Special Issue 34 featuring Kimbilio Writers! Intro: David Haynes Tara Baldridge N. Jamiyla Chisholm Shinelle L. Espaillat Leesa Fenderson Camille F. Forbes Wandeka Gayle Jason Harris Denise Laidler Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa Victoria Palmer Mary McLaughlin Slechta Debra Stone leonliteraryreview.com

"Without thinking, you’ve waded deep into the pond, turned your back on the comforts of the tranquil hillside to face the astonishing sun..." from "Anger" by Susan Trofimow leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-sus...

"...the snow geese, warblers and wrens will fly home for the winter. those things like starfishes in air, called daffodils will bloom in spring, the world didn't wait for my father..." from "We Laughed" by Abiodun Salako leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-abi...

"I’m on the phone with the mental health nurse talking about the weather when I first learn of the lambing snow..." from "Sneachd beag nan uan" by Laura Mills leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-lau...

"...we never jumped off the cliffs at 1:37 AM in Avignon; you never reached out for me; the water was never cold; the world was never dark; you never told me me i’m certain, i’ll never love like this again..." from "Never Never" by Jamie Kim leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-jam...

"...worrying’s all abstract til you’re pacing the ward waiting out the ectomy and suddenly you’re filthy stinking rich with time diving in scrooge mcduck and drowning in it..." from "nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine days" by Zachary Lorico Hertz leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-zac...

"...your gabardine pockets gleam. Empty them of offerings: paperclip, wrapper or use your flashlight to show your heart beneath the couch cushions were you left it last night..." from "A Sign From the Gods via WhatsApp" by Ashley Oakes leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-ash...

"...Watch steam wither. Wonder if I can bring anything back with held breath, if I can hold together long enough..." "At 23, I Reported a Case of Sexual Harassment and Was Asked to Meet About It a Week Later" by Dana Tenille Weekes leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-dan...

"My grandmother has known war as a staple in the pantry you never run out of, like jasmine rice or green lentils, or the thick viscous olive oil she harvests which doubles as ointment for deep wounds..." from "Something Useful" by Moudi Sbeity leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-mou...

"...the band, more southern rock than country twang, sings of first kisses and beer and church, the words land soft and sweet—expected but lovely, like the snow falling beyond these walls..." "At the Cotillion Ballroom in Wichita, Kansas" Janice Northerns leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-jan...

"And for so long I wasn’t anything. A pile of rocks to the side of the trail, might be a tiny grave or some kid’s collection. Circles in the mushrooms at the edge of the woods. Heartbeats through clothes..." from "The Wild Hunt" by Jasmina Kuenzli leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-jas...

"Our Pacific’s a pizzazz of suds and anchovies, the sky of stars and sprites. What am I yapping about? Everyone wants something— brain, heart, courage. Family in Kansas. The Cairn Terrier once between us." fr "The Second State of Matter" Kenton K. Yee leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-ken...

"...You love dorks. Geeks that smell like pimple cream and have large glasses that make their eyes bob and bulge like silky Betas. You count the pleats on their tan pants and their tight white briefs consume your nightlife..." "Crushing on Nerds" Amanda Chiado leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-ama...

"...Vietnam was burnt foliage and fracture, bright birds I had no names for, dank smoke we couldn’t exhale. All those still bodies floating facedown downstream, husks of belief. My hand unsteadied..." from "Argosy" by Debra Allbery leonliteraryreview.com/issue-33-deb...

It's alive! Issue 33 has frighteningly good new poetry from: Debra Allbery Ashley Oakes Amanda Chiado Zachary Lorico Hertz Jamie Kim Jasmina Kuenzli Laura Mills Janice Northerns Abiodun Salako Moudi Sbeity Susan Trofimow Dana Tenille Weekes Kenton K. Yee leonliteraryreview.com

"...When he has the coffee in his hand he turns and looks at me. I can feel his eyes on me as he walks by, but not in the way that you look at a face you recognize. No narrowed eyes or tilted head. He just looks..." from "Mug" by Tali Libenstein leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-tal...

"My grandfather sits in his eroded fabric chair, drinking tea from the pot I unearthed from the pantry. His fingers rest like sardines between where the handle detached from the mug..." from "Mona Lisa" by Claire Breslow leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-cla...

"For our sixth date, I take him to the field behind my home where the music grazes, swirls of song hovering over patches of grass. “They need the energy to grow,” I explain..." from "Prelude" by Chelsea Hanna Cohen @chelseahannac.bsky.social leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-che...

"It was the 90s, baby. My first job was wearing a fire hydrant suit for a short-lived novelty shop in the mall called District Red. I was supposed to stand out at the entrance, but I had just enough pride to not do that. fr "District Red" by Andy Bodinger leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-and...

"The story, over, before it was finished. No words like butterflies flitting around the edges of the sentences. No embellished sensory details..." from "Laconic" by Wendy BooydeGraaff @BooyTweets leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-wen...

"...but her husband seemed so in love with her, always bringing her marigold and holly, and she was afraid to touch that. Afraid it would melt the winter in which they lived." from "Another Winter" by Francine Witt @francinewitte.bsky.social leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-fra...

"My father drives like memory itself: sudden acceleration, unexplained stops. At checkpoints, he switches between Arabic, French, English, calibrating survival to the soldier’s accent. “Canadian passport,” he says" fr "Cartography of Ruin" by Elina Kumra leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-eli...

There are 10 days left in our fall 2025 poetry reading period. 🍁 Pumpkin-spice pantoums? Apple-cider sonnets?

