INTRODUction

January Gill O’Neil, Contest Judge

Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager, Editors 

Nina C. Peláez

Winner, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by Taryn FitzGerald

In the Planned Parenthood Parking Lot, A stranger’s sign says Life is Beautiful

Diptych

Navel

( )

Destiny O. Birdsong

Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by P. Dubroof

My Mother Told Her Grandmother to Go Ahead and Shoot Her

Where the Line Begins

In my family, they decided the men couldn’t keep leaving

My Mother Still Fraternizes with Our Abuser

I Said Goodbye to the Mattress I Was Raped On

Caitlin Cowan

Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by Sarah J. Sloat

Artificial Intelligence

After the Needle

Spell to Shut Them Up

Portrait of the Inner Child as Hellion

Suffer Better

Alyssa Froehling

Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by Kelly Cressio-Moeller

Catropto

Bloody Mary in the Rearview Mirror

Prayer to Catropto as the Lights Flicker

Bloody Mary at the Altar

When Catropto Visits

Cara Waterfall

Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by Chelsea Woodard

Dismantling Leviathan

Ephemera: A Zuihitsu

Naming the Doe

The Lost Stations

Chelsea Woodard

Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize

Artwork by Abbie Doll

Silphium

Driving in Bobby's Red Truck, Dreaming of Janis Joplin

On Re-reading “Hills Like White Elephants”

On Listening to Terrance Hayes Read Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Mother”

Pennyroyal

Noteworthy poems

Rosemary Herbert, “Grave Finds”

Cynthia Marie Hoffman, “To the Friend Who Says Her Life Is in Shambles”

Natalie Homer, “Coyote, Highway”

Kathryn Hunt, “How the World Is Made”; Artwork by Loretta Libby Atkins

Louie Leyson, “Aclima in the Garden”

Jennifer Stewart Miller, “Landscape with Mother and Horseshoe Crabs”

[Contributors]