Free State Review

The Trees of Given Moments

by Free State Review | Dec 12, 2025 | Bubbler

for Norman Dubie Editor’s NoteNorman Dubie landed in so many hands, and so many of us landed in his ones. He was a great friend to our press 1978-1980 when it seemed we had no other friends, and his poems were cornerstones of our...

Fifteen Hundred Ladybugs

by Free State Review | Dec 9, 2025 | Bubbler

have traveled viacarton and my hands to bedsof bark cold with moon because ladies don’tfly at night. I splash waterin cottage cheese lids to hydrate their huntfor bloom blemishing aphidswhen the sun comes up. Pinched thoraxes, crunchof hearts in mouths. My...

The Bones That Come Through Our Skin by Nicholas Dighiera

by Free State Review | May 7, 2025 | Bubbler

I might not be the person to represent the story that my father was not his parents’ only son, but was, in fact, one of two males to pass through the mortal doorway of his mother’s hips. I say “might not” because I do not have the facts to tell you that with...

My Cousin Mike, by Sam Schmidt

by Free State Review | May 2, 2025 | Bubbler

Michelle Herman was hosting a publication party and reading at the Westbeth Community Center in lower Manhattan. I’d recently copyedited her memoir If You Say So. But it was also an opportunity to get to know my cousin Mike Cockrill a little better. He...

Emily May’s Interview at Brevity

by Free State Review | Apr 14, 2025 | Bubbler

Emily May was recently interviewed at Brevity, where she said “I realized that writing is not publishing— it’s a way to live in the world. It’s watching, observing, noticing. I have to be a noticer. It’s how I am present in my own life.” Thanks to Jason...