Orange by C.L. Von Staden C.L. Von Staden is an artist based in Central Texas. His work has been published in Bat City Review, Rejection Letters, Last Leaves Magazine, Star 82 Review, Moon Day Magazine, Ranger Magazine, Icarus Writing Collective, Thimble Literary Magazine and Exacting Clam.

People, Passing, on Tyne by Ian Johnson Within the borders of the unfinished staffroom jigsaw, their blessed river glistens like the scales of a sated snake. The glossy vista, blessed beneath imagined sunshine, shifts and pulses and convulses in a fathomless rhythm, threading the cogged hum of two…

Two Poems by JC Reilly As I Anticipate My Lover Arriving in the Snow, I Make Up SomeCat-Themed Lyrics to My Favorite SongLincoln, NebraskaFlurries mixed with sleet turn the city white and slick. These things don’tseem so nice when it’s almost as frozen in my house as it is outdoors. Giveit another…

Two Poems by Katy Luxem GenerationsOne more election and my firstbaby can vote. The other daywe saw two men walkingalong the side of a roadwith a gas can. She asked What do you think are they doing? And I said, starting a fire or, perhaps, they are just helpingone another get home. There really…

Issue 1.03 is Live! by Jeffrey Heath Our Winter 2025 issue is now live on the site. You can view the free PDF edition here. Print and Kindle editions are also available via Amazon. Jeffrey Heath, Founding Editor, EIC - January House Literary Journal

Ctrl+Alt+Delete the Sacred by Samantha Lucia Samantha Lucia (she/her) is a queer poet and photographer based in Asheville, NC. Her creative work is shaped by chronic illness, heightening her sensitivity to nuance, and she approaches both mediums as acts of witness. Her work appears or is…

Dating Parsley by Isabel Navarrete Dill weed, dill weed, dill weed echoes in my head as I scan the wall of seasonings that are packaged the same. Transparent plastic jars with green lids cover the shelf; the only thing differentiating them all is the name printed in fine font. As I keep searching,…

Effective Marketing Strategies by Hugh Behm-Steinberg Walking home I saw something dressed in green and impossible, fluttering above a bus stop bench with an online therapy ad on it, lacey dragonfly wings humming. “Hi Jake,” she waved, like she was real, and knew who I was, but in my mind I was…

Thrilled to announce the Premiere 2026 “𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰” subs are now open! (We invite all lit mag and journal editors to nominate.) Please help spread the word! Anthology to be published in April of 2026, during Poetry Month. inkinthirds.org/best-in-ink-...

Two Poems by Eric Fisher Stone Beautiful Red CreaturesWater mites ride a mosquitolike clusters of hot cherriesthe color of Mars or Arcturus,Earthworms, foxes, male cardinalsplumed with flame, tomato frogsoozing poisonous glue,scarlet ibises and their bills’ sickles,red pandas, red squirrels,…

Coluber Constrictor  by James Evans On the day you died a snake fellfrom the sky as I opened the overhead doorto my garage. It thumped long and black against my chest, slid downmy legs and raced awayinto the green, tall grass. It could be an omen,I thought, but I don't really believe in things…

Unemployment Doldrums (Kind of Blue) by Samuel A. Bellin I am released into my nothingness. I turn it into airdisturbed by the pitiful clacking of black squares. Above my gabled roof the yellow moon hangs like a pearripened and full of summer’s sweet juice. I lustand flick the dial on the record…

We Had Tea by Tracie Adams I once had lunch with royalty, but what mattered most wasn’t the crown. It was the moment a young woman in a royal-blue dress lifted her head, met my eyes, and made me feel visible at a time when I thought I might disappear. It was 1983, long before Charles became King.…

Not Charles Bonhoeffer by Wim Hylen After a drunk driving arrest, Kyle Perkins moved from Bradley Beach, New Jersey to Eldham, Colorado, a town he picked by throwing a dart at a map of the United States. Intent on making a fresh start, he adopted the name Charles Bonhoeffer because it sounded…

Restlessness Cento by Linda Laderman I am three thoughts away from the grave. Alone, I sometimes see coffins under sail. Endlessness enfleshed in emerald & frost & shades I couldn’t name without further study. The gray air molds. Geraniums heat the alleys. Jasmine and gasoline undress the night. I…

Boyfriends by Jenny Chu My aunt was always terrified I would die before I could get married. She would tell meto date whichever boys could speak Mandarin,the clumsy ones who fidgeted with their keyboardsand made little electricities every night. I picturedthem, future engineers, kissing, elbows…

inadvertently, I disturb the sanctuary of a nest hidden in a clump of shrubbery by Julie Allyn Johnson but for this zealous, late-summer breeze, today’s warmth and humidity would likely unravel my otherwise optimistic, carefree nature. finished with yardwork, I sit quietly for a well-earned time…

