The Pushcart Prize 2020 Nominations

With this week’s theme of “Endings,” we thought it appropriate to share our nominations for The Pushcart Prize 2020. For those unfamiliar, Pushcart Press produces a yearly anthology to showcase work from small book presses and little magazines. (Despite the pachyderm, we’re really a little fish, so you know.) Submissions for the anthology, however, must come from the online publication Read More

Rainy Season

by Annie Bien blinds the savannahblowing toward Kilimanjaro. The horizon, streaked in dark diagonals,drains to a yawning sun, coloring cloud billows in pinks and orange. Thomson gazelles have watchedundaunted       as thunderous downpourssoak        their coats,for so long as hyenabellies stay round and taut,unhungry for meat and bone,       the grazers can walk with ease       under morning shadows. Wild Read More

The Cairn on the Beach

by Annie Bien Artha’s feet sank into sand, the tide swept waves forward, ocean swarmed his legs, stung his ankle wounds. He cringed, dreading the whip, shouts, lacerations. He sank torso deep. Stay still. No more fire, collapsing wood, temple crashing, shouts, running, no darted thigh, falling. He remembered the boy blowing into his trunk, whispering: “No more whips, marigold Read More