"All my life, I wish someone would wrap me like a bread loaf to keep my arms from losing themselves and then tuck me into a space not so bright, not so loud, and rub my feet." "And So We Walk" is our featured essay this week on Sunlight. bit.ly/4o2t2Pl

This one's not sappy, for a change. Frustrated, more like it. Major thanks to the folks at the gorgeous @bicoastalreview.bsky.social for an amazing editing experience with this piece. www.bicoastalreview.com/alinazollfrank

Big feelings upon having this published. backchannelsjournal.net/edition-no-1... #Backchannels #poetry #childbirth #parenting #love

New creative nonfiction today at Reckon. Come visit and read "Mothering, 21st Century Edition" by Alina Zollfrank @zollizen.bsky.social

Thanks to @wayfarermagazine for letting a couple of my more somber pieces land. www.wayfarermagazine.com/p/making-it and www.wayfarermagazine.com/p/beach-trea...

Alina Zollfrank burningword.com/2026/01/alin... #nonfiction January 2026 Burningword Literary Journal

And this one is for all of you. Because we hold on. amethystmagazine.org/2026/01/09/i...

Dedicated to our immigrant friends and neighbors. And to my people, the ones that made me. burningword.com?s=zollfrank #immigration #legal #regime #identity

The 2025 DIAJ Award Winners: The Bee by Emily Molinari Tuulikki Bakes a Cake by September Woods Garland Sweating Like a Mother by Alina Zollfrank Buddy's Picasso by Komal Sharma TOWER TOUR by Brian C. Billings A Review of Larks by Han VanderHart by Eleanor Ball www.doorisajarmagazine.net/diaj-awards

Ahhh, I'm excited about the timing of this December publication to include one of my earliest childhood memories. Halfway Down the Stairs's Intuition issue is gorgeous and a good place to sink your near-end-of-year brain into. halfwaydownthestairs.net/2025/12/01/b...

This is needed, crucial, and vitally timed. literaryartsfund.org/announcing-l...

www.chollaneedles.com published a rather candid essay I wrote in edition 106, AND the full-page black-and-white photography throughout and the popping cover page are courtesy of my sharp-eyed artistic firstborn. The editor is attentive and caring - a delightful experience!

🌟 BOTN nomination! 🌟 Alina Zollfrank (We’re All Just Tourists Here)

That's how I feel most of these days: NOPE. Thank you to Writers Resist for shouting what is true and urgent and uncomfortable into the world, and for publishing my www.writersresist.com/2025/09/24/n... (Support independent publishers and journals. The arts will keep truth and humanity afloat.)

So, whatcha readin'?

So excited about Tint Journal choosing to work with me! I felt called to highlight some of the profound learning that happens when we invite foreign exchange and refugee students into communities.This was a formative period in my life. #ESL #ELL #exchange #school #culture #memoir

Let me do you a favor. If you're over, say, 45, and you have brought children to adulthood or near adulthood, and if you have parents or memories of parents, and if you've had love and loss and sand between your toes, your heart wants to read this book. #sandwich #catherine_newman

The truth, these days it turns against me more than not (period) Alina Zollfrank Unmentionable www.corporeallitmag.com/volume-xx/alinazollfrank

Thanks, anotherchicagomag.bsky.social, for helping me give a voice to something that needs one. "You get how this system is an entity that assumes people exist to serve it in perpetuity, instead of the system serving the people." anotherchicagomagazine.net/2025/07/29/r... #insurance #menstruation

Ha! This one is outside of my usual repertoire but a pretty accurate description of %$^& that's happened to us. oddballmagazine.com/poem-by-alin... Thanks to all of you making the art, speaking the words, and supporting the things and people who need supporting. #poetry #wordplay #doom #oddball

Excited that HOOT chose me for their July postcard. And yes, you can order postcards by subscribing to www.hootreview.com/and supporting a small, independent platform for the arts! www.hootreview.com/.../hoot-pos...

I'm mulling over a new writing project and could use the friendly hive mind. (Responses will be used anonymously). Define what you consider a "bad person" or "bad people." Ready? Go! #bad #labels #writing #survey

Read this. I mean it. It is GORGEOUS and CLAIRVOYANT. Racial issues? Check. Book bans? Check. Power grabs? Check. History rewritten? Check. Borders & wars? Check. Bodily autonomy? Check. And so much beauty. And yes, sizzle 🙂. Read this. #Laurie_Forest #The_Black_Witch #fantasy #novel #resistance

Unreasonably proud that my piece "(Tongue)Eaters" is in SAND Journal's Issue 8. A gorgeous publication that couldn't have come at a better time when we worry about our people, all species, and the planet. #environmentalism #nonfiction #resistance #renewal

This is a first. My firstborn has two pieces of photography in this, and I a poem. We love, love Last Leaves Literary Magazine. Please support small presses & journals. Free download for this **Issue 10** at www.lastleavesmag.com/last-leaves-.... Print copies available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

So glad this piece landed at Full House Literary. Reality is what we make of it. www.fullhouseliterary.com/prose-script...

