Ariel

the bluebird sings yew trees grin a sunless mourning snow falls solemn angels wait, but it’s winter white summer heels petticoat prettied books, babies, poetry a tea sandwich cut in two, white cold milk open the bedroom window but, it’s winter shh, sleep sleep beautiful gentle sleep, a lady always Read more

Jacquie Prebich

Jacquie Prebich was raised in New York City and currently resides in Los Angeles. She started ballet at age five and danced until her first pregnancy. Jacquie loves writing, producing, and directing. She created Ballet Theatre in 2006, a new performance concept combining classical ballet with acting, singing, and live music. Jacquie began writing poetry after undergoing rehab for prescription pain pills— an addiction that developed as a result of dance injuries. Jacquie lives in a scenic canyon with her family and rescue animals. She is currently working on her first poetry book. Follow Jacquie on Twitter @JwPrebich

Mindscape of a pregnant girl after the death of her lover

Paris, France 1920 AT last! They’ve left! They think that I’m asleep! They think that they can rest from their watch, but I know better, I know that they can’t stop me. Here’s the window! Open the shutters, and there’s the street five stories below! They think I’m a coward, Read more

Susan Taylor Brand

Susan Taylor Brand is a writer and teacher who hails from Northern California. A graduate of UC Irvine, where she majored in English Literature, she was also the campus newspaper’s book critic. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. Currently a member of Northern Colorado Writers, she is at work on a young adult novel.

I Have Three Children

The question I dread the most as a grieving mother is; “How many children do you have?” It’s not that I don’t know how to answer, it is all the questions that follow. I’m immediately forced to decide whether or not I want to reveal more intimate information than the Read more

Kimberly Brown

Kimberly Brown is the founder and editor of Minerva Rising Press. Her novel, Cora’s Kitchen was short listed in the 2015 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Her work has appeared in Mused BellaOnline Literary Review, Compass Literary Magazine, Pitkin Review, Chicago Tribune, Today's Chicago Woman, National View, and Naperville Sun. Kimberly has MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and a Master of Science in Written Communication from National Louis University. She also maintains a blog at The Confidential Writer.

My Non-Television Mother and Me: The Apology

Part 3 of a 3 part series. After interviewing my mother, reading through the archives of my memoirs, taking note of the dark memories that quietly play in the back of my mind like an old French noir film, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve hit a plateau, with 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.

Here Inside the Mirror

There comes an age when screwing up is not cute anymore. You know that, because people are constantly telling you. It’s not cute anymore, Raleigh. My name is Raleigh, by the way; Raleigh of Boston, Massachusetts. Although to be fair, my mother is from Raleigh the actual city, so it Read more

Beatriz L. Seelaender

Beatriz L. Seelaender was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1998. In 2016, she published her first novel "De Volta ao Vazio" (a good translation would be "Emptiness, Revisited"), in Brazilian Portuguese. Seelaender's work in English has been featured in websites such as the Manifest-Station, and she currently studies Literature and Languages in the University of Sao Paulo.

Suicide and the Sensitive Heart: Why It Is Time for Us to be Vigilant

I go to a women’s gym five or six days a week, and always at 8 a.m. so that I can meet up with my buddies. We exercise our tongues as much as our bodies (more), and we call ourselves The Women’s Support Group. We share each others’ problems, offer Read more

Susan P. Blevins

Susan P. Blevins was born in England, and escaped at age twenty on her life quest, moving first to Italy for 26 years, and then to the USA, where she now lives. The older she gets, the more passionately involved she becomes in the world, and the more she wants to make a personal contribution. She believes that we can all make a difference, one hug, and one smile at a time.

Why I Won’t Spend $1 at Whole Foods

I would like to believe, that we are a country built on assured values. One value that most of us would hopefully agree on is that sexual violence, against children, women, and men – is a reprehensible act. The facts tell a different story: 1 in 5 girls and 1 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.

My Non-Television Mother and Me

Part 1 My mother is not a mother to me like a television mother. She’s more like a friend, a friend of a friend even. She’s the friend whose phone number you always lose on “accident.” When I was young, I used to idolize the kids on TV, especially the 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.