Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.9, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Post Road Magazine ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://www.postroadmag.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/5872/) - ARTMy Inside Outside Voice — Lizzy Rockwell FICTIONAll Too Familiar — Shy WatsonRock Climbing + Cyclist + The Neighbor +Little Lakes and Ponds — Kim ChinqueeThe Table — Dylan FisherHoneybees Can’t Read — Sean MaschmannThe Restaurant Artists — Rick AndrewsMole Rat — William JonesThe Seven Days of the Itch —Mari KleinWalk — Mina Austin The Ascent - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/04/10/44-a-canoe-of-light-and-time-with-the-dog-by-levi-rubeck/) - A Canoe of Light and Time with the Dogby Levi Rubeck Who should I name?Dad wants his box of ashes to read StillKickin’ it in Heaven He lent me a book abouthow to let your eyes go soft to pick up auras around otherslike blooming cathode rays To start an astral projectionyou must hover above - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/04/09/44-strange-moons-by-annie-raab/) - Strange Moonsby Annie Raab Let’s not bother ourselves with origins. Move to Chicago, they said. The pizza is great, the drivers are levelheaded, and the winters are beautiful! It is hurts-to-breathe cold when I move into the apartment on the fourth floor, the first available in a twenty-unit building—a classic architectural Goliath with lead paint - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/44-splash/) - ART: Lizzy Rockwell FICTION: Shy Watson, Kim Chinquee, Dylan Fisher, Sean Maschmann, Rick Andrews, William Jones, Mari Klein, Mina Austin, Alan Crow GUEST FOLIO: Edited by Allison AdairRose McLarney, Huan He, Tishani Doshi, Daniel Poppick, Sara Moore Wagner, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Lauren Camp, Andrew Hemmert NONFICTION: Molly Gleeson, Cristina Pop, Margaret Everton, Ben Wielechowski, Alex Herz, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/04/09/44-walk-by-mina-austin/) - Walkby Mina Austin When he’s ready, Dr. Morris, veterinarian, lifts his stethoscope and speaks down from his six feet of height. The barn has held its breath while he’s communed with Chad’s insides, where fluids trickle, then cascade like the flush of a toilet. The barn around us has stood for over a hundred Pennsylvania - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/04/09/44-move-37-by-heather-mchugh/) - Move 37by Heather McHugh The uttermost'sa figment of addiction, likethe pre and post we think we deepentakes or leapen data with. And zounds! the chargefulfilled, a mount to measure—two hands up—I give some tiny overcrop - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/04/01/44-the-deepest-blue-by-haun-he/) - The Deepest BlueHuan He We did not knowthe name of the blue flowerseverywhere: they fell out of the dirt,hosing the air with a thirstfor life! They shot theirwishing leaves to raise the grounda bit farther, if only movinga tiny scratch—I fell, and you kissedit to make it best not better,the way there were flowerseverywhere when - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2026/01/31/44-all-too-familiar-by-shy-watson/) - All Too Familiarby Shy Watson It was the era of the mothman sightings, and Helma wanted a guardian to stand by and assuage her fears. The government had no problem giving free food to all the men and women who couldn’t stand holding a job, but when it came to a real, imminent threat, one - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/5881/) - Little Lakes And PondsKim Chinquee Now that I finally make it to the boathouse, I want to row. I moved to Buffalo sixteen years ago, and its waters have always intrigued me. I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin outside of Green Bay, and there are little lakes and ponds where my family - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/5886/) - The Nor’easterMatthew Rohrer Nor’easter a streetsign downstreetsign looks much biggerdown on the groundit freaks one outto gaze upon itsnow blowing sideways snowblotting out the buildingsI walked 4.9 milesto try this pizza Matthew Rohrer is the author of eleven books of poems, most recently Army of Giants, published by Wave Books. He has received a Hopwood - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/post-elizabethan-pills-by-billy-collins/) - Post-Elizabethan PillsBilly Collins The moon climbs into the sky tonightwith the same sad stepsas she did in that sonnet by Philip Sidney,but without the busy little archer,for no baby Cupid animatesthis moon-lit lawnthat runs down to a nameless stream. And Sidney’s hollow skullcan no longer beholdthe ceiling of St. Paul’s,leaving me sad as the moon’s - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/44-fortune-by-lauren-camp/) - FortuneLauren Camp I keep lists of plants and lists of the best of everythingelse: lipsticks and Latvian streets and thrift storesat every distance. I continue to thinkit would be good to do some reliable fleeing.I get ahead of myself,seeking goodness at each next corner.In September, I saw some of the spaceon the surface of a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/44-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy-by-anne-carson-maria-zoccola/) - Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, by Anne CarsonMaria Zoccola I’m a little bit obsessed with Helen of Troy. This is not news to anyone who knows me, or in fact to anyone who happens to have seen me on any social media platform created by man or machine in the past few years. My lifelong - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-l/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Lackey, Emily The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-k/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Kadetsky, Elizabeth The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-j/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z JAHMANE Applied Science - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-h/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Hadari, Atar The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-g/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Gabbert, ElisaLife Poem - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-f/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Fagan, Ellen Hackl - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-e/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Eberlein, Xujun A - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-d/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z D’Agata, John A - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/22/index-a/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Abbott, Alysia *HED: - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-m/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Maazel, Fiona My - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-b/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Bacon, Amber Wheeler - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-c/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Cahill, AbbeyThis Land - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/11/07/44-twilight-of-the-cowboys-a-glance-at-the-origin-of-country-music-by-marcus-spiegel/) - Twilight Of The Cowboys: A Glance At The Origin Of Country MusicMarcus Spiegel I’m not one of those people who can say country music flows in my blood. As a city boy from midwestern Canada, during adolescence I rarely ventured outside my musical comfort zone, the boundaries of which were marked by the groovy soundscapes - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/09/13/5864/) - Calendar by Maeve Barry The calendar will be a gift for our grandparents. All of their children will get one. The photographer will take the photos in the parking lot of an Irish restaurant. It’s where we eat after funerals. In the lot it’s raw with no sun out. We wear big coats but will - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/09/web-exclusives/) - Post Road Web Exclusives mARTHA SILANO— - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/03/24/43-toc/) - ARTPaintings – Bascha Mon CRITICISMChan Marshall, Author of “Visions of Johanna” – Rick Moody FICTIONA Groundhog’s Day – Patrick DuaneI’m Tom Hanks – Mark LeidnerCrushed – Matt LeibelThe Program – PJ HenryTornadoes – Andrew Graham MartinThe Loaves – Phoebe Baker HydeThe Pirate – Peter GordonHope – Rebecca PyleWe Don’t Joke About Such Things – Neil ServenCalendar – Maeve BarryOther Living Things – Alexander FredmanParticulation Glitch – J. Paul SteinThe Blue – Mary - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/19/5845/) - Dr. Pangloss’s Intelligence Quizby Debra Coleman 1. A Woman is found on a crusty linoleum floor at the base of a steel staircase. She’s semiconscious, sputtering, “I fell. My head is bleeding.” (Her head is not bleeding, though gluey liquid percolates from her eyes.) What is the first thing the person who found the Woman - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/19/5841/) - A reading of "Tell Me About the Glaciers," by Kaylee Schofield - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/19/5835/) - Shroud (Ghost Apples)by Sébastien Luc Butler the orchards’ stench / an redolent camp / high schoollike a dreaming of high school / riding in the backs of pickups we had our obsessions / our idols / indifference / & corn fields& drunken midnight baseball field laying in the grass / yes staring at the stars - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/16/5831/) - Pleasant View DriveJ.A. McGrady My parents had just left for my third grade back-to-school night when the officer knocked on our front door. Outside, men unraveled yellow tape around my neighbors’ house like birthday streamers. Something happened next door, the officer told my grandparents. He asked us if we had seen anything, but all I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/16/5825/) - What inspired you to write "For John at St. Vincent’s," "Adonis" and "Final Visit"? “For John at St. Vincent’s” and “Adonis” are two poems that have origins in the previous century, in the late ‘90s when I had recently moved to California after a long decade in New York City watching so many beautiful, talented - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/12/5814/) - God Salsaby Ben Niespodziany The Senatorwent intothe factoryto halt productionon the new moon.It’s too soon,he shouted,it’s too soon.His wifewas writinga blank checkto a death squad.His Godwas hoggingall the salsa.Somewhere in the sametime zone,a mayor votedagainst himselfand won. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/09/5800/) - Why She CriedLarry Pankey My mom cries at our kitchen table, our only piece of household furniture. One of those Formica-topped tables with chrome legs for support: matching chrome chairs covered with red vinyl seats embedded with tiny particles of sparkling glitter. A lone toilet paper roll substitutes for tissue beside her burning cigarette and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/06/5796/) - What inspired you to write “Don Juan,” “soiled,” and “Midnight Mass”? These poems came out of a transitional time in my life. I’d spent a few years caught in the grind of city living—working hard, staying out late—and eventually found myself needing to step away from that pace. I returned to the South to read - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/06/5787/) - A reading of "The Loaves," by Phoebe Baker Hyde - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/03/5780/) - We Don’t Joke About Such ThingsBy Neil Serven I’ve been working on my grace. By that I don’t mean religion; if you ask me, there’s not much that’s graceful about religion, apart from the hymns. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to like about religion. For one thing, I like its sense of having - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/04/28/5771/) - What inspired you to write The Dive Reflex? This essay was formed in response to a prompt Mark Doty gave while I was attending the Writing by Writers Tomales Bay workshop. Part one of the prompt was to recall a significant location and write a description of it for five minutes, relying on all five - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/04/28/5769/) - What inspired you to write “Soundings” and “Fable”? Was there anything unique or striking about the writing or research process? “Soundings” began in a pandemic exercise suggested by the poet Rae Gouirand: each day before writing, spend five minutes or so “visiting with silence.” It’s meant to help you push past the everyday noise and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/04/26/5764/) - What inspired you to write "Dusk in March, 755, China, Civil War" and "Afternoon in theMeadow?" Both of these poems were written at about the same time. My wife and I were in North Carolina visiting our first granddaughter. We were eager to be with her and anxious about the world she would inherit. I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/04/22/5757/) - Roomby Sean Singer If this room could unmoor floor into blurof dark foam the tomb’s doorI could hug you soonin the many-mycelliumed ground. