New bio to share: Bethany Jarmul. We'd love to have you with us in January. Registration is free via the link in the next post (so as to avoid suppression of this one!) @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social @nancyhuggett.bsky.social Shares welcome

Grade 37 more essays? Or I could alphabetize that bag of limes over there... Thanks, brain.

Heartened to find this thoughtful piece by the editor of Christianity Today on the danger of deportation without due process.

"In the bathroom you blushed at the backsides of bawdy dames. Who were those people, black-and-white and glamorous? Maybe they’re bent on revenge, like ghosts (all that remains of young lives, now parody, glued to the stalls)." RIP, Buca.

"There was the unpredictable ember of anger he set alight in me that heated everything I did in the weeks and months and, yes, even the years after I had to learn to be without him." Whew! This one takes quite a turn before the end! New @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social up at @mrbullbull.bsky.social.

Well it only took me several years... but finally got around to making a writerly website. markabdonwrites.com

"But she’s the one who doesn’t understand. Lila smells like vanilla and limes. She has one blue eye and one brown eye... She sings when it’s raining out and makes me want to sing too." Great prose moment from "Stupid Girl", @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. Read the rest!

"When we tore the strawberry pink ribbons off our white teddy bears’ necks, it was not about the ribbons. It was our response to the terror of gentleness and elegance..." Clever new @noraraywrites.bsky.social in @moonparkreview.bsky.social. (Side note - glad you're a writer, not an icthyologist)

I hear you're supposed to pay taxes in March. But this month, I'm already indebted to @catamaranlit.bsky.social, @moonparkreview.bsky.social, and now Fourth River: www.thefourthriver.com/tributaries-...

"The garden seemed a lovely little oasis, a calm and quiet respite from the hubbub, from the onslaught of human activity that is the city." New @k-a-polzin.bsky.social in the stunning Garden Issue of @catamaranlit.bsky.social. Fun to overlap here AND in @moonparkreview.bsky.social this month 🤷‍♂️

In our Special Garden Issue, explore lush literary works with settings that span public gardens, imaginary gardens, themes of flowers, plants, and the organic world, alongside visual artwork from landscape & still life paintings to abstraction and realism. catamaranliteraryreader.com/the-garden-i...

"Until I slip, and they scowl, and my tongue stumbles, and my brain struggles to recalibrate, and my heart sighs. I give them space." Wonderfully tender piece by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in the new @moonparkreview.bsky.social.

"I quote her to whoever is with me. I plant myself more deeply when others slip away. I keep hoping it’s still possible to win." Love this piece ("My Grandma Taught Me Never To Leave Until It’s Over") by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social in this new @moonparkreview.bsky.social issue!

Missing out on AWP? Want to meet some new writer friends? Join me (and other awesome writers & poets) for some chill hangouts! Register (for free) for one or both: March 26th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/UISIF March 28th HANGOUT: shorturl.at/zXRBP

“Tomorrow will bring a different mess,” writes Maria Koors in “The Optimist’s Almanac.” As I’ve prepared this Spring 2025 issue, I’ve been thinking about the messes that continue to pile up, both personal and shared. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-38-spr...

"Thy will be done on this earth where we've exploded the mountain tops..." After much debate, I've landed on my favorite from @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social's elj-editions.com/lighting-is-... from @emergejournal.bsky.social. Your bookshelf is begging for these snapshots of Appalachia and motherhood.

Anyone else in need of a small dose of hope? My gratitude to @mrbullbull.bsky.social for giving this flash piece a home!

"Was my mother as tired before I arrived? Was my father still brave then—did he trust his own voice? Was my sister filled with insecurity, or was it me that did that to them?" Great nostalgia-with-a-twist miCRo up today from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social over at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social.

"Don't usually love happy stories about Grandpas but..." – @mrbullbull.bsky.social So that's my new favorite acceptance letter. See you in March of 2025 😃 For now, new work up at @maudlinhouse.bsky.social this month: maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...

Doesn't everyone need something to get them through the grayscale of February? Then Pre-ordering is really just proactively practicing good mental health. Do it and thank yourself later.

Hello! Testing the waters to see if the skies are truly bluest here. Say hey, befriend me, etc. I'm nice! “Farm Hands” in X-R-A-Y xraylitmag.com/farm-hands-b... “Airport Barn Swallows” in Gone Lawn gonelawn.net/journal/issu... “Two-Party System” in Maudlin House maudlinhouse.net/two-party-sy...