Mirror Talk

Be yourself if you want to kill all demons inside your head. My therapist advises. Talk to yourself in the mirror. I look at my reflection, its mouth opens, wanting to start before me. But the voice is not mine. Yes. You heard it right. I am Miryam. The pretty Read more

Sarwa Azeez

Sarwa Azeez is a Kurdish poet, translator, and Fulbright scholar with an MA in English Literature at Leicester University and an MFA from Nebraska-Lincoln University. She is a Pushcart prize nominee and her debut poetry collection, Remote, was published in the UK by 4Word in 2019. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Parentheses Journal, Collateral Journal, Writing for A Woman's Voice, the other side of hope, Genocide Studies and Prevention Journal, Kurdish Center for Studies, Wingless Dreamer, and elsewhere. Sarwa's writing draws on her childhood memories of wartime Iraq, where she grew up reading by the flickering light of kerosene lanterns, and searches for the beauty in a war-torn world while seeking to define identity and confront issues of equal gender representation and violence in male-dominant communities. In what little free time she has, Sarwa applies her knowledge of English, Arabic, Kurdish, and Farsi by practicing the subtle art of translating poetry.

Plan B

It’s 2:04 a.m. No more denial. I’ve got exactly eighteen hours and fifty-six minutes. Okay. I’m in the Dark Web. Now what do I do? Take a breath. Think. Maybe I should go to a forum. No. Too many crazy people. And spies too. They might figure out what I’m Read more

Maeve Flanagan

Maeve Flanagan is a writer in Los Angeles. She has a background in philosophy and enjoys writing stories that explore the intersection of technology and the human condition.

The Privilege of being a woman in America, as seen through the eyes of the women of Tanzania

As a 21-year-old woman raised in America, I often felt vindicated. Once I entered the progressive world of college, I preached the idea that life was unfair for women, especially when compared to our counterparts – both the bane and the desire of my existence – men. I was unhappy Read more

BODY JUSTICE 1977

The university doctor examined me. Then all of his students examined me. “As you can see,” he explained, “the uterus is tipped, making bringing a fetus to term unlikely.” After I had dressed and sitting in his office we had a conversation. “The risk of miscarriage is high.” “I’ve already Read more

Katherine West

Katherine West lives in Southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. She has written three collections of poetry: The Bone Train, Scimitar Dreams, and Riddle, as well as one novel, Lion Tamer. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Writing in a Woman's Voice, Lalitamba, Bombay Gin, New Verse News, Tanka Journal, Splash!, Eucalypt, Writers Resist, Feminine Collective and Southwest Word Fiesta. New Verse News nominated her poem And Then the Sky for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. In addition she has had poetry appear as part of art exhibitions at the Light Art Space gallery in Silver City, New Mexico, the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado, and the Tombaugh Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is also an artist.

cause & effect

tell her she’s a witch, she’ll cast a spell say she’s a queen, she’ll rule the roost call her ugly, she’ll lie in bed praise her beauty, she’ll dare the sun whisper she’s stupid & she’ll flunk the test insult her limp & she’ll stand still call her temptress, she’ll 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.

diary of a false assassin

it starts with love, or a lot of like he’s crazy cute, right? he’ll say anything to make you let him it takes you by surprise even though you know how it works hoping it wouldn’t ≠a plan to prevent it you don’t tell anyone then you tell everyone have 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.

Birdcage

She hangs Baskets by birdcages Flowers, a shovel, paper weights On loose newspapers that flutter In the wind—a bearing, A stone garden for zen. Wing clippings. I heard She had a backstreet abortion Once she crossed the law— She knows no-more-wire-hangers Better than I do, I imagine The Swinging Sixties Read more

Alexandra Meehan

Alexandra Meehan is a neurodivergent poet and poetry editor residing in Gainesville, Florida. Alexandra earned her BA in English from the University of South Florida in Creative Writing.She has mentored lyricists and has worked as a professional writer and as a creative director. Alexandra enjoys watching foreign films, cultivating carnivorous plants, and painting. She is enamored by wordplay and has a lifelong obsession with Emily Dickinson. Alex's work has appeared in Feminine Collective and Rhythm & Bones Lit. She has a forthcoming poetry book. Follow Alexandra on Twitter @LexMeehan

I Care Because They Are My Sisters

I am finding many people that don’t understand the abortion law Texas put into effect on Sept 1st. The Supreme Court has chosen not to block the law. This is the closest threat to women’s healthcare rights and privacy since 1973, even though the majority of Americans support a woman’s Read more

Laurie Hiatt

Laurie Hiatt is an adventure traveler, avid reader, music lover, mother, and chocolate connoisseur who gets to make her living by making a difference in her community. A community organizer and health educator for 28 years, she loves to get down in the trenches with all types of people to make positive changes in their neighborhoods. It’s taken her a while, but she’s finally figuring out how to find a healthy balance of the magic that chaos brings to life and the centering of herself. She is currently throwing a dart at a map to decide where to travel next.