Fresh-Cut Lit & More
ISSUE NO. 52
WINTER 2026
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The Cleaver Magazine Issue 52 Contributors Reading is available now! Watch it here.
2025 Visual Poetics Contest
Check out Cleaver Magazine’s previous contest winners.
The finalists of our Visual Poetics Contest will be published in upcoming issues.
Box of Air
by Katrina Roberts
Visual Poetics Contest Winner
1st Place
Image by Katrina Roberts
MASH (a Cento Game for Poetry Lovers)
by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose
Visual Poetics Contest Winner
2nd Place
POETRY
Read from Cleaver Magazine’s collection of published poetry gathered from each quarterly issue.
Intelligence
by Robyn Schelenz
Caravaggio’s Women
by Simon Parker
Hotel Rabbinical
by David John Rosenheim
FICTION
Read from Cleaver Magazine’s collection of published fiction gathered from each quarterly issue.
FLASH
Read from Cleaver Magazine’s collection of published flash gathered from each quarterly issue.
Four Micros
by Barbara Westwood Diehl
The Doctor Sweeps In
by Louella Lester
Maybe This Is What the End Is Like
by Emily Rinkema
Beds
by Aurora Bonner
(Nonfiction)
Birthday Party
by Preeti Talwai
(Nonfiction)
Falling Shy / Nostalgia
by Sydney Lea
(Nonfiction)
Nativity
by Bobby Crace
Lemon Cake
by Kevin Spaide
Three Micros, from There Is News Along The Ohio River
by Beth Gilstrap
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Read from Cleaver Magazine’s collection of published creative nonfiction gathered from each quarterly issue.
VISUAL NARRATIVE
Connecticus Diggs, Cultural Detective
Episode 4: Letters
by Clifford Thompson
Read from Cleaver Magazine’s collection of published visual narratives gathered from each quarterly issue.
“Box of Air” Illustration by Katrina Roberts
Other Illustrations by Karen Rile
*Cleaver Emerging Artist
**Artist of Philadelphia
***Both an Artist of Philadelphia & a Cleaver Emerging Artist