All Posts

The Birds

March 8, 2019

And later, in the empty room upstairs AAAAAAAAAAAthat will stay empty because it’s a lookout AAAAAAAAAAAJames and I are staring at a cardinal in a tree and I say AAAAAAAAAAAhe’s so red and James says … Continued

Maps ||| Seven Scribes

March 6, 2019

Lizz Huerta

I wandered like a white girl. Oversized backpack, a money belt full of sports bar tips, and a penchant for men with guitars. A fissure in my heart and bad taste in my mouth. I couldn’t afford Europe so I … Continued

The Almost Audience (for Phyllis Wheatley)

March 5, 2019

David Mills

Of Senegambia and seven, she should have been of the not-to be-taken, the not-high price, for a not-prime boy’s a girl of the unsuitable labor (birth not work)—and that years away. (Some of the captured, their spirits: … Continued

A Review of Contiguous States by Richard Levine

March 4, 2019

Aaron Bristow-Rodriguez

(Georgetown, KY: Finishing Line Press, 2018) Richard Levine’s first full-length collection of poetry, Contiguous States, explores the continued impact of the Vietnam War, veteran reintegration, love, and one’s power to rehabilitate the self and the natural world. Deeply personal, Levine … Continued

Snow

March 1, 2019

Stephanie Burt

It used to settle on the crowns of trees unevenly, so that gravity or a breeze could make a fringe fall down, the fluttering particles meeting their two- dimensional shadows, off- white occluding off-white. Children could … Continued

Proust Springsteen

February 27, 2019

Piers Gelly

On February 21, 2015, my brother and I had a rare musical experience: we watched a band that we love perform a song in an otherwise empty room, which is as close as you can get, in life, to how … Continued

Action Origami

February 26, 2019

Andrea Cohen

How much can you do with one piece of paper— creasing, tearing, adding volume with air? You can make a mythic sea monster toppling a tall ship in high, high seas, as my seatmate in 30C, in … Continued

A Review of Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation by Marjorie Maddox

February 25, 2019

Heather Lang

(Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2018) Growing up, my younger brother had a unique plush toy. Some kids have teddy bears. Many have plush dogs. My brother, however, had a stingray. Because that’s how we grew up, and that’s what … Continued

Circum-Navigation

February 22, 2019

Conceicao Lima

The boats return Heavy from cities and distance. The crickets fall asleep. A child listens to the hollow of a conch. Perhaps it is the moment for another trip At the bow, for certain, the … Continued

@danajaye

February 19, 2019

Dana Jaye Cadman

i’m the little parakeet girl her caged and useless beat her flight of wings i’m the fire breathing kitten feather green and flame baby panther dragon scaly cat the way she purrs you back again i’m the … Continued

A Review of Camellia Street by Mercè Rodoreda

February 18, 2019

Gloria Beth Amodeo

Translated from Catalan by David Rosenthal (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2018) Cecilia C is found on the street as a baby and pointed towards the only splendor in her situation. The gentleman who adopts her lifts her into his … Continued

The Denison Homestead

February 15, 2019

Brittany Dennison

Caring is a disease passed on My grandpa stood here and my dad imagined him doing so, and I am here to pay my respects to the love my dad had for him Buy a tee shirt … Continued

You Whom They Border

February 14, 2019

Gabriel Dozal

you border crosser in this simulation you constantly slip and call one border by the other’s name the names aren’t straight inside of you and you conflate one with two because you still yearn for another border … Continued

A Review of While You Were Gone by Sybil Baker

February 11, 2019

Forrest Roth

(C&R Press, 2018) A residual image while reading Sybil Baker’s well done novel While You Were Gone in the midst of the Kavanaugh hearing debacle playing itself out on national television: the requisite brightly-lit family portrait of said Supreme Court … Continued

A Review of How to Tell If You Are Human by Jessy Randall

February 4, 2019

Hayden Bergman

(Warrensburg, MO: Pleiades Press, 2018) How to Tell If You Are Human, Jessy Randall’s book of diagram poems, seems by the title to be an instruction manual of sorts. It is that, but it’s also an announcement of a test: … Continued