Intrepid writers of poetry - send us your daring, dreamy, provocative, beautifully unexpected verse! Our reading period is open to Poetry (only Poetry this time) through October 15th. leonliteraryreview.com/submit-2/

"Something’s bothering my brother and everyone I know is afraid to ask him what’s wrong. He acts like he’s mad at the whole world and flings and hurls things around." from "Smokey Says It’s Up to Us Now to Put Out Fires" by Mikki Aronoff leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-mik...

Wow! The selection process was a challenge! We’ve had the privilege of publishing so many outstanding writers this past year. Thank you, everyone :) Good luck to our 2025 Best of the Net nominees!

"...how to find the room, whether to bring a book, whether to call my brother, Sam, now or later, whether I should sneak in a visit to my demented husband on the way home. The crows have given way to songbirds." From "Imposter" by Amy Bates leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-amy...

"...she would try to think about the past, and would only be able to feel twinges and movements in certain parts of her body, as if an insect had landed on her bare arm with its light, spindly little legs..." from "The Other Room" by Fergus Sinnott leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-fer...

"I seen a production of The Crucible one time back home in the community centre, so I know what these Yanks are like when they take agin you. Mad hoors altogether." from "Snapped" by Elaine Maguire O’Connor leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-ela...

On the night your space shuttle launches, I walk outside to my backyard and tilt my head heavenward. I imagine seeing the stellar nurseries glowing pink and red, pulsing with newborn stars, as heavy as my love.. Ghost Nebula, Elena Zhang @ezhang77.bsky.social leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-ele...

"He was saying to his daughter, now fourteen, now in the throes of things he didn’t want to write in essays, that the clouds were stunning as they floated across a deep blue sky..." from "Dutch Golden Age" by Andrew Bertaina @andrewbertaina.bsky.social leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-and...

"and I’m after the impossible place, the blank place, the place before I saw you..." from "I met you there" by Cheryl Pappas @cherylpappas.bsky.social leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-che...

Intrepid writers of poetry - send us your daring, dreamy, provocative, beautifully unexpected verse! Our reading period is open to Poetry (only Poetry this time) through October 15th. leonliteraryreview.com/submit-2/

Issue 32 is LIVE NOW! We can’t get over this amazing lineup! Mikki Aronoff Amy Bates Andrew Bertaina Andy Bodinger Wendy BooydeGraaff Claire Breslow Chelsea Hanna Cohen Elina Kumra Tali Libenstein Elaine Maguire O’Connor Cheryl Pappas Fergus Sinnott Francine Witte Elena Zhang leonliteraryreview.com

Beautifully constructed micro - you’ll never see it coming!

An absolute beauty!

Intrepid writers of poetry - send us your daring, dreamy, provocative, beautifully unexpected verse! Our reading period is open to Poetry (only Poetry this time) from September 1st through October 15th. leonliteraryreview.com/submit-2/

"...I taste the meat. I taste the pink, plant- based not-meat. I notice that some of us are pink-faced, as if the day were warm, that some of us are cool as olives..." from "Pot Luck" by Luci Huhn leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-luc...

All riotous and flaming, I remember wild azaleas burning coral, copper, nearly crimson, coy among the leafing birches and sugar maples. Does the dogwood still bloom? Everything seeks sunshine... from "Abecedarian: My Great Grandmother Writes" by Kathy Nelson leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-kat...

"...routine borne not out of need but aloneness, an algorithm, a furnace of switches and clicks, footfall and rose clippings. Wakes at a voice that is missing, turning his small face..." from "Wakes, stumbles the haze out of" by Margaret LeMay leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-mar...

"Like how to make a show of tending to myself How to perch in hard-to-reach places How to curl into a self-contained shape How to feign disinterest How to refuse..." from "Everything I Know About Love I Learned From My Cat" by Suzanne Langlois leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-suz...

"...My life has changed. In the right eye I see my reflection— half face, half green plank—I’m figuring things out, learning: the ash of the body is worthless; the world is nothing. I’ve named the moth Pills & Gasoline..." from "Dead Moth" by Charles Kell leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-cha...

"...Somewhere out here are my eyes too my liver as feather in the blood of a crest The pileated who owns my voice vacates my shrieks to hollows for wood ducks..." from "A Rib Becomes a Branch" by Julie Esther Fisher leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-jul...

...My eye to her full hand, white flesh and bone bunching cloth which covers more flesh which covers more bone. A mother, I call her, but I am wrong... from "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Eden Chicken leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-ede...

Horrified! Some of our submission responses were sent out by Submittable without names! We're appalled and sincerely apologize. We spend lots of time reading/discussing your work, and want you to know we care about each and every submission, whether is accepted or not.

"...Once I drove a long summer night to your ragged room, to the soft and narrow tin-tined bed, to your arms where morning sun poured its gold..." from "At Twenty" by Mary Buchinger leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-mar...

"The critics only notice if you fuck up. Hey you! I’m talking to you, sitting there, 5th row center,and you in the left balcony. Pay attention..." from "The Light Designer" by Pamela Annas leonliteraryreview.com/issue-31-pam...

Issue 31 is up! We're proud to present new poetry by: Pamela Annas Mary Buchinger Eden Chicken Julie Esther Fisher Luci Huhn Charles Kell Suzanne Langlois Margaret LeMay Kathy Nelson Ann Pedone Angela Siew and a review of Megan Merchant by Shannon Winston leonliteraryreview.com

Thank you to everyone who submitted during this reading period. SO many truly fabulous and gorgeously written pieces! We will get back to you as soon as we can. In the meantime, keep writing! The world needs your words!

Let the countdown begin! 3 days left in our submission period! Send us your flash, fiction, poetry, and cnf! And be safe out there, oh fearless makers of a more beautiful world. We love you all. leonliteraryreview.com/submit-2/