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/04/17/5751/) - What inspired you to write “Trigger Warning, “Nostalgia and other risks” and “between us?” And was there anything unique or striking about the writing or research process? Of these three, "between us" has the clearest origin story: a trip to the zoo with my siblings. Time with my siblings often prompts me to write because they - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/03/17/43-too-happy-by-luke-bloomfield-2/) - Too Happyby Luke Bloomfield We’ve buried our sadnessand all the spades of therapycan't dig it up.In public it’s embarrassingpeople trying to hidetheir mild feelings.Looks like we missed outon misery this yearwe say in lineat the sandwich shopwhile clinging to despairbut despairingly feeling it slip away like a terrified frogwith its panicky little heartpuckering its sideswhile it - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/03/17/33-patina-by-john-dorroh/) - Patinaby John Dorroh I hate new growths, every dayanother one, some white wart the size of a cherry tomato, hardas a bone. A single white hairclimbing out of some godforsakenpore on the left side of my neck. The toenail on my right big toebegins to wind around itselflike the shell of a snail, &a white patch - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/03/02/six-poems-by-martha-silano/) - Six Poemsby Martha Silano When I’m on the Bed called death, I hopeto be thinking aboutthe texture of the bucatiniat Campiello, how they seated usin the bar by the pizza cooks, but when we asked to sit elsewhere they put us besidea giant strangler figwith fake orchids we thought were real.Al dente, which I pronounced al - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/03/03/crushed-by-matt-leibel/) - Crushedby Matt Leibel I noticed a woman walking down Market Street in a red bowler hat, and I wanted to say something. I wanted to compliment her, I wanted to say “nice hat” or “I like your hat,” but I didn’t want to sound like a creep, I didn’t want it to sound like a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/01/17/43-2-poems-by-elisa-gabbert/) - Two PoemsElisa GabbertLife Poem 2 Beginnings of years, each random thingis an augur. I sleep unwell, is thatlife now? Make tiny adjustmentsto furniture. Poem is a four-room house.We walk several miles, see many animalsat the zoo. “What the living do”:they pace around, eat, content enoughto be bored. A moon bear. A Bactrian camel.This elephant stands - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-30/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #30 | Spring/Summer 2016 FICTION: The Fields — Katrina CarrascoThe Small Perfectly Lidded Copper-Bottomed Cooking Pot — Ruth DanonLimbs — Jennifer MurvinTo Kneel Somewhere in Iowa — Ryan ParkerThe Tapping in 1L — Alicia SchaefferThe Goldfish — Julia StrayerDelivery — Olivia Worden NONFICTION: Rear View — Rhiannon CatherwoodIn the Bed — Elisabeth - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/02/17/30-delivery-by-olivia-worden/) - Delivery Olivia Worden Three hours ago he had been a child. His thin cotton shirt fused to his skin. It was raining. It was his only shirt. He kept it clean by washing it at night in the public restroom. Cleanliness had always been important to him. He would not smell like the others. He - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/02/17/alicia-schaeffer-the-tapping-in-1l/) - The Tapping in 1L Alicia Schaeffer Loretta thought she could-no-should live rent-free. She wasn't going to make good on a bit of overdue rent until her building's superintendent got rid of that tapping sound. "It can't be the heat, Sammy," she said, standing over the super. Sammy, kneeling on her apartment floor, obliged by withdrawing - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/02/17/julia-strayer-the-goldfish/) - The Goldfish Julia Strayer I walked over bones of dead people today, but the red-haired woman begged me over. I was curious so I went. The sky promised rain, but lied. Dried leaves rained down instead. Henry said I'd never find what I'm looking for. I said he never has to look for what he - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/01/01/43-im-tom-hanks-by-mark-leidner/) - I’m Tom Hanksby Mark Leidner Once, while traveling alone to see family, I saw Tom Hanks at the airport. He was also alone, just walking with a coffee, and it was definitely him. I love movies, and I even love most of Tom Hanks’s, so I was flooded with an urge to run up to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/01/01/43-hope-by-rebecca-pyle/) - HopeRebecca Pyle Nothing would save her except a long sleep. Hope? There was a place on their way which looked as happy as sleep. Large gold-framed paintings were on its golden walls. The floor was laid with alternating black and white porcelain tiles. The lamps in the ceiling made the light of captured suns. A - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/12/22/43-alternative-education-by-abigail-carl-klassen/) - Alternative Educationby Abigail Carl-Klassen “You’re going to school?” he scoffed, overhearing the word high school. He clenched the steering wheel as we sat in the 1990 Chevy Lumina van, back windows forced open with PVC, the exhaust from all the other cars hoping to cross back into El Paso from Juarez sinking in around us. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2025/01/07/38-sad-in-new-york-by-elise-juska/) - Sad in New YorkElise Juska The bell had rung an hour ago and I was sitting with the rest of the Scouts in a sloppy circle by the hot lunch line, wrinkled green sashes thrown across our chests. The room smelled damp: damp stacks of plastic trays, damp piles of utensils, damp linoleum the custodian - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/12/22/43-chan-marshall-author-of-visions-of-johanna-by-rick-moody/) - Chan Marshall, Author of “Visions of Johanna”by Rick Moody My pretexts for the following are: Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. IV: Bob Dylan Live 1966, known informally as the Royal Albert Hall gig. Cat Power, Cat Power Sings Bob Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. Both titles are unwieldy! As though history and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/10/12/40-jamie-black-horse-latitudes/) - Horse Latitudes Emily Quinn Black 0-302 ft. Daddy named me Honus, but everyone’s always only called me what he called me: Onus. Lose the “H.” He told me someday I’d get the joke. I don’t. But there’s lots I don’t get. Like acts of God. Like how to do life, nowadays. But I don’t need - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-toc/) - ART Woodward Gallery—Gates Mural Project Eldridge and Broome Streets, NYC — Various artists FICTIONLucky — River AdamsThe Pith — Jessica AlexanderHorse Latitudes — Emily Quinn BlackCharlotte — Brock ClarkeWalking — Nathan DragonR. damascena — Irene CoxThe Story of “The Story of the Two Sisters” — Daniel David Froid Blood Covenant — Alice HatcherFountain — Greg MulcahySpaghettification — Ali RazThe Borders of Sleep — John RobinsonFiddler’s Green — Dennis McFadden GUEST FOLIOEdited by Suzanne MatsonIntroductionSay What You Will + Farmhouse Room — Jennifer BarberMise en Scène - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/08/17/kevin-bertolero-three-poems/) - Three Poems by Kevin Bertolero Interiors Outdoors in Eastwood & there’s all this shady breeze on the lawn by Blessed Sacrament. Everything now feels like clarity to you / remember smoking a bit from the back porch watching Planet Earth then crying to several hundred walruses leaping from that cliff in the sub-Arctic all that - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/07/28/42-rain-by-alizabeth-worley/) - Rain Alizabeth Worley Like many moody souls, I like a rainy day. I like the wet dirt and heavy air, the thick dripping from overhangs and tree branches, the cold. I like feeling the need to pull my sleeves over my hands and wrap my coat around me, and I enjoy walking outside with my - [Divinatory Experiment](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/selah-saterstrom-divinatory-experiment/) - by Selah Saterstrom Opening Note ~ In 1893 Henry C. Wood published one of the first self-help books, IDEAL SUGGESTIONS THROUGH MENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Mr. Wood's theory, coinciding with the advent of photography in popular culture, maintained that one's brain could photograph positive affirmations or "Ideal Suggestions." The "solar light" of the camera corrected the "lunar - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/07/18/42-toc/) - ARTReclaimed – Howard el-Yasin FICTIONThe Magazines – Bipin AuroraThe Emergency – Stephen CicirelliCity Clothes – James EnglishWinter – Scott Mashlana good man, a sorry man, a bad man – Ashton PolitanoffContinuous Aspect – Julian RoblesMiching Mallecho – Richard Pels GUEST FOLIOWritings of Gunnhild Øyehaug Translations by Kari DicksonTo Write Or Not To WriteMiniature Readings: – Realism as Magic– To Whistle with Madam Bovary’s Belt– A Shy Bird - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/08/24/42-robert-hayden-reflecting-on-those-goldenrods-of-his-childhood-by-deborah-h-doolittle/) - Robert Hayden Reflecting on Those Goldenrods of his Childhood Deborah H. Doolittle Late summers—when the woodsand fields around about becamesuddenly drenched in some degreeof green—took their cue from theirpeculiar sulfur-yellow hue:goldenrod. Spare of flower, scantof leaf, it towered above himas he walked through on his wayto school, unappreciative. Beesand the many little yellowbutterflies somehow knew - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/07/28/42-we-the-people-by-howard-el-yasin/) - We the People is excerpted from "Reclaimed," an art folio featuring sixteen works by Mr. el-Yasin. To view the full folio, please click here to purchase Post Road 42. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/07/27/42-julian-robles-continuous-aspect/) - Continuous Aspect Julian Robles Every month or so, late at night around two or three, J sends me stories about a character named V. V is J’s middle initial. V is like J. V has done most of the things J has done in his life, and has thought most of the thoughts J has. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/07/27/42-ashton-politanoff-a-good-man-a-sorry-man-a-bad-man/) - a good man, a sorry man, a bad man by Ashton Politanoff My wife was still at work. My son didn’t want to go to the park, but I needed to get outside. He had a fever, so I gave him a glass full of ice cubes and told him to suck on them during - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/06/09/42-to-write-or-not-to-write-gunnhild-oyehaug/) - To Write or Not to Write Gunnhild Øyehaug Translation by Kari Dickson First published in Draumeskrivar (Kolon forlag, 2016) Victoria can’t decide if she should write or not write to him. His name is Njål, and she met him at an interiors trade show. She was exhibiting furniture, he was a sound technician. They only - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/16/40-nathan-dragon-walking/) - Walking + The Ladder Nathan Dragon Walking I walk a lot. I like walking. I took a walk today just to get out of the apartment. Came back with a six-pack that I didn’t really need or want. Then I walked from the door to the fridge to the living room to the bathroom to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/04/22/42-suburban-eclogue-by-brian-simoneau/) - Suburban Eclogue Brian Simoneau Walk with me down the block. Noticethe rows of maples, perfectlystraight, evenly spaced from the roadand one another, precise linesrunning yard to yard, remainderof careful plans, prosperity’sspread to what once was forest, oncefarm—every golden age remadeover and over, parceled outand subdivided when footpathturned bridleway turned turnpike turnedtrolley turned traffic. Historysped up - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/04/10/5216/) - The Face is a Wild Land Cameron Darc It was one of those Parisian heat waves where hundreds of old people evaporate, leaving their apartments to their children or grandchildren. When my grandfather died, Maman purchased a one-way ticket for me to attend the funeral. It had been years since I last saw her. The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/08/28/41-stephen-mortland-white-boulders-husbands/) - White Boulders + Husbands by Stephen Mortland White Boulders They drove to the coast where they booked a room at a motel near the port. The room had green carpeted floors and a pink porcelain sink protruding from the wall next to the bed. They lay together and, after some time, he rolled toward her. