Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, Black Fathers, and White Women
EIC Zoe Patterson weaves together an analysis of Kendrick Lamar's new album with grief over her relationship with an absent parent
Two Poems
In "Birthright" and "Atonement with the Father", Scottish poet Sarah Grant roots around in her own history, and forgives the future
Spectacular Faults
TW: physical and sexual abuse
An excerpt from Sondra R. Brooks’ unpublished memoir, this personal essay paints a childhood haunted by the damaging spectre of hypermasculine, alpha father figures
The Great Chalkboard War
A short, spiky story detailing a catastrophic event at a school
In Our Understanding the Self Class
TW: sexual assault
A poem by Von-der By that looks at the ugliness and trauma of a personal history and its impact on sexuality
Finding Bright
Are you really where you hoped you’d be? “Finding Bright” is a haunting series of how complex trauma becomes an ankle weight as the artist Jaina Cipriano transitions from childhood to adulthood
Chest Pain
"The diagnosis was Enlarged Heart Syndrome. I failed to understand why they intoned the news like they were reporting a death—I agreed with the diagnosis ..." – new in fiction by Vongai Mlambo.
Prayer
“Everything I like is like that man who first thought to take that picture of that starving black child waited for by that black vulture in that Sudan” – new prose poem by Tawanda Mulalu.
MOM CAVE
Dark children’s fiction by Zoe Jane Patterson.
Cork
Surreal fiction by Amal Al Shamsi.
Paula Rego's Delightful Violence
Zoe Patterson explores the pain and wonder of childhood in Paula Rego’s Peter Pan Illustrations.
incessant
Elyazyeh Al Falacy's stream of consciousness poem toes nihilism and modernity.
Doris Salcedo’s “Plegaria Muda”
“Plegaria Muda”: An Anti-Memorial for Young People Who Experience Daily Violence and Trauma – new art criticism by Zoe Jane Patterson.
The Wheel
New in fiction, a Coney Island story by Zoe Jane Patterson.
Pearl Eyed People
New in milk & vodka, S K Garcia uses natural imagery to articulate female pain and emotional suppression.
Queer Body and Soul
Amanda Malamut weaves together their Catholic past with their queerness in this new poem. Accompanying artwork by Marcus Fessler.
A True War Story
Vamika Sinha retells the water buffalo scene from Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story”, from the perspective of another soldier.
unMute
“Moon-muscles” and “burning sun towers” collide in this poem by S K Garcia.
Spell Criminal With a 'K'
New in milk & vodka, Ava J Serra intersperses a Lady Gaga speech, rage at Brett Kavanaugh and protest against misogyny and rape culture in this feminist poem.
Fleeting Royal Soles
Take a walk with S K Garcia through this new poem.