A Review of Sor Juana: Or, The Persistence of Pop by Ilan Stavans

January 28, 2019

Jessica Mannion

(Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 2018) Ilan Stavans’s book Sor Juana: Or, The Persistence of Pop is a loving meditation on iconic seventeenth century Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, in particular her image and its … Continued

In a Land Strange to Us

January 25, 2019

Leyla Khalil

translated from Italian by Allison Grimaldi-Donahue 3 March 2002 We saw each other in a land that was strange to you, the first time: me on the other side of that metal detector, hoping you would make it … Continued

St. Augustine Beach ||| FLARE

January 24, 2019

Jennifer Battisti

—FL, our nation’s oldest city When my father saw her sunbathing her lean body that would one day push me from it, over and over,maybe he knew in an instanthis bohemian life had ended. Knew from the string-tied birdsfastened around … Continued

An Interview with Brittany Hailer, Author of Animal You’ll Surely Become

January 21, 2019

Lisa Grgas

Lisa Grgas: Congratulations on the publication of your first book, Animal You’ll Surely Become! How are you feeling now that it’s out in the world? Brittany Hailer: Thank you! This experience has been very surreal. I still can’t believe my … Continued

Up Up

January 19, 2019

Heather Christle

The elocution lessons have been a great success! It is a matter of biting and swallowing. Clean bites and frequent sorrows. It’s so terrible—nothing is the god of me. I’m a grassy pit, I’m organized around nothing, a … Continued

Two Yellow Titmice

January 15, 2019

Frank Chen

Translated from Chinese by Jennie Chia-Hui Chu My big brother Da Ge, who was the son of my father’s first wife when they were still living in the country, was much older than me. We weren’t close. He spoke … Continued

A Review of Land of the Sons by Gipi

January 14, 2019

Gabriella Shriner

Translated from Italian by Jaimie Richards (Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2018) For some, Gipi’s latest graphic novel translated from the original Italian, Land of the Sons, may be difficult to delve into in one sitting. But as someone who is … Continued

A Review of EVERYTHING GOOD IS DYING, El Poemario del Colibrí/The Hummingbird Poems, and Dallas Spleen by Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi, Edyka Chilomé, and Mike Soto

January 13, 2019

Hayden Bergman

pub info pub info pub info Deep Vellum — known for publishing award-winning translations out of its eponymous bookstore in the historically neglected neighborhood of Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas — has come out with its first ever chapbooks of … Continued

Why Not Minot

January 12, 2019

Tanya Grae

The welcome arch read Only the Best Come North & my parents laughed tongue-in-cheek at another cross-country Air Force move. In fifth grade, I learned about America & the Dakotas & the Cold War & elections as Reagan … Continued

First Period

January 8, 2019

Samn Stockwell

Brave Mrs. Kenley turns her back on the first grade, and like a grass fire, from raw blade to raw blade, enmity spreads. Mr. Hawkins twists paperclips around his knuckles. Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Hall sit at their … Continued

A Review of Moon Brow by Shahriar Mandanipour

January 7, 2019

Dalibor Plečić

Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili (Brooklyn, NY: Restless Books, 2018) Shahriar Mandanipour is certainly one of the most skilled and renowned writers in contemporary Iranian literature. He has authored nine volumes of fiction, one nonfiction book, and more than … Continued

White Deer

January 5, 2019

G.C. Waldrep

I saw the white deer in the clearing. I lowered my bow. That planets don’t collide on a more regular basis is one of the wonders of, say, sleeping through the night. The white deer bent its head, browsed … Continued

To Make Sense of This Poem

December 31, 2018

Matthew Rohrer

a poem from TLR’s Babel Fish issue by Matthew Rohrer: “All you need to make sense of this poem..”

Contents May Shift

Categories

Featured Authors

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W

Y

Z