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/03/41-toc/) - ARTThe Connectivity of Our World – The Sculptures of Susan Clinard FICTIONThe Face is a Wild Land – Cameron DarcSnow Day – Siamak VossoughiFlame Jumps the Gap – Matthew GordonBest True Love Stories – Nikki BarnhartWhite Boulders + Husbands – Stephen MortlandMulberry Noah PohlBadges – George Singleton GUEST FOLIOEdited by Elizabeth GraverIntroductionUntitled – Genevieve DeLeonSomewhere – Ramona ReevesAutumn Road - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2024/01/09/42-dorianne-laux-four-poems/) - Four Poems Dorianne Laux Garage Band for my brother, Jack My brother had one, my boyfriend.Every man I have loved loved music.Each song a pearl threaded onto a necklaceI have worn all my life. I see them,sitting on crates, guitars strappedover their chests, tools hungfrom rusty nails behind their heads,oil stains at their feet. A drum - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/03/41-guest-folio-introduction-elizabeth-graver/) - Guest Folio Introduction Elizabeth Graver I first met artist Mary Lum in 1994 at MacDowell, an artists’ residency program in rural New Hampshire, where we shared the gift of a month spent immersed in our own work inside a community of writers, artists, and composers. I don’t think I’m projecting back too much to say that - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/26/41-celia-cummiskey-crossing-stitches/) - Crossing Stitches Celia Cummiskey Ian got sick in the spring when the weather in New York was just warm enough to go without a sweater. It started out as a persistent cough, one that hurt his chest in a strange way. He had a presentation for an internship that week, part of his graduate program - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/17/41-susan-clinard-the-connectivity-of-our-world/) - Selections from The Connectivity of Our World Susan Clinard My body of work at its core is about connectivity: compositions that tell stories and speak about our shared humanity. After working for three decades with diverse communities in the arts, I have found the same desires, shared fears, and beauty throughout countless voices. My figurative - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/03/41-felicia-zamora-muse-found-in-a-colonized-body/) - Muse Found in a Colonized Body, by Yesenia Montilla Felicia Zamora Desire. Each of us longs for something, someone, sometime, some ___, some ___, some ___. Yesenia Montilla’s book Muse Found in a Colonized Body understands desire—the fruit, the phloem, the cambium, even the heartwood and pith, but most importantly, the roots. What does it - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/08/27/41-nikki-barnhart-best-true-love-stories/) - Best True Love Stories Nikki Barnhart I was on the subway when the child called me. It was a strange number, but I always picked up for strange numbers then: at any given time, I was texting a steady stream of different men off dating apps, and I never saved their names. I was training - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/03/41-robbie-gamble-ad-astra-graftings/) - Ad Astra + Graftings Robbie Gamble Ad Astra Fresh fox scat on the driveway yet againextrusions of purple berry mush strewn through with bitty rodent bones You’d think he ownedthe place and he does in deed if not on paper skulking the swale behind the wellheadresplendent in his rustiness last rays before dusk You and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/11/03/41-allison-field-bell-rectangle/) - Rectangle Allison Field Bell We’re in a house in Oakland—Chris’s house. Bicycles and typewriters adorn the living room. The kitchen is cramped and smells of rotting fruit. In the morning, light spills in through the kitchen window casting shadows of the potted herbs that live there. Chris’s bedroom is a mattress on the floor. It’s - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/03/40-a-molotkov-love-untranslated/) - Love, (Un)translated A. Molotkov An incident becomes a narrative becomes a drama, and grows a happy ending. Which is the real story, after all its parts have played out, changing us? It’s summer 1984. I’m sixteen. My friend Artem and I are at a discotheque in Repino, a suburban town on the Gulf of Finland - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-jahangir-hossain-poets-do-not-die/) - Poets Do Not Die Jahangir Hossain Translated from the Bengali by Lloyd Schwartz with Jahangir Hossain Like a waterfallI keep falling and falling,Finding myself again and againIn the vastness of The Ocean. Like a riverbank, I crumble, Then wake up again on The IslandTo shed the fatigue of the sailor Who traveled from a distant Continent. I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-alexis-pauline-gumbs-and-pauline-mckenzie-three-poems/) - bird of paradise + girl with cornrows holding hands with stalk + plot Alexis Pauline Gumbs bird of paradise and in her best imitation of a palm treeour heroine will show her musclesframe her crownstand on a stone bench to make herself tallarms stretched wide fingers reaching towards each other and in her stunning resemblance to the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/12/12/40-alexa-luborsky-mezuzah-a-bull-a-word-grief/) - Mezuzah + A bull = A word = Grief Alexa Luborsky Mezuzah let’s begin with a blessing for the doorway in this blessing we forget the wanderer who has no interest in rooms who holds onto transient things for shelter bless this wandering because it is our meeting let’s watch each other - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/17/40-john-robinson-the-borders-of-sleep/) - The Borders of Sleep John Robinson I have come to the borders of sleep The unfathomable deep Forest where all must lose Their way, however straight Or winding, soon or late; They cannot choose. “Lights Out” — Edward Thomas Owen Wolcott hanged himself on Ash Wednesday. His attempt at suicide, however, was thwarted when a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-river-adams-lucky/) - Lucky River Adams Father Aiden Brennan lined up the gun with a bottle of whiskey and a coffee mug on the table in his room, on the second floor of the rectory. The table was covered by a seasonal tablecloth, orange with grimacing brown pumpkins on it, some of whom had legs and others arms - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2023/01/15/35-ben-loory-it-is-illegal-to-enter-the-graveyard/) - It Is Illegal to Enter the Graveyard Ben Loory It is illegal to enter the graveyard if you are not dead. That’s the way it’s always been; that’s just how it is. When someone dies, we put them in a coffin and push it through a hole in the gate. And when we come back - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/23/40-ali-raz-spaghettification/) - Spaghettification Ali Raz Spaghettification is a scientific word. It refers to the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes (i.e. spaghetti) in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field. A black hole would generate such a field, for instance—and not much else. This means that the phenomenon is purely imaginary. It is - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/27/40-beth-suter-catfish-heart/) - Catfish Heart Beth Suter of course the fish didn’t want to be in the poemwould rather have been left to wallow in the muddy bottoms its scaleless skin soft against siltnot gutted, its heart left beating on the cutting boardas some lesson to a child but we were hungry and the image keeps feeding mehow a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/23/40-maggie-maize-there-and-back/) - There and Back Maggie Maize Mama and I wanted to see the country. We made the 3,409-mile train trip from Emeryville, California to Savannah, Georgia, where I’d start Savannah College of Art and Design and hopefully “figure it out.” *delays not included The double-decker Zephyr slowed to a crawl through the Sierras. We were behind - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/23/40-zozulka-hausler-lew-beautiful-things/) - Beautiful Things Zozulka Hausler Lew Corona. Only pharmacies and liquor stores will remain open. So everyone can get their drugs and their coronas. There is too much going on right now. I walk down the street frantically, paying no mind to the bodies around me. I’m just chasing after whatever sanity I have left, it - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/17/40-alice-hatcher-blood-covenant/) - Blood Covenant Alice Hatcher The morning she first saw the boy, the wind was blowing from the east, driving eddies of litter down the highway, past rutted fields and fence posts connected by strands of sagging barbed wire. She considered a distant pillar of dust bending in the atmosphere, casting shadow across the barren plain, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/25/40-day-heisinger-nixon-three-poems/) - Notes from a Field on Fire + Félix ­González-Torres–­ “Untitled”­ (billboard­ of ­an­ empty­ bed),­ 1991 + Multiclausal­ Exercises ­in­ Translation Day Heisinger-Nixon Notes from a Field on Fire The grasses the grasses the grasses are everywhere now, & none of them native to the landscape. Inside of my two bedroom, one bath apartment, I am recording from the field. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/17/40-dennis-mcfadden-fiddlers-green/) - Fiddler’s Green Dennis McFadden Richie phoned on Saturday night, needing money, needing food, needing his guitar strings and allergy meds, wondering if Cathy could drive them up to the camp tomorrow. The camp, if you could call it that, was off a backwoods road deep in the Adirondacks—Richie’d had to drive twenty-one miles to the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/16/40-tom-cowen-the-river-roux/) - The River Roux Tom Cowen The jasmine rice sits like a baseball split down the middle, a tangle of cork and string hidden by what’s on the outside. The mound has been perfectly rounded not by hand but by a utensil or small bowl. I slide the plate from the bartender and my nostrils are - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/10/10/40-jessica-alexander-the-pith/) - The Pith Jessica Alexander Thomas Wieland was dead, maybe dying. So, they held a pleasure ball in his honor. This was in Styria, beneath the Austrian mountains, where the larch trees swayed, and their castle’s ghastly head sat propped atop the neck of a dead volcano. You’re probably wondering who they are. So was Martin. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/12/19/30-alena-graedon-cesar-airas-an-episode-in-the-life-of-a-landscape-painter/) - César­ Aira’s­ An­ Episode­ in­ the ­Life­ of­ a ­Landscape­ Painter Alena Graedon We’ve grown a lush affection for the language of transformation. This hummus literally changed my life, we might say. Nothing’s been the same since I bought this new neck pillow/visited Spa Castle/watched The Wire. But how many things really imprint our existence? A handful - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/29/40-art-folio/) - Woodward­ Gallery—Gates­ Mural­ ProjectEldridge ­and ­Broome ­Streets,­ NYC Woodward Gallery has maintained its public art Project Space—devoted to emerging and established street artists and muralists—on Eldridge Street, in New York City, since 2008. Over the years, Woodward Gallery expanded this initiative to additional sites along Broome Street and Eldridge Street. Experienced in local neighborhood improvement - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/10/13/40-greg-mulcahy-fountain/) - Fountain Greg Mulcahy Driscoe told the long story, which Driscoe claimed originated with Cooboo, of two neighbors who plotted each other’s downfall, each seeking possession of the other's land. As narrator, Driscoe assured, he had nothing to do with, and no aligned interest for, either. Since this was a story, this narrator’s posture was, presumably, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/15/40-brock-clarke-charlotte/) - Brock Clarke Charlotte Charlotte asked her mother for money. To buy chips. Or gum. Maybe a hat. Most definitely birth control. What did it matter? But Charlotte’s mother said that it mattered to her, and besides, she didn’t have any money. “You can’t get blood from a stone,” Charlotte’s mother told her. “No kidding,” - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/15/40-irene-cox-r-damascene/) - R. damascene Irene Cox There were botanists who claimed that Rosa damascena was among the most important species of rose. Other experts did not concur. On the pro side, R. damascena, or the damask rose, was firstly an ornamental plant. You could say it was objectively beautiful, with short, intertwined petals — a complex frontispiece, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/17/40-daniel-david-froid-the-story-of-the-story-of-the-two-sisters/) - The Story of “The Story of the Two Sisters” Daniel David Froid That the little girl answered the door seemed the first sign that something was off. I don’t know: she was so small, and her checkered pinafore and carefully curled, mouse-colored hair made her seem smaller still, doll-like, but also deliberately so, an effect - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/23/40-melissa-hunter-gurney-the-woman-and-the-watcher/) - The Woman and the Watcher Melissa Hunter Gurney There’s an oddity that comes with being told you might die. An ability to float above yourself, as if you’re dead already. An eerie feeling that your insides have fallen out—left your body empty, yearning, while they watch from outside. You become two people—the woman and the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/23/40-gail-hosking-arlington-or-no-arlington/) - Arlington­ or ­No ­Arlington:­ That­ is ­the ­Question,­­ Or ­At ­Least ­One ­of ­Them­ Gail Hosking A veteran I met once named Bob, a former Mike Force Commander in Viet Nam, says he adored my father who was an enlisted man under his command, called me this week. “I know your dad wanted to be - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/25/40-fay-dillof-i-wish-it-were-enough-to-be-the-saddest-thing/) - I Wish It Were Enough to Be–– + The Saddest Thing Fay Dillof I Wish It Were Enough to Be–– the word that comes to mind is ducklike––go about saying nothing but thank, thank, thank you to the flowers in the tall grasses.There’s little to say about the body in pain. Little, in fact, when - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/25/40-chris-forhan-blizzard-dying-words/) - Blizzard + Dying Words Chris Forhan Blizzard That’s a good word—blizzard—blurred, swift, the sound fishing up from below a long ago downdraft, snow, fast flicksat my bedroom window, I was ten, fine film of water blearing the glass, orange slices in a bowl on the bedside table, beneath the needle the Beatles keening You don’t get me. Blizzard: - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-c-dale-young-mise-en-scene-the-nipple-fish/) - Mise en Scène + The Nipple Fish C. Dale Young Mise en Scène Indigo, aquamarine, turquoise, and a patchof seafoam: the eye notes it all as we standon the sand facing the sea. We always come back to the sea, its tireless monologue,the sky above as clear and just as blue.Between us, few words, the very - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/27/40-tom-paine-lets-be-mushrooms-night-blooming-cereus/) - Let’s Be Mushrooms + Night Blooming Cereus Tom Paine Let’s Be Mushrooms Let’s be mushrooms, you and I, when we die—we are not egotist trees, pith and heartwood,raging, cursing with raw bark and wild sap,shaking influencer fists at the bemused sky.We will do the work in the eternal crematory, roasting coffee and crimes; senators and saints.Little - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/27/40-suzanne-matson-guest-folio-introduction/) - Guest Folio