Dearest Reader,
The theme for the 2026 Spring Issue of Barely South Review is “Absence.” Absence from something lost, something ruined, something that exists only with a space between, or something that simply never was. It explores the chasm, the unknown, what’s been launched into the void.
Enjoy,
Evelyn Griffith
Editor-in-Chief
8
8
POETRY
Upon Departing
Maggie Wang
The Button
Sammy Bellin
A river is a river is a street is a girl
E.B. Schnepp
How to Speak About Eggs
Michelle McMillan-Holifield
Sympathy for the Repetition
Bryan D. Price
NONFICTION
The Rooster
Janelle Victoria
After Stargazing in Texas (1938)
Kaila Lancaster
FICTION
Garbanzo
Michael Paul Kozlowsky
Light Green Gum
J.M.C. Kane


