth dust or downloads that bear strut. / Hear it. That we use our intricate moves for / something with succor. Hear it.… More
The Girl on a Leash
Her mother’s flaky hands scraped against her daughter’s forehead. Once they had been like candle wax. She said, “Are we wrong?” Her father said, “Do you want to raise… More
Two Poems by Cody-Rose Clevidence
etched appetites strung pearls on thick boughs: / bought come early, before the shine wears off / in this dalliance the days crust rose gentle / sight More
The PEN Ten with Richard Nash
I'd beg the imprisoned writer to try to remember her teenaged self. The intensity, the outrage, the sentiment, the naïveté, the resentment, the joy. More