FLAME by Kate E. Lore
Kate E. Lore FLAME Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award The flame tastes rock but they don’t like it. Spit and sputter, they leave behind a black trail burn, an imitation of shadow, crude like a child’s…
WHAT USED TO BE MCCARRAN AIRPORT, LAS VEGAS by J.D. Isip
J.D. Isip WHAT USED TO BE MCCARRAN AIRPORT, LAS VEGAS The Spring Mountains out in the distance, if you’re lucky you’ll catch a sunset, the diminished edifices of glistening cassinos refracting a little of the glory in their windows where,…
FRAGILE, FRACTURE, FEAR by Mark Liebenow
Mark Liebenow FRAGILE, FRACTURE, FEAR Every evening, I make spaghetti and try out different seasonings in the sauce, including hot spices from the southwest, which you would have hated, or I pull out leftover chicken and eat it cold in…
VOICEMA[LE] TO MYSELF by Ash Trebisacci
Ash Trebisacci VOICEMA[LE] TO MYSELF Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award There’s this podcast that I love. The host’s voice is unmistakably, gorgeously trans. It purrs, crackles, ekes out phrases like a song I know by heart…
TELL ME IF IT HURTS by SV Bertrand
SV Bertrand TELL ME IF IT HURTS It happens again. But this time I am not busy dying, so I get to see what happens after. Dad is getting the car refueled, and I am sitting in the back seat while…
TWO POEMS by Brooke Harries
Brooke Harries TWO POEMS Transformer Miss him, …………or drinking coffee in bed, reading with a lamp at the bedside. Read an interview with Lou Reed. The one …………where he stops answering by saying Nothing I feel like talking about. Make…
WHERE HAS AMELIA GONE WHERE HAS SHE BEEN by Kindall Fredricks
Kindall Fredrickswhere has amelia gone where has she been amelia quiet as an attic ……………………….where is she? where is she? we crawl into her and chew ………………………………………………..make a clergy ………….of our teeth we search god hung over us fat and…
MEMORIZING ROMAN ROADS by Elisabetta La Cava
Elisabetta La Cava MEMORIZING ROMAN ROADS In the front yard of my grandmother’s house in Venezuela, behind a four-foot fence, stood a white metal pole. She didn’t hang a flag on it. I was eight years old and didn’t care…
BABY DOLL by Marlene Tholl
Marlene Tholl BABY DOLL Shanty Point Labor Day. Surging swells, pale over dark, an outlook off into forever. My husband Augustus was surfcasting for striper with an eel on the hook. He pointed out the now mostly submerged rocks that…
TRASH by Rick Andrews
Rick Andrews TRASH I’ve got bags full of trash she touched: a pamphlet from a state fair pumpkin carving booth. The pithy tops to Snapple bottles and Jones sodas. Maps, maps of museums, of Delaware, of Boston, maps of Paris,…
MS. ROBBERS by J. Bradley Minnick
J. Bradley Minnick MS. ROBBERS Ms. Robbers taught seventh-grade Spanish at Mann Middle School and was the reason for Bernie Markee’s infamy. Ms. Robbers was white, tall, unmarried, called herself a “Progressivist,” and believed she spoke Castilian Spanish perfectly, pronouncing…
APPETITE by Meg LeDuc
Meg LeDuc APPETITE Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award I have an insatiable appetite for self-loathing. I hate my body’s neediness, the way it presses its wants upon me, always petitioning for more, more, more. I hate…
SMALL WORDS by Anna Tomasulo
Anna Tomasulo SMALL WORDS We sit at the bar. Our glasses sit at the bar. He and I sat first and they followed. Something about the night makes me want to talk. So, talk I do, about other hes and…
WE LAUGH by MaxieJane Frazier
MaxieJane Frazier WE LAUGH After Sarah Freligh When we’re twenty, we laugh and laugh. For the men surrounding us as if we’re gold at the end of a rainbow. For the slurred compliments and bestial breath. From the corner booth:…
BAD LOVE JR. by Mike Itaya
Mike Itaya BAD LOVE JR. It was unseasonable noon in August, and I already missed the tangy summer where everything grew like weeds and everyone who was anyone got twitchy pants. Up at Ezekiel Remedial School, I was a no-show…
Captain Jonah by Finley Foster
Finley K Foster CAPTAIN JONAH I miss the set up and the punchline, but all around the table people are laughing. I can’t force a laugh, not a believable one, so I throw on a face, one that says “gotta…
DUST ISN’T DEATH: A Writing Tip by Alex Barr
Alex BarrDUST ISN’T DEATH Those abandoned stories and poems gathering dust in a drawer—they may look like fossils but what if they’re embryos? I’d like to share my experience which I hope will be useful and encouraging. It’s about kissing…
A CRAFT CHAT WITH T.S. BENDER, by Andrea Caswell
Andrea CaswellA CRAFT CHAT WITH T.S. BENDER T.S. Bender’s short story “Miguel’s Sancho” (Issue 45) is a skilled exploration of belonging and isolation, love and loss, and the darker sides of the human heart. In this Craft Chat, senior fiction…
