Origin Story
Danielle Cadena Deulen is the author of four books. Her most recent poetry collection is Desire Museum (BOA Editions, 2023). Her previous books include Our Emotions Get Carried Away Beyond Us,which won the Barrow Street Book Contest; The Riots, which won the AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the GLCA New Writers Award; and
Shara Lessley is the author of The Explosive Expert’s Wife and Two-Headed Nightingale, and co-editor of The Poem’s Country: Place & Poetic Practice, an anthology of essays. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, her awards include an NEA fellowship, the Mary Wood Fellowship from Washington College, the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship from Colgate University, and a “Discovery”/The Nation prize, among others. Shara’s poems and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, and IMAGE, and have been included in the Pushcart and Best American Poetry anthologies. She is Consulting Editor for Acre Books.
Most Non-Compete Clauses are Legally Unenforceable
Robert Walikis is a writer, playwright, poet, and songwriter. His short stories “Terrafir” and “Peak Child” were semifinalists for the North American Review‘s 2023 and 2022 Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prizes. His very short story “Funerary Rumors” was second runner-up for PRISM International‘s 2022 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V Short Forms. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Post Road, PRISM International, Bridge Eight, and elsewhere. Rob lives in Maine with his wife-partner-writer Diana Mullins. He makes maps and tells stories. Read more at www.robertwalikis.com.
We Could Fix You
Alan Sincic teaches at Valencia College. His fiction has appeared in the New Ohio Review, Greensboro Review, Saturday Evening Post, and elsewhere/ His short stories have won contests sponsored by the Texas Observer, Driftwood Press, Prism Review, Westchester, American Writer’s Review, Broad River Review, and Pulp Literature. The opening chapter of his novel, The Slapjack, won the 2021 First Pages Prize.
Ghosts Are Only Real If You Say Their Name
Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn is a Senior Features Editor at The Rumpus. Her debut essay collection, A Fish Growing Lungs (2020), was a finalist for the Believer Awards in nonfiction. She has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Kenyon Writers’ Workshop, and she teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College.
White Boys in Florida
Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn is a Senior Features Editor at The Rumpus. Her debut essay collection, A Fish Growing Lungs (2020), was a finalist for the Believer Awards in nonfiction. She has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Kenyon Writers’ Workshop, and she teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College.
Good With Animals
Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn is a Senior Features Editor at The Rumpus. Her debut essay collection, A Fish Growing Lungs (2020), was a finalist for the Believer Awards in nonfiction. She has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Kenyon Writers’ Workshop, and she teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College.
Take Good Care
Melanie Pierce holds an MFA in fiction from Stony Brook University, where she was a BookEnds fellow. Her stories and interviews have appeared in CRAFT, Electric Literature, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute and serves as the reviews editor for The New Territory magazine. “Take Good Care” is her debut creative non-fiction publication.
Circle of Instruction
Circle of Instruction Gage Saylor There are two types of people in this world: Jeopardy people and Wheel people. The Roberts are Jeopardy people. It’s 7:27 p.m. on a Wednesday. Dalton, the Roberts’ only son, is home for Thanksgiving break. A trio of La-Z-Boy recliners sit carefully angled around the entertainment center. It bends from […]
Nanny
Sumita Mukherji’s work has appeared in Witness, Failbetter, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College and her work has been supported by a Bread Loaf scholarship. She is working on a novel. Find out more at sumitamukherji.com.
Tell Them You Love Them in Person
Tell Them You Love Them in Person Zachary Kocanda The day before Valentine’s Day, the sign above the expressway read: Texting is tacky. Tell them you love them in person. The Illinois Department of Transportation was more romantic than me. I liked to hide behind my phone and send messages on dating apps, bad flirting, […]