Fish Kebab by Erin Jamieson I order a fish kebab from Buck’s Chippy, walking the rainy streets of London with lime green rain boots. Eating lunch this way, under the canopy of the striped umbrella from my childhood, makes my office job an illusion, a passing dream. As if this is what my life could…

Two Flash Fiction Pieces by Beth Sherman Solstice I hadn’t let my mother near a stove in months. Not since she was forced to move in with me. Dinner was usually anything I could microwave – frozen burritos, mac & cheese, fettucine Alfredo, single-serve pizzas. I’ve never been all that interested…

Me or You by Allison Palmer I remember you from time to time, when I sharpen a pencil and press its new tip to the pad of my thumb to test the sharpness. Ideally, fine enough to leave a mark on the skin for a few moments, but dull enough not to break it. In second grade, I sat at my quarter-sized…

Chips by Sarah Seybold for Mamaw who worked at the Chesty Foods potato chips plant in Terre Haute, Indiana Conveyor belts roll by, and she remembers a road— Indiana to California, 1938. Her long, smooth legs and slender waist, her wavy hair ungrayed. Far away from that flat town, her mother’s…

Kissed Stain by Jennifer Mills Kerr Here, take these berries on your tongue, taste their tang as a sentinel of grief,and with the sun’s red glare, come intomy meadow to sip the morning air. See my mother, the crushed, crimson flower I handled, relenting to her hot temper,her weeping. It was never…

Your Gifts by Zach Keali’i Murphy You’ve given the worst birthday gifts, and I’ve kept all of them. There’s the crocodile-shaped keychain that hasn’t left my key ring. Its sharp and pointy tail has torn a hole through the pockets in all of my pairs of pants. Sometimes, the tail even scrapes…

Becoming Swans by Stefanie Leigh After Rachel Rabbit WhiteWe found each other’s eyes in the mirror—tendus, jetes, fouettés—for years. Our conversations, leaning over the piano, heldlike hands. Until my ring finger was freeto trace your throat, my whole palmon your jaw. Your gaze erasing our…

Roping Steers with Milton Erickson by Bruce D Snyder Twenty third-graders, six parents, and a teacher all piled into four or five vehicles and headed for Decorah, Iowa. The class camping trip circa 1981. Once there, we got the tents up, the spaghetti cooking, the s'mores at standby alert. The kids…

line and sinker by Heather Emmanuel You slide pescatarian into the conversation like it's your word to claim. “When it counts,” you say, scanning the menu. Across the table, in a crisp button-down and cuffed sleeves, she doesn’t bother pretending to read hers. “And when does it count?” The…

2026 Pushcart Prize Nominees January House Literary Journal is thrilled to announce our nominations for the 2026 Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, published since 1976, has become "the most honored literary project in America". Winners are expected to be announced…

Artwork by Mallory Caloca Mallory Caloca passion is to share the little details, simultaneously bold and delicate, and create an imagined image for others to perceive something beyond conventional understanding. Combined sources that are both organic or natural and geometric shapes and forms…

Dry by Chila Woychik It was the farthest north they had ever been. And time was all Maddie and Saul had left. Hours awash in Maddie’s own thoughts, the strangest memories crept in at even the hint of a connection: an oak tree with a split trunk reminded her of climbing a tree in her back yard…

What they don’t say about recovery by Kathy Pon beyond a bunch of discomfort and the slogtowards some sort of body restoration is the delicious act of napping. For ushigh-strung overachievers better suited as boundless Springer Spaniels that flushfulfillment from fields or boardrooms, the notion…

Artwork by Reena Reena's artworks have been published in several print and online publications, including Magazine-The Perch Magazine (mental health and substance), The Climate Art Collection, Aunt Lute, Judy Magazine, Farm Girl Magazine and Art Axis Project Organizing Committee and won Silver…

The Effects of an Erosion Lesson on a Public Educator and her Students by Ash Maielle T I T L Eis erosion a good thing?I N T R O D U C T I O N & B A C K G R O U N D● she tumbled into the question.● after tiny hands filled with recyclables and hope scurried with severity. ○ how we depend on our…

Seen by Eugene Datta The olive grove next to Hotel Karavostási is full of fruit. I didn’t know how bitter fresh olives taste until I ate one the other day. It took the sharp sourness of a half-ripe mandarin to tame the riot of tannins on my tongue. Two mandarin trees in front of the hotel are also…

