Snakes All the Way Down by Lou Terlikowski
Lou Terlikowski is an Appalachian poet who cannot stop thinking about family, inheritance, and the beauty of her home. She loves the mountains and is grateful for the time she spent earning an MFA at the University of Alabama and the University of Oregon. Her work can be found in Blue Earth Review, Screen Door Review, Psychopomp, and in small piles throughout her house.
Dear Honeybees, the Wind Unhinges by Dawn Terpstra
Dawn Terpstra is a poet, writer and beekeeper from Iowa. Her journal publications include Cities of the Plains: An Anthology of Iowa Poets and Artists, Pratik: Magazine of Contemporary Literature, Midwest Quarterly, Halfway Down the Stairs, Verse Daily, 2River, Ekphrastic Review and SWWIM. She is the author of a chapbook Songs from the Summer Kitchen. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is a graduate student working toward her MFA in creative writing at Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop. She is the Poetry Editor of River Heron Review. Learn more at dawnterpstra.com.
“Forsythia” and “Act of Some Minor God” by Kate Welsh
Born and raised along the Mississippi River, Kate Welsh now lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from Warren Wilson College, where she was the Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow in 2021. In addition to Grist, her work can be found in or is forthcoming from Variant Lit, Epiphany, SWWIM Every Day, and West Trade Review, among others. She is the co-founder/co-editor of The Swannanoa Review. www.kate-welsh.com
Ghazal Across a Series of Construction Lines Marked A’ Through G’ by Shou Jie Eng
Shou Jie Eng is an architectural designer and writer. Originally from Singapore, he runs Left Field Projects, a design and research practice located in Hartford, CT. His writing has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Cathexis Northwest, Softblow, Speculative Nonfiction, and the anthology New Singapore Poetries. He teaches drawing and representation at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Tennessee Homesick Blues by Kathryn M. Barber
Kathryn M. Barber grew up in the mountains along the Tennessee/Virginia state line. She holds degrees from Mississippi State University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and Carson-Newman University. Currently, she is the Editorial Director for Press Pause Press and lives on the shores of North Carolina. Her work has appeared in The Masters Review,The Pinch, Blue Earth Review, Moon City Review, and elsewhere.
“Gum” and “Anything to Mess it Up” by Allison Field Bell
Allison Field Bell is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Utah, and she holds an MFA from New Mexico State University. She is the author of the poetry chapbook, Without Woman or Body, forthcoming 2025 from Finishing Line Press and the creative nonfiction chapbook, Edge of the Sea, forthcoming 2025 from Cutbank. Allison’s prose appears or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Gettysburg Review, The Adroit Journal, Alaska Quarterly Review, West Branch, and elsewhere. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, Passages North, RHINO Poetry, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. Find her at allisonfieldbell.com.
Same by Blake Goodwin
Blake Goodwin is a fiction writer. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Maytag by Chris Wiberg
Chris Wiberg is a Chicago-based writer and editor whose work has appeared in journals including Fiction, Crab Orchard Review, Broad River Review, Folio, and Ninth Letter. He has taught creative writing at the University of Illinois and the Writer’s Studio at the University of Chicago Graham School. Professionally, he is a developmental editor in the medical field.
20 Ways to Start a Poem by Rebecca Danelly
Rebecca Danelly holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University and is currently co-editor of poetry at “table//Feast Mag.” Her poems have been published in the anthology, Chaos, Dive, Reunion by Mutabilis Press, Defunkt Magazine, and in numerous other journals and anthologies. She is a mother and grandmother, a United States Air Force veteran, and teaches college writing in Houston on former Akokisa, Atakapa, Karankawa, and Sana land where she
resides with her partner, Jeremy, and Daisy, the oversized chihuahua.
On the Ass by Liza Flum
Liza Flum is the author of Hover, forthcoming from Omnidawn in 2025. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2020, AGNI, Narrative, Meridian, Washington Square Review, Lambda Literary, and Zócalo Public Square. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming individual artist grant, and her writing has been supported by fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, Aspen Summer Words, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. She holds an MFA in poetry from Cornell and PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. She currently teaches creative writing at Rochester Institute of Technology.