Tag: society

Pandemic Dissonance

Mary Novaria

Unless we are divinely called to monastic life, most of us don’t thrive in isolation. Even we introverts have our limits. Besides, it’s one thing to choose seclusion and determine for ourselves when we want to hole up alone and for how long. It’s quite another to have confinement thrust 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.

resistance

Anne Leigh Parrish

monkey sees men through glass, so glad not to belong spider hangs in her summer web, already feels the fall upstream fish prefers to drift when choosing not to spawn crow departs the evergreen branch, ignores the murder behind fox in silence takes her prey, will not be called a 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.

uroboros chorus

e. smith sleigh

the beginning was lost so the ending will become the beginning the passion for breathing blends with tower tongues tattered candy wrappers next to the curb are all too common in an upside down kind of exploded, nuked world bloody lips licking global death fat chemicalized globules half broken slow 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.

The Bliss of Solitude

Gessy Alvarez

I am in Santa Monica. It is a sunny April day. The temperature is 80 degrees. Perfect beach culture weather. Near the Pier and down Ocean Avenue, the beautiful Pacific view is overrun by the homeless. Mostly men, dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and slipshod sneakers. They hold half-crushed coffee cups Read more

Gessy Alvarez

Gessy Alvarez is a writer, editor, and publisher who loves literature, art, photography, and this dysfunctional world. She writes stories, poems, and essays about the middle of things. Her prose has appeared in Hobart, Asteri(x), Lunch Ticket, Volume One Brooklyn, and other publications. She shares her love of art and culture as well as some of her offbeat observations on her podcast, Digging Through with Gessy Alvarez. She earned her MFA from Columbia University. She is the Editor-in-chief of the literary and arts journal, Digging Through The Fat, and the publisher Digging Press Chapbook Series.

A Letter To My Child Not Yet Born

Julia Nusbaum

Dear Baby, I don’t know if you will ever be real, but here are some things I want to say to you. I’ve never really wanted a child. Well, that’s not true. You are wanted. But the idea of having a child—the need to have a child—has never been part Read more

Julia Nusbaum

Julia Nusbaum is the founder of HerStry, a literary magazine and writing community for women. Her writing has been published in Windrose Magazine, The New Interstice, and on the My Bible App where she wrote a devotional series about the intersection of faith, bodies and sex. She is a 2014 graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee where she studied social justice and gender and sexuality. Julia currently lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but hails from the flat parries of Illinois. You can become part of the HerStry community at herstryblg.com or follow Julia on instagram @jules.nusbaum or @herstryblg.

Prosper

Andrea Nardi

We raise our hands at the sound of the gun. We stand still waiting to be called on, but the race has already begun. Time ticks slowly, as we stare down the clock. Uncomfortably squirming, biting our lips and keeping them locked. It’s polite to be quiet and to wait Read more

Andrea Nardi

Andrea was born and raised in a small town in Upstate New York. She has had a passion for writing from a young age, and has recently been focused on getting back to her creative roots. After spending several months abroad, she has become more wanderlust than she thought possible, and has a strong desire to see and learn about the world around her. Ice cream, sunsets, and red wine are some of the little things in life that she enjoys most.

How I Became a Citizen of the United States of America

Victoria Addesso

My parents had sex; nine months later I was born. My citizenship is a result of dumb luck. I did not work for it or yearn for it. I did not have to struggle to get to this country. Citizenship was a gift. I have not felt the burn of bigotry Read more

Victoria Addesso

Vicki Addesso has worked in various fields over the years, full-time and part-time. In between family life and bill-paying endeavors, she works at writing. Co-author of the collaborative memoir Still Here Thinking of You~A Second Chance With Our Mothers (Big Table Publishing, 2013), she has had work published in Gravel Magazine, Barren Magazine, The Writer, Sleet Magazine, Damselfly Press, Feminine Collective, and Tweetspeak Poetry. A personal essay is included in the anthology My Body My Words, edited by Loren Kleinman and Amye Archer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter @VickiAddesso.

Small miracles

Christina Strigas

Take your fistful of misery hypnotize the crowd with your fake smoke half-truths lava tears poetic disputes pose on your marble staircase retell your old story bore us with news talks and deaths of all the things we don’t care about. People like you make being alone a blessing. Photo 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