

Eric Braman's Five Influences
Dead Dad Jokes by Ollie Schminkey is a killer collection of poetry that explores hardship with radical honesty, humility, and humor. As a queer writer it is a source of inspiration I return to when considering how to put my truth on the page with a balance of empowerment and kindness. The Wildnerness That Bears Your Name by James A. Pearson captures the wonders of nature in ways that widen the human experience; it's a collection I return to regularly for my own processing o


WRITER SPOTLIGHT: Amy Shin Interview by Elizabeth Higgins
Our editors had the pleasure of reading seven of Amy’s poems for the journal, and were struck not only by their carefully-honed and evocative language, but also their movement between the personal and historical, and experimentation in form that we found striking and exciting. I was delighted to be able to interview Amy over email to discuss craft, influences, and more. Elizabeth: The poet Ellen Bass said, “Most days I don’t catch a poem,” and described much of the writing



