Learning to Thrive

In July 2014, in Okinawa, Japan, I got pregnant with our second boy. Fresh off a miscarriage and two months before we were due to move eastward across the Pacific, this little one was anything but planned. I know the trend today is to say ‘We are pregnant’, emphasizing the Read more

Dana Boyer

Since graduating with an MA in Creative Writing form the University of Nebraska, Dana Boyer has been writing and traveling her way around the world. Her work appears in The Tishman Review, A Clean, Well Lighted Place and the anthology My Body, My Words. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and two sons.

Fake It Until You Kill Yourself

This isn’t a poem or a blog post. This isn’t a satirical article or a cry for help. It’s just a simple question. “What will be the price you pay for complacency? To what end will you run me rampant and into the ground, head first kicking and screaming? How Read more

Richard DeFino

Ricky De Fino grew up in New York City and currently resides in Buffalo NY. When he isn’t writing about his anxiety and his crazy Bronx upbringing, he enjoys watching countless hours of television with his wife Andrea, cat Bebe and dog Zeke. Two years sober, good coffee and veganism keeps him sane. His work can be found in Two Cities Review, tNY Press, Purple Pig Lit, Dialougal and Cycatrix Press.

The Rise and Fall

When I was seventeen I dreamt of a great big life filled with a glass house on the beach, diamonds, pretty bad boys, fancy designer duds and superfluous superficial things. Today the horizontal worry lines that magically appear on my face while I sleep are the brutal reminders that there 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.

The Warriors

Time, a robber disguised, rubbed the edges of her tenet, eroding the pillars of confidence that she adhered to, ones that she constantly held- against daily attacks on her spirit. She is naked while dreaming. She is naked, living in a land of ‘It never was this way before’ She Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

How Do You Like Me Now?

We live in the dirty, digital age of Celebrity wannabe where everyone, including me, overshares everything. At the gym today, I was listening to Ryan Seacrest who is literally…EVERY PLACE… EVERYWHERE in our psyche, and exhausting our subconscious. He was talking about how North West loves to play with makeup, 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.

The Hair There

The hair there keeps coming back, pushing through, endlessly, as if there is a message they have been trying to get to you, years now. But you’re good at your job of pulling out and cutting down. Wouldn’t it be a shame to quit? Suppose in some strange rebellious moment Read more

Eris Gentle

Eris Gentle is a writer, mother, visual artist, and activist living in a windy valley near Austin, Texas, where nature is her muse and meditation is her medicine. She received her BA in creative writing from Louisiana State University. You can glimpse her life on Instagram or her website Erisgentle.com.

Would a Broken Arm Cast a Pall on My High School Reunion?

If you had told me I’d be going to my high school reunion with a cast on my arm, I wouldn’t have believed it. After all, I was still in recovery mode and doing physical therapy following hip surgery a couple of months before. I could almost picture going to Read more

Mary Novaria

Mary Novaria's is a two-time Writer's Digest award winner whose work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Spirituality & Health, Cosmopolitan, Feminine Collective, FF2 Media, HuffPost, and elsewhere. She and her husband are empty nesters who live in the mountains of Colorado with their rescue dog, Rooney. She is currently working on a novel.

BODY / IMAG(INE) – a poem in four parts

PART ONE/ BODY She dressed Hastily Alone Averting her eyes As loose flesh rolled Over her frame   And by squeezing And shimmering Her frolicking hips She pulled the bathing suit on [that damned swimsuit on]                     — gasping for air, she Pledged allegiance To the salad buffet, but Read more

Carly Zee

Carly Zee is a poet and writer and lover of the finer things in life — like good wines, dark chocolate, and erotica. She finds myself seeking pleasure over reason on far too many occasions, and will, in all likelihood, continue to do so. To come along for the ride, you can connect with Carly through https://carlyzee.wordpress.com/