Jazz

When I got divorced I realized early on that I had to look at What I was gaining as opposed to What I was losing When I did, I found much to consider With all due respect Because this is the nature of the universe A place beyond words Invented 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).

Murmurations Inside and Outside

inside an echo makes home silent murmurations are octopusessed in my veins burn frozen frescos, tattoos into my heart, an unleashed fear smirks en masse, a rogue writhing vermin slithering through my veins into the chambers of my heart, caged outside an autumn in twilight sky shimmers bright extravagant shadows Read more

Kashiana Singh

Kashiana Singh is a management professional by job classification and a work practitioner by personal preference. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to Work as Worship. Her poetry collection, Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words presents her voice as a participant and an observer. She dips into very vulnerable and personal contexts but also explores the shifting tectonic plates of the world around her. She is from India, now lives in Chicago and bridges the miles by regularly etching her thoughts. She is a regular contributor to different poetry platforms like OnMogul, Literary Yard, Best Poems, Narrow Mag, Modern Literature, SikhNet, Women’s Web, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Visual Verse. She is in the process of gathering her second collection of poems. Facebook: KashianaSinghAuthor/facebook Twitter: @Kashianasingh

Departure

his life is fleeting his spirit walking away cricket cries break through the veil of his eternal night each timid step he makes on brittle bones glued together with a poisonous elixir that drips and overflows pooling around his icicle grey eyes it strips away his beauty one strand of 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.

not seeing eye to eye

i call you fake crazy because you’re saner than i you call me crazy fake on account of my lies you want to be wild, unleashed, out of bounds i want my words to bring you around your distance puts me right at the edge i’ve grown too used to Read more

Anne Leigh Parrish

Award-winning writer Anne Leigh Parrish’s next novel, an open door, will be published in October 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Recent titles from Unsolicited Press are the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection, October 2021, and a winter night, a novel, released in March 2021. She is the author of seven other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram, Linked In, and Goodreads.

An Affair

My husband walks in on us and says, “You are going too far: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now today too?”   He doesn’t understand the pull of the muse when my mind goes blind seeing, hearing nothing.   Nothing but words begging to be caressed into being, literary waterfalls decimating Read more

Eloisa Perez-Lozano

Eloísa Pérez-Lozano writes poems and essays about Mexican-American identity, women’s issues, and motherhood. She graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in psychology and an M.S. in journalism and mass communications. A 2016 Sundress Publications Best of the Net nominee, her work has been featured in “The Texas Observer,” “Houston Chronicle,” and “Poets Reading the News,” among others. She lives with her family in Houston, Texas.

golden fan

The room is a quiet forest, a woman is dressed in burgundy, soft, printed fabric draped around her shapely tiny body. No one speaks, we wait for the show. Asian music plays from behind the divider and the beautiful golden makeup glitters with timeless tracks of a history danced upon Read more

Christina Strigas

Christina Strigas is an author and poet, raised by Greek immigrants, who has written four poetry books. Her poetry book LOVE & VODKA was featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you.” Her most recent poetry book, LOVE & METAXA, has garnered positive reviews, including Pank Magazine. Strigas’s poems have appeared in Montreal Writes, Feminine Collective, Neon Mariposa Magazine, Pink Plastic House Journal, BlazeVOX, Thimble Lit Magazine, Twist in Time Literary Magazine, The Temz Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, among others. Her poem, “Dead Wife” was nominated for best of the net 2020. In Spring 2022, she will be releasing her fifth poetry book by Free Lines Press, a French indie magazine that publishes experimental poetry. Twitter: @christinastriga Instagram : @c.strigas_sexyasspoet Facebook: Christina Strigas Author

life that painful

why deny your existence your trust is nonexistent nevertheless  you sing   you say you radiate no light or heat dead also means still perfect exact  with dearth of breath   yet you breathe fretfully yes you draw breath   do you hear dream-state man chortling do you see him falling through clouds Read more

e. smith sleigh

e. smith sleigh's poetry has appeared in Paper Darts, Squalorly, Kumquat Poetry, Kaleidoscope, Pankhearst’s Slimline Volume: No Love Lost, PRISM International, 'Ekphrasis', The Criterion, Orion, Scintilla, A Twist in Time, Tilde and elsewhere. She's written nine poetry collections, a fictional memoir, a non-fiction book and a historical fiction book. She won finalist designation in several literary and academic competitions including Eastern Kentucky University’s academic journal Nine Patch: A Creative Journal for Women and Gender Studies. She was educated at the universities of Delaware and Michigan, taught at the college level and traveled extensively. e. smith sleigh is a pioneer blogger. She is one of the first poets to write about post structuralism and poetry online. She lives in Robert Penn Warren county where she draws inspiration.

Reminiscing 2018;

I walked straight off some pier the end of the roof — gutter baby it ended at the keyword *failure   our faces kissing as if hogs to slaughter It ended at midnight I turned           to stone   the end of your cock – ringed-necked pheasant I always have 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.