Spring 2024
30 Years!
Luisa Igloria
Note From the Editor
Small Apocalypses:
An Interview with Lamar Giles
NOT SO PURE AND SIMPLE
An excerpt
Some Key Moments from My Earthly Life
Bleah Patterson
Crown Shyness
Sarah Stinnett
Object Permanence
Karly Hou
Snowfall
Cody Vesley
Michael Marberry
Using the MFA:
An Interview with Greg Larson
Hidden Flower
Zack Loehle
More From Alumni
Lucian Mattison
Lucian Mattison’s poetry collection, Curare, is a work about remembering our humanity in the face of the destabilizing and dehumanizing forces of technology, climate change, and capitalism. The image-rich poems delight in the odd and off-kilter while walking an informal lyrical path through landscapes of the speculative, quotidian, urban, naturalistic, folkloric, and dream-like. At their core, the poems acknowledge the tragedy of humanity’s self-made tools of destruction and, at once, ask us to hope that these same tools can become remedies—the arrow poison transformed into healing salve when picked apart and dosed.
Caleb True
Caleb True (MA (history) Umass ’11, ODU MFA (cw-fiction) ’16) has published his short stories and criticism in over 40 lit journals. In 2015 he founded DYNAMO VERLAG (dynamoverlag.com), an independent publisher specializing in nontraditional works of prose and poetry demonstrating genius, eclecticism, and originality. They are now in their 10th year and currently running their second annual book contest.
Josh Norman
Reminiscent of Brautigan, Saroyan, and the ancient nature poets, Josh Norman’s Telescopes and Other People considers modern life with the precision and detachment of a Renaissance empiricist. Prescription, prognostication, and plea unfold side by side in this punchy debut collection, where a cockroach in a storefront window merits as much empathy and attention as your parents’ divorce.