INTERVIEW YOUR CHARACTERS: A Writing Tip by Kathryn Silver-Hajo
Kathryn Silver-HajoINTERVIEW YOUR CHARACTERS Sometimes when I want to get to know a character better or they just aren’t ringing true on the page, I request an interview. Like, really. Depending on who your character is, you might have a…
AN INTERVIEW WITH KRISTEN VAN NEST, AUTHOR OF WHERE TO NEST by Benjamin Woodard
An Interview by Benjamin Woodard, edited by Emma Parzybok AN INTERVIEW WITH KRISTEN VAN NEST, AUTHOR OF WHERE TO NEST Kristen Van Nest’s debut memoir, Where to Nest: A Global Search for Love, Cheap Wine and a Place to Belong…
A CRAFT CHAT WITH SOFI GUVEN, by Andrea Caswell
Andrea CaswellA CRAFT CHAT WITH SOFI GUVEN Sofi Guven’s short story “Proximity” (Issue 45) is an exploration of people’s boundaries, both emotional and physical, in a world in which we are all connected. In this chat with fiction editor Andrea…
VULNERABILITY, AUDACITY, AND FREEDOM: A CRAFT CHAT WITH MARIANA SABINO by Andrea Caswell
Andrea CaswellVULNERABILITY, AUDACITY, AND FREEDOM: A CRAFT CHAT WITH MARIANA SABINO In Mariana Sabino’s short story “The Undercurrent” (Issue 38), locals at a bar in a beach town are fascinated by, and unwelcoming to, a widow who arrives in their…
THE DENOUEMENT: A Writing Tip by Talya Jankovits
Talya JankovitsTHE DENOUEMENT: HOW DOES IT END FOR REJECTED WRITERS? I have been having a hard time with endings lately. Poems, short stories, dare I admit, essays. I’ve been considering this a lot, what this could mean, all these unfinished…
WHAT CONSULTING A PSYCHIC DID FOR MY MEMOIR—AND FOR ME, a Craft Essay by Ona Gritz
Ona Gritz WHAT CONSULTING A PSYCHIC DID FOR MY MEMOIR—AND FOR ME About a decade ago, compelled to write a memoir about the sister I lost to violence thirty years earlier, I began the painful process of investigating my own…
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS: A Writing Tip by Beth Kephart
Check out Beth’s upcoming live masterclass, The Writing is in the Details, Sunday July 28, 2-4 PM ET. Can’t make it? A recording will be sent to all registrants. Beth Kephart DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS The artisans of the telling detail…
THE PAST IS PERFECT: A Writing Tip by Karen Rile
A Writing Tip by Karen RileTHE PAST IS PERFECT You wrote a paragraph. You were writing a novel all summer. You had written the first hundred pages on a bus. You had been writing the same old story for years.…
THE LIBERATORS, a novel by E.J. Koh, reviewed by Julia Hou
A Novel by E.J. Koh, reviewed by Julia Hou THE LIBERATORS (Tin House Books) E. J. Koh’s latest novel, The Liberators, begins with language, then war, recounting the early memories of Yohan, a newly widowed father in the midst of…
DIM THE SCREEN TO TURN OFF YOUR BRAIN: A Writing Tip by Federico Escobar
A Writing Tip by Federico EscobarDIM THE SCREEN TO TURN OFF YOUR BRAIN There is a well-intentioned person who gets in the way of my ideas bursting onto the page. This person is eager to please, wants to make sure…
A CRAFT CHAT WITH KIM MAGOWAN by Andrea Caswell
Andrea CaswellA CRAFT CHAT WITH KIM MAGOWAN In her story “The Back Nine” (Issue 45), Kim Magowan shows us a character with a growing list of personal losses, trying to come to terms with the lost connections that still haunt…
DUALITY IN THE PERSONAL ESSAY: A Writing Tip by Clifford Thompson
A Writing Tip by Clifford ThompsonDUALITY IN THE PERSONAL ESSAY Duality is the soul of the personal essay. I sometimes tell students that while the province of speeches and op-ed articles is certainty, the domain of the personal essay is…
COMPANY, stories by Shannon Sanders, reviewed by Kayla McCall
Stories by Shannon Sanders, reviewed by Kayla McCall COMPANY (Graywolf Press) My family’s matriarch has a ritual when company comes to visit. She chases carefully-swept corners with lemon-scented cleaners. The vacuum hums over the rug, then the hardwood, then the…
A Conversation with Alina Pleskova and Kimberly Ann Southwick
Alina Pleskova and Kimberly Ann Southwick, edited by Hannah Felt GarnerALINA PLESKOVA AND KIMBERLY ANN SOUTHWICK WANT YOU TO DIY IT THIS POETRY MONTH Alina: Kimberly Ann Southwick and I have traveled in the same extended poetry circles for about…
DUALITY IN NONFICTION: Sydney Tammarine
A Conversation with Cleaver Senior Nonfiction Editor Sydney Tammarine DUALITY IN NONFICTION Estimated reading time: 1 minute What does duality in creative nonfiction mean to you? Do you have any favorite essays or memoirs that explore duality? When I think…
TRIAL AND ERROR: A Writing Tip by Snowden Wright
A Writing Tip by Snowden WrightTRIAL AND ERROR At an Oxford, Mississippi, courthouse last summer, I sat in on the trial for the most recent person to try to assassinate my father, a circuit court judge. Things went poorly for…
