Twenty-Four, Candidly | Violet Piper

"you start to repeat your stories; / you sound like your mom / you feel so grateful for your mom you can't stand it..." Violet Piper's work has appeared in Slate, The Blue Mountain Review, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere.

Love in the Knots of the Coptic Stitch | Beth Kephart

"Be aware the flowers will fade, that the fibers in the new paper are the fibers from the old paper, that whomever you were in the original will be whomever you are. There are no blank sheets..."

She Is an Artist | Élyse Deering

"what a lovely painting you made girl, / but have you seen this man’s / portrait of his dog? / How that man must love love love his dog / you’re crying now? take a pill..."

Conquest, as Seen by the City | Ashley Deng

"you call to me and demand / I let you enter, / past these walls and into my / streets, / words snarled out in a language / whose vocabulary is littered with remnants of / conquest..."

Atween the Wind an the Wa | John Aberdein

"Cranreuch cauld wis the tarmac bauld, / The gled i the laverock's sheddie; / Ah masel for the haar-tooteroo / Wis tuckt up in ma beddie..." John Aberdein's novels have won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and the Scottish Arts Council Fiction of the Year Award.

A Reverie Through Stone | Deepanshi Matai

"plain gold earrings: you never wore any others. i have a pair that looks exactly like yours. i never wear any others. sometimes when i hold these, it feels like you’re still here, standing behind me..."