Category: Featured

Bukowski

Gretchen Corsillo

Bukowski said, ‘What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.’ I feel like I’ve been walking through the fire for the last 22 years. Don’t get me wrong, I am privileged. I know others have it worse than me. But when your mind is the fire it Read more

Gretchen Corsillo

Gretchen Corsillo is a librarian and writer from the greater NYC area. She holds a B.A. in Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from Ramapo College and a Masters in Library & Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Gretchen is the author of a bimonthly column for Public Libraries Magazine, and her work has also appeared in Salon and the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Blog. She is currently working on a novel. Learn more about her at gretchenkaser.com.

Next Life

Hannah Bagley

Sometimes I worry about my next life, Even though this one has just begun. I worry about the kids I fought on the playground, The forgive-me roses I threw in the trash, And how much I used to look down upon others Before life pushed me into the dirt. I Read more

Hannah Bagley

Hannah Bagley is a poet and recent graduate from Southern Appalachia. She is also published in The Chestatee Review and As It Ought To Be Magazine. Bagley draws inspiration from her upbringing in the mountains, nature, and the human experience through a feminist lens.

Fathers

Emily Algar

I give until I break I keep trying even though my mother tells me to let go. I thought I had you back After 7 years of hopes crushed, self-esteem broken I even tell you as much But then you’re gone again And my heart breaks in two just as Read more

Emily Algar

Emily Frances Algar is a journalist and writer. She has experience in the music industry working as the A&R on the Grammy Nominated Album (Best Folk Album) Front Porch by artist Joy Williams. Emily has been published in a number of print and digital publications including Atwood Magazine, American Songwriter, and Record Collector magazine. She specializes in both long and short-form features as well as interviews and reviews. She has written pieces ranging from the commercialization of feminism and feminism in popular culture, critiques surrounding freedom of speech and the #MeToo movement as well as recently interviewing refugees from Iran. Emily has a Masters in International Security from Oxford Brookes University. Her thesis looked at the extent to which the media shaped public opinion during the Vietnam and Iraq (2003) wars.

The monster in me… Limp sonnet

Elisabeth Horan

It’s so fun to fuck a woman, then leave her. It’s so easy to smile, and become her man. When you make me bleed, you ain’t so big — It shouldn’t be so easy to eat a heart… I’m thinking of you now, texting me; booty call I’m thinking of Read more

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a poet mother student lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She writes to survive and survives to write - We are all battling something. Let's support each other. Elisabeth enjoys riding horses and caring for her cats, chickens, goats and children (not necessarily in that order). She teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

Vibrate All

Doug Hoekstra

i like the sound of no phone no retro ring tone no buzzing in my pants vibrate all vibrate who vibrate you the space between us right now the slipstream meditating words ideas feelings xoxoxo I like the sound of deeper meaning no space between us Photo by Jonathan Borba Read more

Doug Hoekstra

Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based writer and musician, educated at DePaul University in the Windy City (B.A.) and Belmont University in the Music City (M.Ed.), whose prose, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous print and online literary journals. His first set of stories, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, was published in April 2006 and earned an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Best Short Fiction (Bronze Medal). Ten Seconds In-Between, his latest collection of short stories, was published in June, 2021 on Better than Starbuckspress. Hoekstra has also worked extensively as a singer-songwriter with eight albums of original material on labels released on both sides of the pond, propelling touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, at bookstores, coffeehouses, clubs, libraries, pubs, festivals, radio stations, and castles; solo and with combos in tow. Musical highlights have included Nashville Music Award and Independent Music Award nominations, as well as many groovy happenings. 2021 also brings a new album of music, The Day Deserved. ("A lot of people write songs, Hoekstra writes five minute worlds" - Wired Magazine).

Bitten

Zach Knowlton

“Yes, those do appear to be mosquito bites. They’ve swelled up somethin’ fierce. You sure you’re not allergic?” “No. At least, I never have been. I don’t know, everything seems to be hitting me harder since I got this little fella.” “Well, pregnancy can do a lot to the body. Read more

Zach Knowlton

Zach Knowlton (he/him) is a high school English teacher, husband, and father. He lives on the northern coast of California, surrounded by the redwood forest. He teaches at the same school he graduated from, and has started a Creative Writing club on campus. Zach loves reading, writing, teaching, and connecting with others. Although he reads all genres, his favorite is horror. Finally, Zach Knowlton is proud that Feminine Collective is the first publication to print one of his short stories.

I don’t tell my story for you.

Gretchen Corsillo

I don’t tell my story for you. A myth of struggle, the absolute vulnerability that comes with cracking myself wide open, a specimen placed under a microscope, suddenly splayed out for everyone’s opinions. I never asked for your judgment, nor did I ask for your pity. Does it make you Read more

Gretchen Corsillo

Gretchen Corsillo is a librarian and writer from the greater NYC area. She holds a B.A. in Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from Ramapo College and a Masters in Library & Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Gretchen is the author of a bimonthly column for Public Libraries Magazine, and her work has also appeared in Salon and the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Blog. She is currently working on a novel. Learn more about her at gretchenkaser.com.

DECLARATION

Angel Rosen

Are you getting a divorce? Are you a near-deranged insomniac? Is the woman of your dreams staying there, only in the dreams? Did your son complain of a stomach ache— the kind you only get when your father is leaving? Are you sick of leftovers? Barely eating, I assume? Alcohol Read more

Angel Rosen

Angel Rosen is a poet living near Pittsburgh. She can be found at open mic nights, drag shows or writing poetry in the dark. She is passionate about mental health, queer friendship, and Amanda Palmer's art community. Her writing can be found at angelrosen.com.