Untitled by Sabyasachi Roy Sabyasachi Roy is an Academic writer, poet, artist, and photographer. He regularly contributes craft essays to Authors Publish as a guest writer. His poetry has been published in The Broken Spine, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, Dicey Brown, The Potomac, and other print…

Gursha by JK Miller We played with our fingers over the surface of thespongy, moon-like sourdough, rovers dippinginto the Misir Wot, the Kik Wot, and the Shiro Wot,roaming around the teff mons, and it wasn't longbefore, in Lalibela's on Fairfax, sitting across from each other at the small, square…

Ode to My New Fence by Cecil Morris Seven-foot high redwood, board-on-board, the usual gaps overlapped, every view blocked by new wood gloriously bright in shades of red and blond, the fine fur of splinters waiting on ungloved hands, for skin as bare as the boards and ready, the gentle open arcs…

Notes From the Frontier by Benjamin Patterson The year was coming to a close, but it hadn’t closed, right at that moment when the scales shift and autumn begins to tip into winter (think grayscale images, shavings of frost sticking to spent grasses). Car ignitions sputtered. Every few months, a…

Sunrise, Isle Lake, Burma by Roger Camp Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002. His documentary photography has been awarded the prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence and published in The New England Review, New…

Against Overpopulation by Michael Blumenthal I’ve never liked novelswith too many characters in themjust as I’ve never liked partieswith too many guests. What I preferare intimate engagements between me and just one other person: Madame Bovary over War and Peace, The Metamorphosis over One Hundred…

Artwork by S.C. Sharp S.C. Sharp is an artist from Texas.

Two Poems by Sara Eddy MonsterAt the end of the horror movie, when our person has killedthe monster-villain, she–and I’m thinking of heroines here,Sigourney or Jamie Lee–looks to the camera and we feel delight for her, we know she deserves this relief from all the hard work of killing and life.We…

Concession by Robert Schiff The speech is drafted—brief, polite, gracious. Tradition calls for writing two. One for victory. The other for this. Two are not necessary tonight. Twenty five years ago: The last Fall practice wrapped. Jordan packed up gear. That was the freshmen’s job. Coach coming…

Ghost Wedding by Xingyu Zhao After Boey Kim Cheng’s Clear BrightnessApples, persimmons, and orange sponge cakesShining under halogen glare, and mother and IWatch Bai Wuchang toss his divining blocks, Inviting the spirits to enter papier-mâché Dolls dressed in red silk robes. Peachwood Tablets sway…

Directive 23 by Jack Tisdale Belknap House. The Abner L’Argent Psychic College for Pantisocracy, Aspheterism, Benevolence, and Civil Liberty DE DESPERATIONE, FORTITUDO Staff Directive 23, October 5. From: Director Barringwell Re: Certain Items. Certain items have been brought to my attention. I…

The Trophies in the Brother Mausoleum by Emma Lagno wink their gold heads and smooth mouthless faces and flat fingerless hands. On the shelves, softback books on baseball and the wilderness crackle. They say how to be a boy when the plane goes down in the woods. How to hold a hatchet. How to swing…

Two Poems by Charlie Brice Winter Walk in PittsburghBlizzard so bright the sky turned dark.Pleasant-sting of flakes against cold-flushed cheeks. A parka-bundled neighborshovel-scrapes his front walk. We gesture to the snow, palms up, as if in prayer. I love it, I yell. Me too, he says. Cold-mist…

Wish List by David Rodriguez Whether it’s one year or five decadesbefore we board an ark of silica ceramics,of flexible insulation blankets or whateverwe have (oak timber and tallow, like do-it-yourself Vikings), may I be donewith all my pettiness and grief,all my lists of tired resentmentsand…

Contributor Book: M F Drummy Contributor M F Drummy, another of our Best of the Net nominees, has a debut poetry collection coming out in September/October. The book is available for pre-order at a discount through Main Street Rag bookstore: Advance praise for M F Drum's Perdido: Now and then you…

Two Contributor Books: Michael Dwayne Smith & Jeffrey Heath Contributor Michael Dwayne Smith, recently selected as one of our Best of the Net nominees, has a new poetry collection coming out in September from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. The book is available for pre-order now (20% off through 8/15!):…

2026 Best of the Net Nominees January House Literary Journal is excited to announce our nominations for the 2026 Best of the Net anthology. The Best of the Net is an awards-based anthology designed to grant a platform to a diverse and growing collection of writers and publishers who are building…