A Blur of Selfishness and Orgasms

This cannot be it. Don’t get her wrong, she likes some of it. The sound is awesome. Sounds, she thinks, deliriously lost in the world she crafts in her head as she hopes to get just a little wet. His breathing is short; he’s gasping into her ear, her neck, Read more

Lorel Rea

*Lorel Rea* is a fourth-year English student at Northern Kentucky University studying creative writing. She is obsessed with reading; anything that contains dragons, women with swords, or LGTBQIA+ characters is already on her TBR shelf. Though currently drowning in a sea of fantasy worlds, Lorel tries to keep the daydreaming to a minimum. She lives in Northern Kentucky, though her permeant address should be changed to the public library where you can most often find her with tea and an open laptop.

Party at the End of the World

The walls were as white as the cake box placed reverently on the mahogany oak dining room table. A few balloons in pastel green, violet, and lavender wobbled uneasily in the corners of the room like bubbles blown from a child’s toy. Cas felt the sudden urge to pop one. Read more

Adan Jerreat

Adan is a postdoc at Ryerson University in the School of Disability Studies. Their creative work has appeared in The New Quarterly, Qwerty Magazine, Soliloquies, and The Steel Chisel. Their debut novel, a YA fantasy entitled "The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass" was published with Dundurn Press September 2020. Adan lives in Kingston, ON, with their cat Dragon.

Black Women’s Acts of Resistance and Resilience to Trauma

Dineen skillfully dug her purple latex-swathed fingers into my bare left shoulder blade, and I yelped, “O-o-o-uch!” “Sor-ry!” Dineen cheerfully apologized. If I didn’t know better, I would think that she enjoyed torturing me. But this wasn’t that kind of relationship. Dineen is a petite, dark-haired, twenty-something Filipina physical therapist Read more

Lourdes Dolores Follins

Lourdes Dolores Follins is a Black queer woman who comes from a long line of intrepid women and working-class strivers. She comfortably straddles the worlds of academic and creative nonfiction. When Lourdes Dolores isn’t writing, she’s working as a psychotherapist with QTIPOC and kinky people in New York City.

A Storm in Milton, Georgia

Emma had been kicked out of her house. This was a first, for Emma or for her siblings, and it really did not strike her as fair. She had not actually done anything, as in, performed an action or committed a crime. All she did was remind her mother of Read more

Elizabeth Markley

Elizabeth Markley is a writer living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been previously published in The Write Launch, The Mighty Line, Cleaning Up Glitter, Haunted Waters Press, and Castabout Literary Magazine. When she is not writing she is kept busy by her children, two rambunctious boys under the age of four.

Glass

You, Torn One, With Arms crossed And Eyes that sting, You Hate me As God hates me- With total, complete Authority. The red-stained string between us Is hidden, deep in the Fold Of that Tattered Cloak: Oh, Apex of Humanity. I have seen Thee As Thou reveals and reviles Within Read more

Megan Garner

My name is Megan Garner and I currently work as a copywriter for a local marketing company. As a hobby, I attempt to write poetry, screenplays, and sweeping fantasy novels.

Human Deck

Our deck is the human deck we are dealt, and when we project fantasies and assumptions of transcendent perfection by comparing our lives to those of strangers we don’t even know, it can be dangerous. This culture assumes celebrities have the life we want, casting them into a perfect role Read more

Natalie Yeh

Liminal Spaces with Natalie Yeh -- aerospace engineer with a penchant for the spiritual, artistic, and cerebral -- is an attempt where she tries to accept her own messy humanity in exploring the gifts in her everyday stories and milestones with compassion, gratitude, and mindfulness. Gifts she believes we can all share and learn from when we choose to see our continuous threads of connection in our common humanity rather than uphold paper walls of illusions of separation that some treat as real. When she has free time, she loves to cook, shoot landscape photography, practice martial arts, write and dance. Her Chinese American background, bilingual upbringing, and transgender history all lend to her experiences in exploring the liminal spaces where her history, her present and her future are at odds and of a piece, creating herself and her writing as unique, cross cultural art.

Toga of Enchantment

When a group of girls begin dressing each other in a public bathroom with strips of jersey fabric to form togas for an art show, it can lead to feelings of discomfort and insecurity about a person’s body image… Surrounded by four gorgeous blonde girls who looked like models, and Read more

Natalie Yeh

Liminal Spaces with Natalie Yeh -- aerospace engineer with a penchant for the spiritual, artistic, and cerebral -- is an attempt where she tries to accept her own messy humanity in exploring the gifts in her everyday stories and milestones with compassion, gratitude, and mindfulness. Gifts she believes we can all share and learn from when we choose to see our continuous threads of connection in our common humanity rather than uphold paper walls of illusions of separation that some treat as real. When she has free time, she loves to cook, shoot landscape photography, practice martial arts, write and dance. Her Chinese American background, bilingual upbringing, and transgender history all lend to her experiences in exploring the liminal spaces where her history, her present and her future are at odds and of a piece, creating herself and her writing as unique, cross cultural art.

He Just Came Out to Me, Now What?

Young people today have more complicated issues and concerns then, we who are 50+ had to grapple with. My biggest concern was wondering if I would be able to get a poodle skirt and a pair of black and white saddle oxfords. Today, many young people are struggling with how Read more

Beatrice Bailey

Beatrice Bailey was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa to a Baptist minister father and a mother who was a gospel recording artist. She has three sisters and one brother. She attended the University of Iowa and graduated with a BA in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento. Retired since 2004 from management positions with both the Xerox Corporation and the State of California, Bea now conducts customized seminars on “Budgeting for the Not So Rich and Famous”, “Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together…The Ultimate Balancing Act,” as well as interview techniques entitled, “Selling the Sizzle and Not the Steak.” In addition, she is an active member of St. Paul Baptist Church in Sacramento, CA, where she is an Adult Sunday School teacher. Bea has been a Head Feature Writer for Senior Magazine of Northern California. She also writes a monthly newspaper column entitled, “Uniquely Bea” Currently, she has authored a best-selling book, entitled, "Farewell, My Friend” and is conducting presentations and book signings throughout the United States and Mexico. "Radio Luz,” a Spanish Speaking Christian Radio Station, has interviewed her multiple times. Bea also was selected to be included in a book by The Author’s Show, as one of the "50 Outstanding Writers You Should Be Reading”. Bea has produced and hosted a new innovative television show, “A-Z with Bea”, which aired in November 2009 on RCCTV, Sacramento, CA. Bea is active at St. Paul Baptist Church and is an Adult Sunday school Teacher, and a Small Accountability Group Leader. She is a member of Kaiser’s Bio-Ethics Committee and on the Board of Advisors for the East Lawn Corporation. Recently, she has been asked to participate as a speaker with the Black Health Today national organization. To relax, Bea likes to work out at the gym, walk, knit, paint, sew, cook, garden, and read. Traveling within the United States, Mexico, Asia, the Caribbean, South America and Europe is one of Bea’s true passions. She has two adult children, one “bonus son”, five wonderful grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She resides in Northern California.