"The threat of collapse and utter loss can provoke a deeper sense of wholeness, where nothing but total involvement and whole-heartedness will work." - quote of the day from Michael Meade's nourishing book "Why the World Doesn't End"

Good book for all women to ready today. Loss comes in all shapes and forms. So do clarity, and empowerment. And: it's beautifully written. Grab those tissues.

NPR wants to know how people are doing with the whole free-speech thing. www.npr.org/2025/03/20/g...

Musings on guns and birds and cancer and, well, peace. My gratitude to Sierra Nevada Review for the care and editorial guidance. To all of you reading: pretend you're birds today. www.sierranevadareview.com/alina-zollfr... #poetry #piece #guns #cancer #evolution #technology #peace

What I'm reading right now. Why? Humanity. Shared truth. Feelings, feelings, feelings. Where to donate? poemsnotbombs.org #poetry #Ukraine #dictator #war #deafness #suffering #peace #children

I was so glad to get this in the mail this week from comstockreview.org. I am now, more than ever, channeling my grandparents' generation who faced total destruction and hardship beyond belief. Yet, they rebuilt.

You AND your friends and relatives in "otherwise oriented" states need to contact elected officials to protect Medicaid. If this program is slashed or tied to certain loopholes, access barriers, etc, innocent people *will* suffer and die. More info at 5calls.org/issue/protec...

1/29: First plane crash in 16 years in DC 1/31: Crash in Philly 2/5: Delta flight struck in Seattle 2/6: Flight wrecks in Alaska 2/10: Crash in Scottsdale 2/12: Military jet crashes in San Diego 2/16: Crash in Covington, GA 7 crashes since the WH congratulated itself for “restoring aviation safety”

Grateful to the deep, caring people at Braided Way Magazine for accepting another one of my pieces. If you're reading this - much love to you and the women in your life. braidedway.org/stories-told... #grief #women #empowerment #spirituality #ancestors

Perfect timing. Big shout out to the marvelous people at Eastern Iowa Review for letting this solemn piece land safely. www.portyonderpress.com/alina-zollfr... #evolution #dictators #nature #philosophy #CNF #hopelessness #species

"The President’s remarks today suggesting the deadly crash of Flight 5342 may have been the fault of public servants with disabilities are irresponsible, disparaging, and wrong. "https://www.ndrn.org/resource/dca-crash/ Spread truth, people, spread truth. #disabilities #truth #FAA

You CAN do this today: Go to www.thearc.org/action to explain to legislators that Medicaid is a lifeline. **Share this with anyone and everyone you know in other states, too.** Remember: There is strength in numbers, and there a a lot of good people. #disability #Medicaid

The poem I wish I'd written. I hope this one will make it into history books down the road ... unless books become a hoax. Sending hugs to all of you who need them.

Yes. This.

Sunday’s Zoom with @hcrichardson.bsky.social was full of wisdom on how to navigate 2025—focus on what you can control, find your people, and never stop learning. So, what’s your game plan to make it through the year?

We can't cave. That's what they want. So we fight back with what we have. I have words. "I hold my heart outside my chest and use it as a megaphone." zollizen.medium.com/courage-is-c...

Thanks to Tipton Poetry Journal for giving my angry-exhausted "Choices" a home. issuu.com/tiptonpoetry...

My heart needed this today. New Wind and Root from columnist Barlow Adams and Managing Editor Charlotte Hamrick: reckonreview.com/wind-and-roo... @barlowadams.bsky.social @charhamrick.bsky.social

By the talented www.jeannetteencinias.com/about Work The work now is to keep the heart open, strong, and alive no matter what happens. This is hard work. The tallest order. The deepest prayer. I wake in the morning...

What better way to come back than with Pushcart nominations woohoo. Best Microfiction to follow this post. A huge congrats to @noranadj.bsky.social, @zollizen.bsky.social, @michaelimossan.bsky.social, DC Restaino, @rushikawick.bsky.social and Ally Fowler! 🎉

Looks like this place is where the brains, the hearts, the guts, the giggles, grins, and hugs have ended up. Thanks for making me feel sane. I share this with you out of love. Just got published, thanks to @heimatreview.bsky.social . www.heimatreview.com/a-list-of-th...