
Amy Bagwell’s Ode to 2020
are these early bumblebees mating? no. they’re dyingof thirst I learn when I forget not to look anything upuntil this long year of universal hallucination is donewith us. ready with eggs these queens wake from winterwith the first flowers. they must find nectar and...

Book Launch!
We're back to readings! If you're in Philly, check out the witchy launch of Christina Rosso's short story collection CREOLE CONJURE (Maudlin House). Featuring readings by Nick Gregorio, Rachel O-Hanlon-Rodriguez, & Galileo Press author Tara Stillions Whitehead....

Looking for the Owl by Scott King
It's the sky above me in the branches,the suspending, run-on branches,holding the moment still.There is no face, only breath and fog.I look up. It's almost morning.There are no sounds except the sounds of the city waking--car doors, engines, a distant dog.Two mornings...

Publishing great hats since 1979.

Issue 14 Cover Reveal
We are tickled to announce the cover for Issue 14 of Free State Review, now available for pre-order! The featured art, "A Song for My Dog," is by artist and writer Saraiya Kanning. You can check out more of Saraiya's art at her website. Artist Bio Saraiya received her...

Elizabeth Hazen: Snapshots
The earth tallies our losses: abacusof ancient bone emerges out of rock, layers of snow compress deep in glacial lakes:blank blue ledger, millennia of falling.Even now fault-lines fracture canyons, gougeslike scores in a bed-post. So much passageis documentation, our...

Edward Field: Getting Used to It
my new face, for one. But what a relief not to have to bethe pretty one any more,begging for love,and to have this ravaged mug,the man of experience, the worldlyno-shit look, and with it,even a pot belly.though I'll admit that with a pot bellyit's better...

Ann Marie Brozozowski
Want I’ve been thinking and writing about how womenare coached—cajoled, shamed, guilted—into practicing gratitude asyet one more desirable character trait for the fairer sex. (Read: as yetanother way of telling us to sit down).An entire industry has made a business of...

Pamela Gullard
One Small Death Before the Plague Gerry was a ringer. He played for whatever tennis club on the peninsula would have him for the season. At age forty-one he was at the lower rung of the 40+ league, faster than the huffing guys a decade older and still hitting a good,...

“The Violence Almanac” Review
THE VIOLENCE ALMANAC, by Miah Jeffra (2021, Black Lawrence Press, New York, NY, 180 pages, $19.95, 978-1-62557-836-5) Reviewed by Derek Berry The Violence Almanac Centers An American Obsession with Brutality...