All this beauty around us. Whatare we to do with friendship? So easy-bodied, piled together on floor or couch, webend, bind, brace. Herbitten lip in mid thought. Theirbaggy legged short shorts,corduroy shirt stroke. Hiscollar bone become sweat slidedew skinned in low light. Kitchen-doorwaydialogue at the party. Goddamn.Elastic imprint on the wrist.Fold of skin, secret space.Guttural […]
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First, you’ll hear it Out by thelong grasswith thelong strands,that tangle andun-tanglelike a delicate mother’sun-delicate braid,there is a hidden pondyou pass by daily You will notice abuzzing—filling the sonic emptythat sticks behind earstucks in between toeswith plucking only leading to a multiplying swarm of colour Suddenly—Booming!The booming engine of a spacecraftcrash landing into earththunders through […]
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but i wish myself intothe titanic’s turkish baths,2 – 6 p.m.: men only hours,not despite its sinking butto de-baptize our longing;give me that high-conceptlow-effort kind of fatality:two queer bodies buriedinto drowning loungers& let’s fallinto each other’s skinbecause i can no longer standthat every love song turnsinto a confession of hunger,at least a ship wrecks its […]
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Teigan Lan is a queer Chinese writer, student, and community organizer. They write personal essays for their Substack, and have published op-eds with the Toronto Star and Melanin Base Camp. They are very fond of Mitski.
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Artist Karissa Ho’s work with watercolors compellingly explores the interplay of color and form. Her vibrant brushwork evokes both warm solar vignettes and intense seascapes. Influenced by the ever-changing sky and her favorite literary works, her paintings echo the sentiment expressed by poet Ada Limon: “Even / color was not color, but a mood.” How […]
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In the June 26, 1948 edition of The New Yorker Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” expanded the envelope of speculative horror—and prompted hundreds of readers to cancel their subscriptions. Letters and postcards poured in with subscribers offering their complaints and reasons, nearly all of them with an undercurrent of outrage at the supernatural events being […]
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3/15: Ink & Ember is accepting up to five art, poetry, and short prose submissions. Submissions must include submitter’s desired name and note that it’s a submission for Ink & Ember in the email’s subject line. Include a short bio, desired name, and pronouns. Art files should either be JPG or IMG; written files in […]
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Highlighting recently released and forthcoming works by marginalized creators Beyond the Watershed by Nadia Alexis A hybrid collection of poetry and photography, Beyond the Watershed explores the various experiences of a Haitian American daughter and her Haitian immigrant mother. Nadia Alexis crafts a moving portrayal of generational trauma, domestic violence, survival, and reclamation using stunning […]
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We don’t talk about it. We take long walks in lake effect snow. I push my gloves into my coat pocket. Small penance for big slights. Your face is for the sun. You inhale the crisp air. You stop to watch a great heron skip across a mildly frozen lake. Across the lake somebody is […]
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When I was fifteen, I bought a book about Camille Claudel from Everything’s-a-Dollar. With tax, it actually cost $1.96, which seemed like false advertising. Books from that store were always a risk, but I was always willing to take risks on books. This one paid off. I became obsessed. Obsessed with Camille’s exhausted and knowing […]
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VAGABOND CITY 