NO SURPRISE FOR THE WRITER? WHAT A RELIEF FOR ME, a Craft Essay by David Galef
David Galef NO SURPRISE FOR THE WRITER? WHAT A RELIEF FOR ME. Robert Frost’s famous line of writing advice, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader,” comes not from a poem but from his essay “The…
THE POD by Nicole Brogdon
Nicole BrogdonTHE POD I never felt enough eyes on me, never enough love. Never enough arms, wrapping round my body. Nor hands, chopping vegetables for soup. Not enough healthy backs, moving my furniture. More hands, putting on clean sheets—floral sheets,…
THE BACK NINE by Kim Magowan
Kim MagowanTHE BACK NINE The email is from Marianne’s boarding school classmate Harrison McBee, then captain of the lacrosse team, now an investment banker living with his husband in Manhattan; the subject heading is “Sad News.” Reluctantly, Marianne opens it.…
MIGUEL’S SANCHO by T.S. Bender
T.S. BenderMIGUEL’S SANCHO It was some point early in August, a Thursday or Friday, some point at the end of the week that Miguel didn’t show up to work. And that morning, as the sun streamed into the garage of…
BABY, SWEETHEART, HONEY by Katie Tonellato
Katie TonellatoBABY, SWEETHEART, HONEY Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award When I was young, they called me baby, sweetpea, honey, cherry pie, chubs. So often they called me these things, that when they called me my name,…
SUSPENSION POINTS by Julian Shendelman
Julian ShendelmanSUSPENSION POINTS “I suppose you could DM,” Marine said, staring into her clipboard. “Direct message?” “Dungeon monitor. You essentially walk around making sure people aren’t openly bleeding on the carpet. It’s a violation of our lease. Here.” She handed…
SALT PAINT by Claudia Monpere
Claudia MonpereSALT PAINT Tina and her sister, Meredith, are painting cats on the six-foot cardboard coffin. Tuxedo cats, tortoiseshells, tabbies, Maine Coons. Meredith is the real artist. Tina should have left her to it, sick of her sister offering advice…
FAIRY SHRIMP by Richard Parisio
Richard Parisio FAIRY SHRIMP In my first year of teaching ………………………I led my seventh graders to the woods ………..to study vernal pools. Study? No—to stare ………………………………….astonished at what we found: plump transparent one inch freshwater shrimp ………………………………………………sidestroked across a black…
EXHUME by Sofia Drummond-Moore
Sofia Drummond-MooreEXHUME The bog body lies on the light table like an oil spill made flesh. Curled on his side, knees drawn up, Avril can see the outlines of his once-bones under skin like leather. She can also see the…
THEY ARE CALLING YOU AND THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING by Michael Grinthal
Michael GrinthalTHEY ARE CALLING YOU AND THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award In the unsolvable sun Of a yellowing year All of the newest tunes Of tiredness are rolling About in…
AQUACULTURE QUARTET by Jess Yuan
Jess YuanAQUACULTURE QUARTET [1] to explain eyestalk ablation imagine floating mid face fallopian tube connecting to the ocular nerve ………….in your shrimp body ………….eroded by a losing economy overextending, deteriorating because blindness makes more babies in her ………….she grows fertile…
LIGERTOWN: HERALDIC ATTITUDE by Susan Goslee
Susan GosleeLIGERTOWN: HERALDIC ATTITUDE Ligertown —Idaho, 1995 Heraldic attitude —Photograph of lion 9 Goldenrod lines the creek like torches lighting the road to a garrison. Narrow banks shortbread-mold the lion’s spine and chest, but his red-gold mane floats out as…
THREE MICROFICTIONS by Kathryn Silver-Hajo
Kathryn Silver-Hajo THREE MICROFICTIONS The Divide I hadn’t spoken with Grandma since she went into assisted living. I missed visiting her lemon-and-love-infused apartment at holidays, our weekly calls. Now we chatted about my MFA program, the Haitian nurse who snuck…
A CONSTELLATION OF ERRORS by Sophie Nunberg
Sophie NunbergA CONSTELLATION OF ERRORS Honorable Mention of the 2024 Cleaver Emerging Artist Award I study the events of my birth like astrologers do stars in the sky. I’m already late when, two days before I finally do break my…
HOW TO DRINK ENOUGH WATER IN WARTIME by Rebecca Entel
Rebecca EntelHOW TO DRINK ENOUGH WATER IN WARTIME You have finally logged out from your social media because it was making you physically ill. With less scrolling, you’re not getting more done. You feel bad news from journalists or emails…
AT ELEVATION by Ariana Kelly
Ariana KellyAT ELEVATION In mid-June after my sophomore year at Yale, I took a Greyhound bus from New Haven, Connecticut to Boise, Idaho for $59.00. The ride took three-and-a-half days, during which two people were kicked off in Ohio for…