OCTOBER 2023: CONTEST ISSUE.
Cover Art: Allison Webster, Lottie (Artist Website, Instagram)
35mm Photograph
INTRODUction
Ellen Bass, Contest Judge
Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager, Editors
Adrie Rose
Winner, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Kiley Brockway
Diagnosis {Winter}
We Have Some Questions About Your Difficult Child
Someone Else’s Ruins are Always More Appealing Than Our Own
Hunger
Marietta Brill
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Deliece Blanchard
Dear Forest
This Evergreen Forest is Nothing Like My Mother, So Greenly
Immense Cathedrals
We Both Posted Stories Before the Hurricane
Sunflower Mandala
CLARE BANKS
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by John C Gonzalez
Four to Midnight
On Location
Bower of Bliss
Elegy for Exile
Mara Adamitz Scrupe
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Martina Sestakova
Haint Blue
Blue Ridge Descant
Kingfisher
Monadnock
most of what I know about shovels
Mónica Gomery
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Annie Wood
Make a Tzohar in the Ark
Mothered Mothers
Sonnet for the Vines Wrapped Around This Book
An Impartial List of What’s Been Said to me This Week
Decision
Heidi Andrea Restrepo rhodes
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Nancy Campbell
Sacrament I
Sacrament II
Sacrament III
Sacrament IV
Sacrament V
Shabnam Piryaei
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Can You Find The Animals In This Picture? (1)
Can You Find The Animals In This Picture? (2)
Can You Find The Animals In This Picture? (3)
Can You Find The Animals In This Picture? (4)
Can You Find The Animals In This Picture? (5)
Saba Keramati
Finalist, 2023 Coniston Prize
Artwork by Rachel Wold
Inside Persepolis
Self-Portrait with Crescent Moon and Plum Blossoms
In the Smoke of the Wild Rue Seeds
Ghosts
Noteworthy poems
Rebecca Cross, “The Many Mothers”
Soyini Ayanna Forde, “Woman Arcana”
Caitlin Scarano, “So many women write about hunger yet speak in terms of safety”
Faith Shearin, “My Parents, Sleeping”