Introduction Suzanne Matson Though I did not begin selecting for this folio with a theme in mind, the poems I was drawn to seemed to cluster around a tactic of pairing human longing and loss to the physical presence, and now, precarity, of the natural world. Whether it’s the poet’s self-entanglement with metaphorical - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/27/40-jennifer-barber-farmhouse-room-say-what-you-will/) - Farmhouse Room + Say What You Will Jennifer Barber Farmhouse Room A fly buzzes the windowthat looks out on a lineof sugar maples in bright leaf. Goats vocalize in the yard,plaintive; caesura; insistent;then the same again. If my friend were alive,would he tease me for taking timein the country, as if my staycould do the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-derek-sheffield-moon-garden-another-blue-sky/) - Moon Garden + Another Blue Sky Derek Sheffield Moon Garden “Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”– Wallace Stevens All winter the squares of wire fence keep nothing in and nothing out. No life among mounds of snow, onlyevery night’s alabaster glow until the stars with their stick bonesand quick tongues begin to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/27/40-wendy-cannella-gracilaria-or-when-she-grows-a-whole-new-body/) - Gracilaria, or When She Grows A Whole New Body Wendy Cannella It is in that thought that we collect ourselves, out of all the indifferences into one thing —Wallace Stevens, “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” Because I can’t think of — this morning on Long Sands I bend to lift up a clump of seaweed, purple-red, cemented into the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-nancy-dickeman-in-the-time-of-vanishing-kingdoms/) - In the Time of Vanishing Kingdoms Nancy Dickeman Out of nowhere, winds flare, a spark catches the oak, its bark chars while flames hollow the trunks of the stand of trees:a forest of candles. Miles away, the beach once walked uponis now the floor for an underwater kingdomof seaweed and fish in need,coral blanched and brittle at - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-will-dowd-sharks-in-3d/) - Sharks In 3D Will Dowd Your scent swims through the Omnitheater,full-bodied as these holographic hammerheads. It guides me through the dark,your notes of crushed acornsand burning leaves, upprecipitous steps, in my colored glasses. It’s how I find you among school groups and spectral herring.In this shark-infested dark, I could smell one drop of you. Will Dowd is a writer and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/11/28/40-christopher-merrill-what-i-cannot-remember/) - What I Cannot Remember Christopher Merrill Why the order was issued not to congregate in the main square to watch the lunar eclipse. Whose machete was raised on the riverbank, glistening with the blood of friends and foes alike—those who obeyed the edict against rigid interpretations of the law and those who did not. The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/26/38-tara-isabel-zambrano-the-speed-of-the-living-and-mother-false/) - The Speed of the Living + Mother, False Tara Isabel Zambrano The Speed of the Living It was late at night when my mother died, my brother and I didn’t cry because she had been sick too long, we paced back and forth after the doctor left and the nurses wheeled out the blank monitors, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-05/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #05 | Spring/Summer 2004 CRITICISM: Hip Hop High: Mainstream Black Culture in the White Suburbs, by Lauren Sandler POETRY: Twin Cities, No Sign + Before, by Jenny BrowneIt's Late Here How Light Is Late Once You've Fallen + Elegy to the Last Breath, by Katie FordShadow of the Valley + - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/09/10/robert-lopez-scar/) - Scar Robert Lopez This Deborah talks out of the left side of her mouth, as if she's trying to keep what she says secret from her own right ear. She wears three or four earrings in each one. Two hoops of equal size and little silver balls that trail up her lobes like tracks. I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/08/11/41-gf-cfs/) - Call for Submissions: A Picture's Worth 1000 500 Words Between September 15 and October 31 2022, we're soliciting flash fiction, lyric essays, prose poems or single-page comics inspired by the (untitled) image below by artist Mary Lum. This image will also appear on the cover of Issue 41, and Guest Editor Elizabeth Graver – in consultation - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/05/19/web-exclusive-marston-hefner-my-mother-caught-on-fire/) - My Mother Caught on Fire by Marston Hefner The fire extinguisher was locked behind a glass case outside our apartment’s door and I hit the case as hard as I could with my thick coat. Still, the glass pierced and was accompanied by a searing pain in my left elbow where the shard protruded. Having - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/13/39-douglas-mac-neil-the-diptera/) - The Diptera Douglas Mac Neil Dear God, I have thought about writing to you for some time now. The problem I keep coming back to is that you are omniscient. You have read this letter before I have written it. But I think also, that you knew Saint Augustine’s Confessions before he wrote them down, before he - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-leslie-sainz-liberation-war-on-national-tv/) - Liberation War + On National TV Leslie Sainz Liberation War Dos Ríos, Cuba, 1895 It began beneath a children’s moon. The fish in the river stagnant as earlobes, their bluelessness appearing sudden. I was sitting on my hands. Daughtering. At first, I didn’t see the soldier braiding sleep among the vine, but his horse, white, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/26/39-greg-tebbano-lights-will-not-illuminate-the-exits/) - Lights Will Not Illuminate the Exits Greg Tebbano You’ve never driven drunk. Sure. And you’ve never texted. And you’ve never fumbled with the touch screen to skip “Changes” on Sabbath IV. And you’ve never nearly dozed off into a guardrail or missed a bend in the road indicated by a thousand yellow arrows. You’ve never - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/25/39-darina-sikmashvili-mine/) - Mine Darina Sikmashvili Everything in this house was first another’s. I am tired of our bedsheets, frayed from endless wash. I am tired of the green carpet crawling up the hallway, rubbed dull from stains never removed. The owner is a witch, her hair in thick black rubber coils around her eyes. Her crooked mouth, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/05/12/39-elizabeth-awalt-below-beneath-beyond/) - Below, Beneath,­ and­ Beyond Elizabeth Awalt “My brother asked the birds to forgive him: that sounds senseless, but it is right; for all is like an ocean, all is flowing and blending; a touch in one place sets up movement at the other end of the earth.”—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamozov My work is rooted in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/11/39-supritha-rajan-the-river-landscape-as-interior/) - The River + Landscape as Interior Supritha Rajan The River It remembers everything. White tufts the cottonwoods shook free. Leaves that papered its face with gold and vermillion eyes and in their afterlife became wine-red cargo the light at every depth cycles through. How a sky of barely moving clouds each day made legible the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/12/39-l-favicchia-the-dog-doesnt-die/) - The Dog Doesn’t Die L Favicchia I had nightmares long after Father had drained the marsh, and it was a while before I could hold frogs again, afraid they may try to avenge themselves on me, bubble up through holes in my back, leave me always open. The Suriname toad gives birth this way, burying - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/06/39-mike-barrett-postcard-from-home/) - Postcard from Home + Fledging Mike Barrett Postcard from Home In sepia a tractor resting in sagebrush and snow, rusting, resigned to wind. A foreshortened farmhouse, windows bereft of glass. Last, a mountain range. Among a hundred others in a Billings second-hand store a day before my flight. A place, passing, someone paused to take - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/05/12/issue-39/) - ARTBelow, Beneath, and Beyond — Elizabeth Awalt CRITICISMDuality of Race: Examining Adrian Piper’s Work Through the Lens of Biracialism — Vanessa Gregorchik FICTIONMedication — Eric BuechelThe Turn — Christina CraigoThe Dog Doesn’t Die — L FavicchiaSky, Ladder, Cow, Lantern, Lake, Flowers, Heaven — Shane JonesDurée — Christopher KangActaeon at the Movies — Eric LundgrenThe Diptera — Douglas Mac NeilDouble Happiness — Louise MarburgSalt of the Earth — Vi Khi NaoMine — Darina SikmashviliLights Will Not Illuminate the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/05/14/4376/) - ART:Elizabeth Awalt CRITICISM: Vanessa Gregorchik FICTION: Eric Buechel, Christina Craigo, L Favicchia, Shane Jones, Christopher Kang, Eric Lundgren, Douglas Mac Neil, Louise Marburg, Vi Khi Nao, Darina Sikmashvili, Greg Tebbano, Allison Titus GUEST FOLIO: Edited by Allison Adair: Yalie Saweda Kamara, Maurice Manning, Philip Metres, Matthew Olzmann, Leslie Sainz, Mary Meriam, Gaia Rajan NONFICTION:Brittany Ackerman, Cara Lynn - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-yalie-saweda-kamara-memorializing-nia-wilson-100-blessings/) - Memorializing ­Nia­ Wilson:­100­ Blessings Yalie Saweda Kamara Bless your 18 years.Bless the 19th, if even spent from an Oakland in the hereafter.Bless an unnamed eternity.Bless the stibnite hue of flight. My good God:Bless the ánima, and everything in and around the body.Bless the mandible; the deep ecru of bone; the 32 teeth.Bless the sepia organ: - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/13/39-eric-lundgren-actaeon-at-the-movies/) - Actaeon at the Movies Eric Lundgren A trenchcoated man staggers toward the marquee. The secondhand coat is only a slightly different hue from his mottled skin, rumpled and creased as parchment. He attends every screening at the revival house. The same film twice a night, plus the matinee on weekends. Upon arrival, after flashing his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-v/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Vallance, Sarah Heart - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-z/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Zabalbeascoa, Julian The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-y/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Yapp, Margaret The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-x/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Xi, Xu The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-w/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Wade, Barry K. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/04/04/39-matthew-olzmann-getaway-driver/) - Getaway Driver Matthew Olzmann In the movies, the getaway driver wears sunglasses. He’s patient while waiting, staring through the windshield as if bored by all this tension. Never a bead of sweat. Never a nervous glance in the rearview mirror. Here come his conspirators, scampering from the crime scene, diving into the car’s open windows. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/12/22/39-mehdi-m-kashani-the-architect/) - The Architect Mehdi M. Kashani A play in one act CHARACTERSTHE PRISONER: 66, barefoot, in striped pajamas. Long tousled hair. Unshaven face, a week’s worth of growth. THE VISITOR: 60, in a white shirt tucked into belted black pants. A dark coat over his shirt. Crew-cut hair and groomed mustache. He looks younger than his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-maurice-manning-soup/) - Soup Maurice Manning I had a few potatoes once that I’d set aside to use for seed, but I was hungry and I thought resourceful, so I cut out the eyes with an old knife, hoping to save a few for spring. Left on the board, jagged and lopped, the potatoes looked like a map - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/04/04/39-sm-stubbs-uncertainty-sparring-after-sunset/) - Uncertainty + Sparring After Sunset SM Stubbs Uncertainty That the body is a cruel steward is not a revelation. For two straight weeks you watch the staff take blood, x-rays, and MRIs, watch them fill a fridge with vials of your mother’s vital fluids and still the doctors at St. Mary’s can’t diagnose the swelling. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-laura-villareal-imagine-us-the-swarm-by-muriel-leung/) - IMAGINE US, THE SWARM, by Muriel Leung Laura Villareal During my teen years and early twenties, I was a total poser. I’d emulate my friends and the media I consumed without much thought while feeling a low-frequency grief, which I now recognize as rooted in my lack of authenticity. I tried too hard to be - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-andrew-bertaina-time-passes-on-unfinished-things/) - Time Passes: On Unfinished Things Andrew Bertaina I remember endless summer days as a child--days spent in blistering California heat, roaming through the grass, climbing the towering cumquat tree, holding my finger out to crickets, or letting out a long parabolic rope of pee onto the juniper. Why did the summer days--the crickets chirping, the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-mj-clark-the-summer-i-nearly-drowned/) - The Summer I Nearly Drowned MJ Clark Even if Peter was still alive and we still hung out like we did when we were kids and he still went down the beach and wasn’t put off by all the sand and the flies and the people and didn’t live closer to the city beaches and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-philip-metres-sweet-cathedral/) - Sweet Cathedral Philip Metres It’s true, my Egyptian art museum docent, a baby changes one hundred times the first year— the itching of infant skin, I Ching of small change and key chains that draw her infant eyes like flecks of fire. No changeling she, she - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/04/04/39-philip-metres-elegy-for-the-cd/) - Elegy for the CD Philip Metres To extract, surgically, the impossible shrink wrap lock, like some postmodern bra, (having searched through bin after cut- out bin for something cut- rate that might cut out your heart), and slip in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-philip-metres-plague-psalm-19/) - Plague Psalm 19 Philip Metres The heavens distract from the gnashing of ants And from your mouth pour forth doom after doom. The shaking fist proclaims the wound of your brand— Nightmare upon nightmare sprout from your moon. You’ve pitched termites into our wooden house, And cloud upon cloud - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/14/39-louise-marburg-double-happiness/) - Louise Marburg Double Happiness Gretchen didn’t know anyone at Evan’s party, and hadn’t expected to, but she’d hoped she might meet some new people, fresh friends to enliven the long winter. She searched for an amiable face in the crowd as she crabbed her way across the wide loft, encountering mouths and noses, necks and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/11/pr39-mulalu-massachusetts-october/) - Massachusetts+October Tawanda Mulalu Massachusetts … you too, you said with the breath of my lungs. There is only this bed. Another one of your hairs appears. I am despite decay, whispers this thinning abdomen. Quietly, a planet’s plates shift. A haunched forehead wrinkling my father’s face. And another face behind his neck. I will grow similarly. Meanwhile, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/14/39-vi-khi-nao-salt-of-the-earth/) - Salt Of The Earth Vi Khi Nao Sleep is a place where the soul goes to die. And, sometimes it gets lost on its way to its own funeral. And, this is why we don’t always wake up. The passenger has recently given a five-star rating to a relatively young Asian man an Uber review, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-matthew-olzmann-except-for-the-cloud-of-doom-that-hangs-over-everything/) - Except for the cloud of doom that hangs over everything Matthew Olzmann I’m fine. Aside from the way it casts its wide shadow widely; if not for that— All good here! Nothing here to see! I hate to even mention this one little catastrophe on a list that could have included Water Elf Disease, the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/06/39-moolten-heimlich-silkwood/) - Heimlich + Silkwood David Moolten Heimlich For Shira In German, it's just a word that means secret, like a three-year-old in the dining room, no witnesses crowding around as at the Y where I'd stand like a dummy asking one are you okay? before going through the motions, the important things moron-proof like footprints painted - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-maurice-manning-walking-into-the-distance/) - Walking into the Distance Maurice Manning Midsummer and the path in the woods is dark. I cannot see its end or rather what I know to be its sudden fading at the fence before an unkempt lonely field. I cannot see the other end when I look back, midway on the walk I’ve taken, stepping - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/05/39-diana-raab-how-storytelling-gave-me-hope-and-perspective/) - How Storytelling Gave Me Hope and Perspective Diana Raab I’ve always been somewhat obsessed with reading and hearing stories that offer a sense of perspective and hope. Over the past six decades, I’ve earned my chance to share my own thoughts and stories passed down from my ancestors. I was blessed to have grandparents who - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/26/39-david-philip-mullins-daring-to-be-different/) - Daring to Be Different: The Merits of Narrative Ingenuity David Philip Mullins My love for fiction has its origins in the fundamentals: voice, characterization, and plot. I don’t expect anything revolutionary or pyrotechnic, only that a narrative has been fashioned with expert skill. Precise, elegant prose; a convincing, engaging protagonist; a compelling, unpredictable storyline—these are - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-maurice-manning-thousandlegger/) - Thousandlegger Maurice Manning Big with wonder and daylight behind it, my head’s shadow fell on the floor of the open root cellar door and the thousandlegger crept inside it with careful, sideways ticking steps over the cold dirt, preferring the round defining darkness made from the dome I carried on my shoulders to contain what - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/04/04/39-katie-berta-two-poems/) - WHEN I ASK MYSELF, WILTINGLY, “TO WHAT HAS MY LIFE BEEN REDUCED?” THIS IS THE ANSWER + AFTER I WAS RAPED THE SECOND TIME, I LOST 40 POUNDS, Katie Berta WHEN I ASK MYSELF, WILTINGLY, “TO WHAT HAS MY LIFE BEEN REDUCED?” THIS IS THE ANSWER Checking the tracking for the package that has still - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/26/39-leah-hampton-on-17776/) - On 17776, A Not-Book by Jon Bois Leah Hampton Books, especially novels, are magic rectangles, tidy story boxes we can open and fall safely into at any time. Ain’t it cozy here? Either in hardcopy or as mobile downloads, the relatively firm structure(s) of the novel remind us of a story’s separateness from daily life, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/12/39-christina-craigo-the-turn/) - The Turn Christina Craigo 8/22/18 The Turn happened on a Thursday, on October 7, a day when I was concerned about a finance exam, and where I was going to spend my winter break, and whether I could afford to do any of the internships that interested me. It happened to me because of other - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/05/39-ted-lardner-agate/) - Agate Ted Lardner The last time I saw Craig, I was curled against the spare tire in the trunk of his mom’s car. He was reaching up to close the trunk. I saw a belt loop, the side of his jeans. “No!” he yelled, then he slammed the lid. That was on a Monday. It - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/04/05/39-vanessa-gregorchik-duality-of-race-examining-adrian-pipers-work-through-the-lens-of-biracialism/) - Duality of Race: Examining Adrian Piper’s Work Through the Lens of Biracialism Vanessa Gregorchik July 19, 2021 In every aspect of Adrian Piper’s work, there exists a dichotomy: between artist or audience, intent or impact, reality or metaphor. Her sense of self has been historically split in half, or in even greater fragments, as she - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/26/39-allison-titus-northeast-regional/) - Northeast Regional Allison Titus The train makes a grammar / of our distance / as it glides up and down / the East Coast. / It’s sunrise. / We’re in the future of our hearts now. / Out the window: Fever of marsh; / two deer; / shopping cart toppled / in a ditch beside - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/06/39-robert-warf-wreckage/) - Wreckage Robert Warf There’s a recurring vision I see when I’m alone of a graveyard of burning trucks, of big burning trucks, and when I see it, I like to think I am seeing the grave of the big truck I watched burn. Of the life I watched burn. Of myself. Of a night on - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-gaia-rajan-prodigy/) - Prodigy Gaia Rajan We hated Alice, the ache of it burning in our throats and coming up white hot when she won an audition or booked front page on county news, a profile full of people testifying that yes, we knew her, yes, that girl, she was really something. She was fleeing which I thought - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/04/39-cara-lynn-albert-rating-food-i-purged-in-sydney-as-i-walk-three-miles-to-weigh-myself/) - Rating Food I Purged in Sydney as I Walk Three Miles to Weigh Myself Cara Lynn Albert Lord of the Fries is on my right when I pull my phone from my back pocket. I don’t have to search long to find Kyle’s number. Of the last ten calls I have made or received, his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-mary-meriam-a-dream/) - A Dream Mary Meriam A northwest current cut the heat in half so cold could bloom and gust in cedar boughs. I sleep with fleece on head and feet, my cat curled in my arm’s fleece pit. As midnight bows to early hours, heat of fleece awakes a dream. As walls dissolve, her face appears, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/28/39-matthew-burnside-no-exit-a-gallery-of-existential-horrors/) - No Exit: A Gallery Of Existential Horrors Matthew Burnside Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes. Everything has been figured out, except how to live. —Jean-Paul Sartre [Roll D20] #0 The numinous zero, as we know it today, wasn’t invented until 628 CE. Medieval Christians feared it for what it represented—The Void, and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/01/04/39-brittany-ackerman-fallow-periods/) - Fallow Periods Brittany Ackerman I. In sixth grade, our homeroom teacher brings a full-length mirror to class. He makes us get up, one by one, stand in front of the mirror, and tell ourselves we are beautiful. We are eleven, twelve. We have just eaten lunch and are in the time of day between the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-u/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Underwood, Joyce Ann - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-t/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Talbot, Kellie Sputniks - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-s/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Sainz, Leslie Liberation - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-r/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Raab, Diana How - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-q/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Quinn, Casey Grandpaps - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-p/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Pack, Robert Bubbie - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-o/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Oates, Joyce Carol* - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-n/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Nadelson, Scott The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2022/03/07/index-i/) - Index A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Iagnemma, Karl Italian - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/26/38-casey-haymes-midday-clusters/) - Midday Clusters Casey Haymes Giovanna rubs sunblock over and around the mole on her shin. Her eyes slide over him as her knees lower into sand. Waves and breeze, salty air in Marc’s mind and lungs. Her shoulders smell like basil. Her thick hair doesn’t dry after a swim. He calculates the number of nearby - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/06/14/38-jeremy-klemin-dalinian-triangle/) - Dalinian Triangle Jeremy Alves da Silva Klemin She is calling my bluff. She is calling my bluff and looking at me challengingly and already knows what I’m going to say. I tell her I’d like to go with her, but my phone is dead and I would have no way of getting back to the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/09/02/issue-38/) - ARTGhosts — Roycer FICTIONTravel, Travel — Wayne ContiThe Last Field — Colin FlemingGoddess — Mary GranfieldSick — Colter JacksonSad in New York — Elise JuskaDeath of a Daughter-in-Law — Judith LichtendorfWay of the Dog — Douglas SilverMermaid — Gregory SpatzRenunciation — Diane YatchmenoffPoker — Trevor CreightonMidday Clusters — Casey HaymesNONFICTIONAnchored — Rachel FleishmanHodads in Wonderland - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-elizabeth-deanna-morris-lakes-berry-grass-hall-of-waters/) - Camellia-Berry Grass’s Hall of Waters Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes About six months ago, right before everything really shut down, my kid found my copy of Camellia-Berry Grass’s Hall of Waters, which I had just had Grass sign. He became fixated on it. He liked the cover, liked the author photo in the back, but most - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/06/38-chetla-sebree-joy-priests-horsepower/) - Joy Priest’s Horsepower Chet’la Sebree There are writers you know and writers you know. Some of the writers you know because you navigated an MFA together or bonded over meals at a residency. Other writers you know from a nexus of people with whom you are connected through one-off encounters at conferences and readings or—commonly, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/06/38-erika-t-wurth-brandon-hobson/) - Brandon Hobson: The Cherokee Novelist Who Quietly Kicked Off the Fifth Wave in Native American Fiction Erika T. Wurth Like myself, Native American author Brandon Hobson was quietly publishing novels with independent presses for years, to very little fanfare save a few glowing reviews in places like The Atticus Review, Electric Literature, and Green Mountains - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-richard-z-santos-on-one-hundred-years-of-solitude/) - On One Hundred Years of Solitude Richard Z. Santos No novel needs a recommendation less than Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel floats above every novel, perfect and removed like Remedios the Beauty, while simultaneously serving as a foundational piece for the Latin American “boom,” modern family epics, and somehow both - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/26/38-kim-chinquee-how-do-you-roll-and-im-still-a-little-sassy/) - How Do You Roll? and I’m Still a Little Sassy Kim Chinquee How Do You Roll? Things I love about my new home: having a full spread on the bed if I want. Bright colors. Lighting candles. The whir of the transit busses passing. Keeping my life clean. Being organized. Being able just to find - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-dan-chelotti-i-love-you-joe-ceravolo-sweet-venus-feldspar/) - I Love You, Joe Ceravolo + Sweet Venus + Feldspar Dan Chelotti I Love You, Joe Ceravolo If you can think crushed lollipopThen you can be the antYou won’t mind the lack of sunOr the reek of distant harborsSinging farewell in this lightThe shadow of stretched elmThe umber ofThe quiet turnThe shadow of parsleyThe silent - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-carl-phillips-this-is-the-light/) - This is the Light Carl Phillips This is the deep light you’ve waited for, unfiltered exceptnow and then by the memory of your first time seeing it,soon the night-dark after that, filling with sounds that werestrange only from your own mixed perspective as the lateststranger to have passed through by accident, if there’s such a thing. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-benjamin-aleshire-deepfake-ashbery/) - Deepfake Ashbery Benjamin Aleshire "Let's go for a stroll to the river!" ejaculated Diane.And though you’ve already beheld the river onso very many placid occasions your voice-boxmakes that sound again, that Waterloo "Yes, yes let's"tootling in your throat. After all you admireDiane for her chandelier, so many crystal wisheslucid in the lubricious half-light, but you - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-mark-defoe-our-friend-karl/) - Our Friend Karl Mark DeFoe “Why should I call your name/when I know you’re to blame/for making me blue”Wasted Days and Wasted Nights– Freddy Fender Truth was, his life was like our own, rich withcliché and heart-numbing sorrow. He wenttoo far or often never far enough. He could not workup enough self-tortureor good old guilt - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-gordon-kippola-a-habit-from-tikrit-fleeing-never-pleasure-island/) - A Habit from Tikrit + Fleeing Never-Pleasure Island Gordon Kippola A Habit from Tikrit My war was softer than the infantry’s,but patriotic terrorists fired rocketsat our FOB most days. Insurgent assholeswould have blown my limbs off happily,or sent my now-ex-wife a jigsaw pile.Within a month I think, fuck the dead hadjis in all their meaningless - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-sarah-audsley-the-pond-origins-forms-eight-sijos/) - The Pond + Origins & Forms: Eight Sijos Sarah Audsley The Pond Because I knew better, but wanted to anyway,because he hesitated ever so slightly when I asked,because I felt my skin as naked and taut,because I wanted to feel, becausehe told me a secret about himself,because I didn’t know what else to dobut jump— - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-david-m-sheridan-infrared/) - Infrared David M. Sheridan On this fall day in Michigan, we all gather on the screened-in porch, protectedfrom the cold by a technologically advanced heater hung from the ceiling.Our host explains that this space-age device generates infrared light:“It heats objects, not the air.” At first this seems like a routine piece of information, akin to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-serhiy-zhadan-regina-derieva-aleksandr-blok-three-poems-translated-by-ilya-kaminsky-katie-farris/) - Three Poems Translated by Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris The First Aerial Bombardment Serhiy Zhadan, translated from the Ukrainian by Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris The street. A woman zigzags the street. A pause. By the greengroceryshe hesitates.Must she buy bread? there is not – is there enough? – not enoughbread?Must she buy bread now, or - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/38-adam-scheffler-the-butterfly-house-climate-change/) - The Butterfly House + Climate Change Adam-Scheffler The Butterfly House For a full monthonce each year,cops, skin cancer doctors,and TSA agentsshould be made to worksecurity at the insecthouse of the Miamibotanical gardens,and, positioned in theairlock security roombetween the green house& egress, shouldhave to pat peopledown impersonally,extendingflat fingers, carefulnot to harm thesecret beauty eachbody might hold. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/11/margaret-yapp-the-light-the-light-the-light-the-light-one-two/) - The Light the Light the Light the Light (One + Two) Margaret Yapp The Light the Light the Light the Light (One) I’m trying to pray togod so I can stop thinking aboutgod & about the first uncut dick I ever saw & tenderness & about howhorny I am & how tendernessdoesn’t matter today & - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/10/mark-halliday-frugality/) - Frugality Mark Halliday Safe Despair it is that raves –I who am apt to get tearful about any instance,fictional or real, of loyal love that defies timeor defies prudent self-interest or defies embarrassmentor the pressure of social convention, I am probablyone sort of person whose visible emotion made Dickinsonnarrow her fathoming eyes – Dickinson - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/31/lauren-hilger-two-poems/) - Two poems by Lauren Hilger-"State Fair" and “Diadems—drop—” as part of Post Road's Web Exclusives Series—to appear also in Print Issue 38. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-kaitlyn-airy-sabbath-i-will-not-be-embalmed-and-placed-behind-an-iron-gate/) - Sabbath + I will not be embalmed and placed behind an iron gate Kaitlyn Airy Sabbath O stark staring lark winter-rank of thirst ravish then this rare acre this dark brave seed. Under this belfry my hymn: the swollen hips of sordid flowers. Darkest darling lantern-faced among husks admonish me your fever. I will not - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-jay-wamsted-sticks-and-stones/) - Sticks and Stones Jay Wamsted I was posted up outside my door one day, greeting students as they wandered in for class, when Michael came back outside to speak. “I was in this store yesterday,” he started, nodding at his classmates as they made their way past us, “and this man was super weird to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/09/01/3231/) - New Year’s Day Helena Rho Staring at the peeling floral wallpaper in my dimly lit kitchen, I feel the first regret of the New Year. It is noon, January 1, 2003. I am hosting a Korean New Year’s banquet, and my sisters and their families will be here in an hour. I wonder why I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-reverie-koniecki-middle-passages/) - Middle Passages Reverie Koniecki I am in middle school. There is a slight incline in the stretch of hallway between homeroom and French class. I stop at my locker. Turn the dial. Spin. Right. Left. Right. Click. An open door. Books in hand. Three minutes until the bell rings. A hand reaches from behind me - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-brandi-handley-adult-education/) - Adult Education Brandi Handley After a good fifteen minutes, Hailey and I are still stuck on a volume problem. Find the volume of the cube. This should be an easy question—just plug the numbers into the formula. But the answer she and I keep coming up with does not match the answer in the back - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-nance-van-winckel-four-essays/) - Four Essays Nance Van Winckel Shortly Before the First Time My Nephew Went to Jail His last semester had briefly floated towards him and then away. As he watched the enormity retreat, a spring wind hurled the finally-dry fall leaves at his face. I called him inside. I was a heavy beam he'd have to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/01/38-helen-sitler-on-inis-mor/) - On Inis Mór Helen Sitler Under strong winds in late October, the ferry rocks on the sea as I sail toward Inis Mór, off Ireland’s west coast. I look ahead to where gray sky melds into gray horizon and struggle to maintain my balance. Men wearing trousers and sports jackets, unlikely clothing for visiting an - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-phillip-hurst-hodads-in-wonderland/) - Hodads in Wonderland Phillip Hurst “OB,” read the sign at The Tilted Stick, “WHERE THE DEBRIS MEETS THE SEA.” The Stick was a dingy pool hall catty-corner from my new apartment, the sort of place where, come last call, drunk and lonely men fought like woebegone dogs, howling and bleeding in the spilt beer; - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-rachel-fleishman-anchored/) - Anchored Rachel Fleishman My ten-year-old son spent the afternoon with six friends imagining a parallel dimension while I looped our dog at the edges of the park. They splashed through the creek with walkie-talkies to escape from Russian soldiers, chased a Demogorgon along the ravine, hid behind tree stumps, all the while over-and-outing about the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/22/38-diane-yatchmenoff-renunciation/) - Renunciation Diane Yatchmenoff Mornings were hard for Myra. Many days she huddled under the covers in the pre-dawn hours, clutching a pillow tight to her belly, fighting rising consciousness, feeling the urge to claw with both hands at the soft place above the solar plexus, tear out the snarl of writhing tentacles that formed in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/06/38-douglas-silver-way-of-the-dog/) - Way of the Dog Douglas Silver Clark Rodney moved into Piper Mansion during the summer I walked dogs. Technically, it wasn’t a mansion—a granite three-story colonial with porte cochère and wraparound porch that reminded me of commercials hawking powdered lemonade—but this was Axle Junction. A boil on the wrist of Michigan that hadn’t manufactured a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/05/03/38-judith-lichtendorf-death-of-a-daughter-in-law-2/) - Death of a Daughter-in-Law by Judith Lichtendorf Like she’d done something wrong, like it was her fault for taking them out of the freezing-cold city, treating them to a week in Florida, in February, the height of the season, in a motel directly on the beach. Her son, Steven, was a consultant for start-ups in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/26/38-colter-jackson-sick/) - Sick Colter Jackson Before they knew he was into killing, Wilson Ash held our mother around the waist and slow danced at the town hall. We imagine the long fingers of his small, feminine hands pressing into the curve of our mother’s body, her pale, chiffon dress damp with her glandular teenage sweat, Patsy Cline - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/26/38-mary-granfield-goddess/) - Goddess Mary Granfield Jasmine got through the security checkpoint, relieved the cage didn’t cause a hitch. So far, Phaedra, her Siamese cat, was calm. Jasmine wondered if the sedative she’d sprinkled on Phaedra’s food had already taken effect; it wouldn’t be good if she woke up too soon, when they were still airborne. She lifted - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/02/12/38-colin-fleming-the-last-field/) - The Last Field Colin Fleming Of fields, my father had three. Right behind the house was an extended lawn that went on for about a football field and a half. This eased into a couple hundred yards of ground that had a small corn patch on the left side, with a rangy vegetable garden on - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/38-wayne-conti-travel-travel/) - Travel, Travel Wayne Conti There were no differences, no, there weren’t. For Dana and for Mark, together, but isolated together, comparisons were impossible because there were no references there in France in Paris. They knew no one, nothing. They daren’t fight. The hard white skin of a delivery truck and the smooth white skin of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/06/02/38-roycer-ghosts/) - Ghosts Roycer The ghost reflects and masks my identity as it relates to the work that I do on the streets and how I depict the ghost in a peaceful - almost playful - manner that expresses the reality of who I am. It's important for the viewers to distinguish that my inner self is - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/08/12/web-exclusive-ali-raz-spaghettification/) - Spaghettification by Ali Raz Spaghettification is a scientific word. It refers to the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes (i.e. spaghetti) in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field. A black hole would generate such a field, for instance – and not much else. This means that the phenomenon is purely - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/06/29/39-shane-jones-sky-ladder-cow-lantern-lake-flowers-heaven/) - Sky, Ladder, Cow, Lantern, Lake, Flowers, Heaven Shane Jones From the novel Young Forest The hotel PDC was found online for two hundred dollars off the original price. Melanie had celebrated with half a beer and then immediately felt guilty because she imagined the alcohol infusing with her breast milk and brain damaging Julian. In the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/06/23/web-exclusive-eric-buechel-medication/) - Medication by Eric Buechel Jesse was staring down at her when I walked into the room. His face looked puffy like he’d been crying. He leaned down, kissed his mother on the cheek, and whispered something I couldn’t hear. A picture of the two of them hung on a thin nail in the bedroom. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/11/mermaid-by-gregory-spatz/) - Mermaid Gregory Spatz Tonight Charlie’s stuck with the mermaid she likes least, Belinda. What Charlie dislikes about her is that she hopes she’ll never turn out like her – late forty-something, thick skinned, hair chopped to just above her ears to minimize the chlorine damage, and a wry, know-it-all, joylessness about the job. Belinda has - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/06/10/web-exclusive-peter-markus-three-poems/) - Three Poems by Peter Markus The Song and the River The days pile up, one on top of the other, until we are standing on top of a mountain looking out at a sky with no sun or moon. Not even the stars ask who we are. Even the sound of our own voiceinside our - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/21/web-exclusive-sam-fishman-living-with-molly/) - Living with Molly by Sam Fishman One time Molly grabbed my face in both her hands and said: One day you’re going to get bored of me because I’m fucking boring, Sam. One day you’re going to send me away from you because you’re a scared little boy who never had to learn better, and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/04/07/web-exclusive-elizabeth-ellen-three-poems/) - Three Poems by Elizabeth Ellen Untitled love poem/bumfuck Michigan It's impossible to write a love poemWithout sounding like a dickWithout sounding like you've had a lobotomyWithout sounding like cliché words written on mediocre art at a small midwestern art festivalSomewhere in bumfuck Michigan The unspecificity of your own stupid romanceThe general uninterestingness of happiness It's - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/31/web-exclusive-ryan-ridge-and-mel-bosworth-three-days/) - Three days from The Weird Years by Ryan Ridge and Mel Bosworth The Day the Missionaries Came to the Door I spied them through the peephole and thought, okay, let’s have some fun. “One second,” I said, and then I went out the back door and circled to the front. I took my phone from my back pocket - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/25/web-exclusive-michele-zimmerman-breadcrumbs-to-home/) - Breadcrumbs to Home by Michele Zimmerman 17. Jenn sits at yellow Formica table and eats a deli sandwich with turkey, ham, salami, and provolone cheese. Her daughter, Chrysanthemum, is on a camping trip. Her wife, Sadie, is out of town visiting her mother. The car is at an auto body shop about ten minutes of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/16/web-exclusive-garielle-lutz-cheap-night/) - Garielle Lutz's story "Cheap Night" from the Upcoming Story Collection Worsted - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/03/03/web-exclusive-oliver-zarandi-continue-to-live/) - Continue to Live by Oliver Zarandi My entire family died over one weekend. Perished. There was mom, dad, my sisters, my brothers, my aunt, my uncle, my grandma on dad’s side, a great uncle who wasn’t so great and was, in fact, a parasite, and two dogs, both called “Barney” — the quote marks being - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/02/14/38-guillermo-stitch-the-house/) - The House Guillermo Stitch Raindrops spattered here and there as Will crossed the street on a diagonal, eyes on the house numbers but unable to read any till he’d reached the other side and found one within range of his short sight. A few leaves blew about in flurries as the street lamps came on. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/02/17/web-exclusive-christopher-kang-duree/) - Durée by Christopher Kang Written distantly on a Wednesday while waiting for my bed sheets to dry, this poem intends alongside failure, confluent with a version of this world that’s all categories and comfort. I once told a friend, “I never feel like I’m done with a poem. Usually, it’s done with me.” That having been - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/02/03/web-exclusive-elle-nash-ideation/) - Ideation by Elle Nash It began when she moved in below their apartment, or maybe it began a week after when the boyfriend came downstairs to ask for a cup of sugar for a cake, or maybe it began a week after that when the girlfriend knocked on the door and asked for a cigarette - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/01/26/web-exclusive-tom-laplaige-some-manors/) - Some Manors by Tom Laplaige Our doormat used to be a dentist. That was before, in a country we’d never heard of. Our riches, invasive as ivy, needed little encouragement to keep prospering, but in the midst of all of this effortless accumulation, our souls ached with emptiness. When we married, Victoria was still writing - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/01/20/vanessa-stone-in-a-sentimental-mood/) - In a Sentimental Mood By Vanessa Stone There is a need to be of use. To be of service. To be of help. Otherwise, how would anything get fixed? This is what I told Maev. And while we are on the topic of fixing things, could you give me a hand here? Maev slid her - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/01/13/web-exclusive-ashley-mayne-three-stories/) - Three Stories by Ashley Mayne Scarsdale Every time she rode the train from the city that winter, she saw the house in Scarsdale. Colonial white, a peaked roof. A backyard choked with trees. One in a row of similar houses, though less immaculate. A black cellophane bag twisted on a branch. On windy days she’d - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2021/01/06/babak-lakghomi-the-rat-man/) - The man who’d turned into a rat had the same sickness, Ali says. New Fiction by Babak Lakghomi at Post Road - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/30/web-exclusive-lincoln-michel-tawny/) - Tawny, new fiction by Lincoln Michel at Post Road - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/09/37-manuel-iris-clarification-scar/) - Clarification + Scar Manuel Iris Clarification It's a lie that trees do not know the world. A tree travels by virtue of its birds and also travels inward when sinking its roots. It all makes sense: Nothing is more fixed to the earththan a tree, nothing moves more through the airthan a bird (It is - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-joe-meno-david-dog/) - David Dog Joe Meno Before my mother married David, the suburbs of Chicago presented a geography of sameness: the architecture, the types of cars, the color of people’s faces. Evergreen Park, Park Forest, Oak Forest. Back in the 1980s, everything was indistinguishable. Everything was crystal and gold. The year I was born my father embezzled - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-charles-farrell-and-james-parker-oscillation/) - V. Oscillation Carlo Rotella, Charles Farrell and James Parker James Parker: Aren’t we describing an endless oscillation, or a kind of aortic valve that you’re closing between these two conditions? Carlo Rotella: Maybe we are. My original hope was that we might just find a more wrinkly way to think about it that isn’t the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-james-parker-how-not-to-get-spat-out/) - How Not to Get Spat Out James Parker I saw the Who the other night at Boston’s Fenway Park. What’s left of me saw what’s left of the Who. Pure magic. Full moon over the Citgo sign, and my face molten with tears as seventy-four-year-old Pete Townshend, in a red boiler suit, windmilled at his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-jaime-lowe-racing-thoughts/) - Racing Thoughts Jaime Lowe My thoughts at first raced. They shouldn't race at the idea of a theoretical writing question. But they did. I thought: What would everyone else write? What would be the cartilage in between? What are Carlo and Charles doing with this? Do I have anything to say? Do I care about - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-philip-deloria-the-perfect-country-and-western-song/) - The Perfect Country and Western Song Philip Deloria Well, it was all That I could do to keep from crying Sometimes it seemed so useless to remain But you don't have to call me darlin', darlin' You never even called me by my name “That’s it,” my father said, twisting the volume up. “The perfect country and western song!” - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-charles-farrell-and-james-parker-genre/) - IV. Genre Carlo Rotella, Charles Farrell and James Parker Carlo Rotella: Part of my faith in genre—part of why I find genre fiction more rewarding than literary fiction, and genre movies more rewarding than art movies—is that I believe genre is a deep well of language and gesture and other moves that allow you to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-charles-cherington-the-villagers/) - The Villagers Charles Cherington Most people are only vaguely aware of the private equity industry, which consists of several thousand firms buying and selling companies with investors’ money. The goal is to generate profits along the way. In the popular imagination, Gordon Gekko comes to mind: a predacious sort with pomaded coif and an appetite - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-kelsey-norwood-alt-hacks/) - Alt-Hacks: Survival Strategies for Alt-Ac PhD Students Kelsey Norwood If you’re a PhD student in the humanities, you may have noticed that many of the “rules” you encounter in your academic career—about the "right" way to write, teach, or professionalize, or about how to do something innovative enough to get you a job but not - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-bill-birdsall-a-rude-awakening-from-dreams-of-termitopia/) - A Rude Awakening from Dreams of Termitopia Bill Birdsall “Doing it right” means quality craftsmanship, according to norms of quality. “Making it new” has to do with originality. Quality and originality can seem to be exclusive of each other. Original work can sometimes seem sloppy to one who expects and doesn’t find traditional elements of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-charles-farrell-james-parker-history/) - III. History Carlo Rotella, Charles Farrell and James Parker Carlo Rotella: I think this is actually a pretty genre-specific conversation, at least for me. For instance: Westerns. If you were to just make a Western correctly, I’d be happy to watch it. Even if it broke no new ground, no emotional or formal new ground, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-evan-parker-a-real-tradition/) - A Real Tradition Evan Parker Miles Davis is reported to have commented on Wynton Marsalis’ retro “modern jazz” by asking rhetorically, “Didn’t we get it right first time?” This seems pertinent to the subject of “get it right” versus “make it new.” The most cursory look at the history of the various forms under discussion - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-josh-glenn-sincerity/) - Sincerity Josh Glenn I’m a writer and editor; my friend Tony Leone is a designer. Since we first met, twenty years ago now, the two of us have partnered on many projects — most recently, on the UNBORED collection of family activity books and kits. When we were introduced, I had just taken an office in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-mike-martinez-nuance/) - Nuance Mike Martinez I think this debate is only two sides of a third thing: in my mind, nuance reigns supreme over both doing it right and making it new. I was asked to participate in this debate because I make documentaries, but by trade I’m a hairdresser, splitting my time between clients in the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-charles-farrell-james-parker-around-and-around/) - II. Around and Around Carlo Rotella, Charles Farrell and James Parker CR: We tend to go around and around with music and writing, as a general rule, but not with boxing, for instance, where we both agree doing it right is fine all by itself. You just do the absolute conventional thing properly and clean - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-charles-farrell-jimi-hendrix-could-never-have-played-this/) - Jimi Hendrix Could Never Have Played This Charles Farrell Jimi Hendrix could never have played what eight-year-old Zoe Thomson plays on a YouTube video currently about to reach 7 million views. But hundreds of thousands of six- and seven- (and, for all I know, three- and four-) year-old girls and boys scattered throughout the four - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-charles-farrell-james-parker-the-impasse/) - I. The Impasse Carlo Rotella, Charles Farrell and James Parker Charles Farrell: I always think that what’s important are innovators, and that anyone who does something right predicated on something they heard or saw is not going to be as good as the person they learned from. And so, yes, they can be good, and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/14/37-carlo-rotella-an-experiment/) - Do It Right and Make It New An Experiment Carlo Rotella For as long as I've known Charles Farrell, going on twenty years now, we have fallen into an impasse that features some version of me saying, "I really like the way that musician or that writer or that painter or that whatever did things - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/30/37-sean-williamson-fever-on-good-friday/) - Fever on Good Friday Sean Williamson Theodor’s fever broke on Good Friday. We had fallen asleep on the couch. Theodor was sweating under a blanket. I was twisted up in a hot afternoon dream: standing on the empty patio at Jess and Oscar’s house in Milwaukee, on an overcast day. We are laughing belly-straining laughter. