Category: Featured

Epilogue: It’s Almost Christmas and I Forgot to be Sad.

Dori Owen

A friend recently asked me how I was dealing with holiday depression. Until she asked, I hadn’t given it a thought. What a difference a year makes. On this day twelve months ago I wrote, “Can We Just Cancel Christmas This Year,” describing my Lemony Snicket series of unfortunate events Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

A Honduran’s Christmas: Then and Now

Stephanie Ortez

Christmas – always bring back memories from my childhood, and one of those fondest memories is my father decorating the house while playing Jolly Old St. Nicholas by Ray Caniff’s singers in the background. This memory always makes me nostalgic as those times were simple and innocent, bringing greater pleasure Read more

Stephanie Ortez

Stephanie is a highly caffeinated mother of two wonderful boys. She is hopelessly addicted to non-fiction books and literature that moves her to tears. She is an admissions advisor for George Washington University online where she assists homeschooled students internationally. Stephanie lives with Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She is a passionate mental health advocate, member of Stigma Fighters. Her writing has been featured on The Elephant Journal, The Mighty, The Organic Coffee Haphazardly and Feminine Collective.

Beyond The Ether

Jacqueline Cioffa

You do not have to be here now all day, everyday Searching for cosmic signs, all that guru bullshit You don’t have to be perfectly good all day, everyday Life is exhausting and overwhelming It’s okay and welcome to check out once in a while Give yourself permission to eat Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

Crocodile

Megan Coleman

Crocodiles sharpen their teeth on a chainsaw while I sleep and dream of pianos whispering, mixing drinks, and laughing about the economy because it had nothing to do with them. I was raped when I was 16 and he 21. Not gorgeous, just truth. I didn’t even know it was Read more

Megan Coleman

Megan Coleman has been writing from the womb and is an emerging poet in Chattanooga, TN. Five of her poems appear in Elephant Journal (2017), and she is featured in Ordinary Madness Magazine (2017), Vocal Magazine (2017), finalist in the Fortnight Eyewear contest (2017), Visera (2012), and the winner in poetry in Chattanooga Writer's Guild contests in 2003 and 2004. She has given readings at Barking Legs and Mudpie Cafe in Chattanooga. She also has a B.A. in Women's Studies.

What am I alive for?

Paakhi Bhatnagar

What am I alive for? Is it to breathe the easy insolence of the wind, to see it circle around a cherry sky strike violets against the blue (birthing violence into a calm) causing merciful ripples into a dead lake. Is it to feel the fables rustle the leaves dense Read more

Paakhi Bhatnagar

Paakhi Bhatnagar is a student from India and an avid reader of historical fiction. She is a passionate feminist and blogs about current politics and feminist issues. She also possess the uncanny ability of turning everything into a debate.

FELONIOUS

Dori Owen

On a dare I slunk by you smoky eyeliner tight jeans pierced belly Took a stool Bartender I’ll have what he has on him Watched you in the mirror crowded by bottles You glanced I wet my lips Hey baby you said Hey baby I said my best bedroom voice Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

female socialisation

Jennifer Wilson

let her deal with it but give her some gauze some booze for wounds to rub with burning and catch the colours of her face as her blood betrays her for a gratuity and watch as they find an in beneath a nail and widen the wound with their lips. Read more

Jennifer Wilson

Jennifer Wilson lives in Somerset, England, with her husband and spends her days as a faceless retail drone. Her work has previously appeared in Awkward Mermaid, Chaleur, and Molotov Cocktail, and is forthcoming in Elephants Never and the YANYR anthology from Rhythm & Bones Lit.

my beloved: daughter of Jerusalem

Hillary Martin

mouth is better than wine. thy name poured after daughters, my soul loveth women. my beloved is dove eyes. i am rose and lily. lily love among daughters, apple tree among wood, will not spoil the vines. my beloved is mine, and i am among the lilies. daughters, come out Read more

Hillary Martin

Hillary Martin grew up in the rural south and attended Tennessee Tech University where she received my BA. She currently resides in Oakland, CA where she is working towards an MFA in Poetry at California College of the Arts. Previous work can be seen in Poetry Leaves, Clarion, West Trade Review, and Red Earth Review.