The Girl with Her Heart in a Box

There once was a girl who kept her heart in a box. She met a man and wanted to show him her heart. She opened the box, and took out her heart, piece by piece, laying it on the floor for him to see. You see, another man had once 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.

Loving a Dangerous Man

I read in a magazine that women fall in love for three reasons. We fall in love with the Hero, the Entertainer, or the Caregiver. So, was he the football hero, the clown at the party, or the guy who offered to carry your groceries? I fell in love with Read more

Tanya Elizabeth Egeness Epp Schmid

Tanya Elizabeth Egeness Epp Schmid was a Doctor of Oriental Medicine until 2014 when she started a permaculture farm. Her work has appeared in Valparaiso Fiction Review, Sky Island Journal, Canary Literary Magazine, Whistling Shade Literary Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, and others. Tanya was long-listed in Pulp Literature’s 2021 Flash Fiction Contest, and her work has appeared in two anthologies: Poet’s Choice Global Warming Anthology, and Quillkeeper’s Summer Solstice Anthology 2021. She is a teacher of Kyudo (Zen archery) and the author of “Tanya’s Collection of Zen Stories” (2018).

Crushed

It was a desperate perfect storm kind of love affair. Sudden but not without warning. Fragile and doomed from the beginning. Yet with so much hope. Feeding off each other’s heightened force. Taking one’s breath away, unable to get it back. Blind to obvious obstacles. To the REAL dangers in Read more

Kelly Kirkpatrick

I am a new writer but a very old soul. I am a 54 year old, white, ex-catholic, divorced, mother of two, and a woman who loves women. A year ago I decided to end my 11+ year marriage to my wife. This last year has been one of reflection, soul searching, honest internal inquiry, and a lot of writing. The majority of my other writings are short stories filled with universal questions and self reflection, with a nod to the psychodynamic world of psychology. I am a licensed Psychotherapist in Los Angeles and see most things through one or two lenses, namely the soul or true nature of a person and how our relationships to our pasts impact our capacities to function each and everyday.

yes mother

Behind every mother, there is despair and strength. Behind every mother, there are tears of joy and pride. Behind every mother, trash bins wait to be emptied, mountains of dirty laundry to be washed, and meals cooked. It is a dirty, thankless job being a yes mother. Twenty-four hours is 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.

“he and she and all of them”

I’ve fell in love with one hundred different people for one hundred different reasons. I knew no matter what they would be there for me how selfish that I loved that the sound of their voice made me cry, and they who never broke a gaze. how appealing that I Read more

Lauren Anders

Lauren Anders is originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where she graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Oklahoma City University. She recently completed a master's program at the New York Academy of Art and now lives and works in Manhattan pursuing various artistic practices.

a person alone, under a blanket of “friends”

And still you longed for someone To give you the kind of love they show in movies The one that doesn’t end with an empty text, One which flows through flowers and Wine bottles pouring at dinner parties. One which sings through tears, Birthed together in our very own refuge. 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.

Love Averages

The typical hug lasts 3 seconds. So does the average wave goodbye. That first kiss we longed for, the one that stopped time? Scientific surveys among lovers show it took about 10 seconds. Speaking of kisses, most will experience their first around 15 years of age. By 17.4 years, the Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

JOLENE

“And I could easily understand how you could take my man but you don’t know what he means to me.”–Dolly Parton, “Jolene” We were over by then, completely finished. We’d both been through the five stages of grief but I circled back to depression. You asked what you could do Read more

Courtney LeBlanc

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Beautiful & Full of Monsters (forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), chapbooks All in the Family (Bottlecap Press) and The Violence Within (Flutter Press), and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has her MBA from University of Baltimore and her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos. Read her publications on her blog: www.wordperv.com. Follow her on twitter: @wordperv, and IG: @wordperv79.