New CNF
Tennessee Homesick Blues by Kate 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.
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.
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.
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.
GRIST CNF
Tennessee Homesick Blues by Kate 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.
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.
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.
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