Poetry
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.
The Judas Tree
Erica Wright is the author of seven books, including the poetry collection All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned (Black Lawrence Press) and the essay collection Snake (Bloomsbury). She was the poetry editor of Guernica for more than a decade.
If I Erase My Body
Jennifer Whalen (she/her) is a poet & educator from the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area. She is the author of the poetry collection Eveningful (2024), which was selected by Rick Barot as the winner of the 2022 Lightscatter Press Prize. Her poems can be found in Gulf Coast, Denver Quarterly, Southern Indiana Review, New South, Glass: A Journal for Poetry, The Boiler, & elsewhere. She previously served as writer-in-residence at Texas State University’s Clark House and currently teaches English at the University of Illinois Springfield.
When I Grow Up I Want to Be the Culmination of Things I Took for Granted
Hiba Tahir is a YA author and 2022 graduate of the University of Arkansas MFA, where she received the Carolyn Walton Cole Endowment Fund, the J. Chester and Freda S. Johnson Graduate Fellowship, and the James T. Whitehead Award. She is a 2020 recipient of an Artists 360 Grant from Mid-America Arts Alliance and a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council.
Angels
Susannah Sheffer’s poetry collections are This Kind of Knowing (Cooper Dillon Books, 2013), Break and Enter (Kelsay Books, 2021), and a new book forthcoming from Cornerstone Press’s Portage Poetry Series in early 2025. Her nonfiction books include Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys (Vanderbilt University Press, 2013). She lives in Western Massachusetts.
The Ferry
John Poch’s most recent books are God’s Poems: The Beauty of Poetry and the Christian Imagination (St. Augustine’s Press 2022) and Notes on the Poet (Measure Press 2023).
GRIST POETRY
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.
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Grist is publishes a print publication annually featuring work of high literary quality from both emerging and established writers. Welcoming all styles and aesthetic approaches, Grist is committed to diversity, inclusivity, cultural interchange, and respect for all individuals who are part of the literary community.