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/10/37-samantha-paige-rosen-vip/) - VIP Samantha Paige Rosen Melmark My life with Aunt Stephi was framed by Melmark, a private residential program for children and adults with physical and mental disabilities. Founded in 1966 in a thirty-five-room mansion by a couple whose child had Down syndrome, Melmark grew into an eighty-acre campus with horses, walking trails, special needs playgrounds, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/10/37-rebecca-curtis-animal-communication-intensive/) - Animal Communication Intensive Rebecca Curtis THREE DAYS BEFORE THE ANIMAL COMMUNICATION INTENSIVE I was standing in front of a closet with sliding mirrored doors. It was dark except for a dim light being emitted from an unknown source. I didn’t recognize the hotel room even though a pile of my clothing was leaking out of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-damian-dressick-three-stories/) - Three Stories Damian Dressick That Highway Sound My aunt looks up at the low, gray sky swirling across the interstate, says to hurry our asses back into the convenience store. My brother Freddy (Walkman) and my sister Annette (Sweet Valley High #23) pay no mind —maybe because we’ve only met her twice before our dad's funeral, maybe because this - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/07/37-christian-barter-from-the-work/) - from The Work Christian Barter I had this clearish vision of what to write: a portrait of a year, a love affair caught pivoting towards serious, and right at mid-life’s pivot, that ten-mile stare, my own decline and fall co-terminant with country’s and, perhaps, us all, as though the universe had heard me bawl and said, “I’ll give you something to cry - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/24/37-dana-dean-we-must-work-on-mothers-day-to-meet-the-corporations-deadline/) - We Must Work on Mother’s Day to Meet the Corporation’s Deadline Dana Dean After the tornado scattered Uncle Larry’s farm for miles on Mother’s Day, our parents arrived to do the heavy lifting. They forgot about us, their children, as they strode toward ruin. We wandered among crumpled bulk bins ripped from foundations, tractors overturned - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/24/37-elizabeth-hart-bergstrom-in-the-high-prairies/) - In the High Prairies Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom The railroad tracks carry the smell of dead things warmed by the midday sun. In the high prairies of Montana, it’s been a cold March—but this morning a northwest wind swept in, bringing mild air that makes the ice on the trees crackle and sigh. The snowdrifts are - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/24/37-rachel-aydt-big-mouth/) - Big Mouth Rachel Aydt There’s a woman in my neighborhood named Big Mouth. That’s what I call her, anyway. I see her walking down the street, talking to everyone like she owns the joint. It’s deeply annoying, because of course she doesn’t. It’s not like she’s the freakin' mayor of the East Village. You’d think - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/24/37-greg-hrbek-tpree/) - T’pree Greg Hrbek 1. A coincidental analog: when a planetary culture creates something out of its own imagination which also turns out to exist elsewhere in the universe. The idea pretty much blew the global mind. What were the chances of this? Turned out: surprisingly high. To quote directly from the UN speech delivered by - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-robert-cochran-bethlehem-in-indiana/) - Bethlehem in Indiana: The Obstetrician Instructs His Son Robert Cochran Your father will want to answer this, Mother says, not interrupting her nursing. I’ll call him. He’ll talk with you tonight. This is a surprise. Nine-year-old me figures Mom, busy with three children in addition to the infant at her breast, as the obvious parent - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-christopher-luken-the-dead-end/) - The Dead End Christopher Luken Wood rounded the corner into the cul-de-sac, his long, easy strides mocking the chunky weight of the hiking boots he wore everywhere. His rear boot rose—cleanly, quietly—but somehow a black scuff mark appeared below it on the floor. I heard the door click shut, but I was so focused on - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-nicolas-ridley-travels-with-a-dutchman/) - Travels with a Dutchman Nicolas Ridley Two great talkers will not travel far together. — George Borrow In the mid-1970s, or thereabouts, I travelled in West Africa with a Dutchman. I don’t remember his name. I may never have known it. Nor do I remember how or where we met. Or where he was going - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-sherry-cook-stanforth-interpreting-the-passage-and-of-course/) - Interpreting the Passage + Of Course Sherry Cook Stanforth Interpreting the Passage A train interrupted the poemI was writing near the riverwall. I heard vireos calling,then that deep stir of old track woven inside yellow compass weed. I could not go back to the page. I hadto cast aside my task of writing grief(a woman carrying - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/37-ellen-hackl-fagan-seeking-the-sound-of-cobalt-blue-paintings-2016-2018/) - Seeking the Sound of Cobalt Blue—Paintings 2016-2018: Ellen Hackl Fagan Ellen Hackl Fagan builds connections between color and sound using installations, interactive games, and collaborative projects that combine color-and-texture-saturated paintings with music and digital technologies. Each installation invites viewers an opportunity to explore synesthesia for themselves. A self portrait can take many forms. Empirical evidence - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/09/37-marie-gray-wise-pennsylvania-school-of-ballet-closes-due-to-snow-and-about-girls-standing-on-steps/) - Pennsylvania School of Ballet Closes Due to Snow + About Girls Standing on Steps Marie Gray Wise Pennsylvania School of Ballet Closes Due to Snow No! Let them stand En Pointeat 12th and Racein snowflake tutusand pink satin toe shoesdecorating Philadelphia with Swan Lake en masse Let them cross into New Jerseyover the Benjamin Franklin Bridgein - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/10/37-cole-phillips-that-my-mom-did-to-him/) - That My Mom Did to Him Cole Phillips I was reroofing a shed in the backyard of my dad’s house because he was too old to do it himself. He’s not all that old but he’s had problems his whole life that have made him seem older than he is. He’s stubborn, and so he - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/08/web-exclusive-glen-pourciau-ringer/) - Sage told stories. Whenever I saw him he had more of them to tell, and my guess was that he made them up. Should I have asked him why? ... from Ringer--New Fiction by Glen Pourciau at Post Road Magazine - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/12/02/rjc-smith-uh-oh-love-comes-to-town/) - Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town by RJC Smith We were on the roof, smoking pot. Rena had a pair of binoculars. It was the last summer, or any season for that matter, that I would spend with my father, the last before his unfortunate break. Rena was only my friend, and possibly my only friend. There wasn’t much else - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/25/web-exclusive-raegan-bird-four-stories/) - "Four Stories" — New Fiction by Raegan Bird at Post Road Magazine - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/10/16/basie-allen-psychic-cartography/) - Psychic Cartography by Basie Allen lined in palm-smear & ghost-breath I stood Potiently in a toe willing July with freaks who all freak in verbatim under the M train ( in a K2 and kim-chi stained air bodies learn to ferment ) above Kosciusko a train yawned over the already shoe sound of hip hop walking on back - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/10/30/web-exclusive-jon-lindsey-to-dm-a/) - To DM a 🔥 by Jon Lindsey Most men would have walked away. Thrown down the garden hose. Run. But you’ve got to remember, I put up a fight. I didn’t quit. Even as the house we built caught fire. My wife fanned herself in the face of it, the heat. This wanting for water. Our Tuscan - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/10/14/allie-rowbottom-two-against-one/) - George is the man Lee and I made up, to keep from hating Dad. If we’re out of bed when he comes home late and wasted and mean.... - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/10/07/nathan-dragon-display/) - To think the most natural way. Impulse and instinct, the most biologically-evolved for efficiency. New fiction by Nathan Dragon at Post Road - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/09/29/web-exclusive-trevor-creighton-poker/) - The building, The Fun House, had been part of a nunnery a long time ago that had been closed for medical malpractice... - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/09/21/web-exclusive-joanna-novak-french-antarctica/) - JoAnna Novak's "French Antarctica"—New Fiction @ Post Road. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/miranda-field-two-poems/) - In my ninth month I ached for the savor of black-currants -- a fruit out of season, a fruit of elsewhere -- and since his birth he's carried a map of that place on his instep. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/gary-lutz-eminence/) - People eventually answered any purpose or were no skin off my nose. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/brandon-hobson-red-owl/) - Red Owl by Brandon Hobson I live in a small town called Red Owl, where the mayor likes to get avocado facials. From Fulton Road, which runs north into town, some mornings you can see him sitting on his front porch, thumbing through the newspaper, his face caked in green. Most evenings he sits wearing - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/elizabeth-senja-spackman-two-poems/) - Under your golden hair / beneath the white / you sleep / stone eyed and twitching - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/jensen-beach-drought/) - Drought by Jensen Beach Her great uncle Gerald had died. Amy just finished reading an email that contained a scanned photograph of his obituary clipped by her Aunt Mary Margaret from the Miami Herald. The obituary did not indicate cause of death, but Amy knew that he’d had some heart trouble recently. The news of his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/06/max-halper-other-moons/) - The legend goes that as he lay bedridden in a sanatorium with tuberculosis, unable to eat or drink, every rattling breath an interminable nightmare, Franz Kafka grasped his doctor’s lapel, pleaded for an overdose of morphine, and said: “Kill me, or else you are a murderer.” Thereafter his throat swelled so tightly he could never speak again, and a week later, in the middle of the night, he died from his illness. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-36/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #36 | Spring/Summer 2019 FICTION: You and Me Could Really Exist — Marianne LeoneHere — Jason NameyDrought — Jensen BeachBlood Loss — Philip ProbascoForgetting Everything I Know — Marston HefnerSingle — Genevieve PlunkettThe Day Diana Died — Emily Lackey NONFICTION: Kaw-liga — Amber Wheeler BaconMoments of Clarity — Eddie P. GomezFun with - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/28/mona-awad-the-girl-i-hate/) - The Girl I Hate by Mona Awad So I'm eating scones with the girl I hate. The scones are her idea. She says eating one of them is like getting fucked. Not vanilla-style either, the kind with whips. She's eating the scones and I'm watching, sipping black tea with milk but no sugar. Actually, she - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/05/10/cheryl-strayed-when-the-farmer-clutches-the-rake-writing-the-real/) - When the Farmer Clutches the Rake: Writing the Realby Cheryl Strayedfrom Post Road 22 The first story I ever wrote featured a talking parrot named Poncho who busted a trio of diamond thieves on a late night train. What a fantastic story! my seventh grade teacher scrawled in red ink on the top of the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/paul-lisicky-beach-town-and-liberty/) - Two Stories Paul Lisicky Liberty The father wanted to go to the top. The boy wanted to back up, but it was too late to back up. They were forty steps into her gown. The herd behind them pushed them upward, forward. It was a cave of smells now (dust, sweat, foot powder, makeup), cooked - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-19/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #19 | Fall/Winter 2010 FICTION: Microclimates Charles Mc LeodThe Shut-down Class Cam TerwilligerChuliak Rachel CantorMiss Ang Has a Very Comfortable LifeThe Cumulative Effect Jon Chopan Caleb Powell NONFICTION: The Burmese Dreams Series Alden JonesList of (11 of 50): WORM LOOP + List of (25 of 50): DOPPELGANGER Blake ButlerThe Impossible - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/ravi-shankar-two-poems/) - Two Poems Ravi Shankar Cape Sagres to Lisbon and Back Again And the promontory, sacrum, cliffs lashed by the waves,land's end Europe, howling wind, arrhythmic netspulled in by fishermen sharing half a bottle of winebetween them, raindrops the size of olive pits plinkingthe clay rooftops, mi amor, minarets of the monasteryan architectural oxymoron not based - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-32/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #32 | Summer 2017 CRITICISM: An Element of Blank: Figuring Pain in Graphic Narrative — Thomas Dolinger FICTION: Dummies — Greg AmesHang It On the Limb — Colin FlemingWhat Guy Says No? — Jennifer GenestMr. Gates Goes To Washington — Stephen HitchcockWater, Water Everywhere — Matt JonesTell the Children — Rebecca McGillLibidonomics - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/greg-ames-dummies/) - Dummies Greg Ames The word ventriloquism comes from the Latin terms venter and loqui, literally meaning "belly speak." Dummies, therefore, are often referred to as "tummy talkers," because they "speak from the stomach" and give voice to previously unexpressed thoughts and feelings. The doll speaks in a more frank and open manner than her human - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-31/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #31 | Winter 2016 CRITICISM: Lydia Davis's "Happiest Moment" and the Convoluted Temporalities of Very Short Fiction — Ezra Dan Feldman FICTION: Circumstance — Theodore DawesLes Abandonnées — Kirby GannThe Woman in the Barn — Jaclyn GilbertPerishables — Becky HagenstonChildren Left to be Raised by Wolves — Carrie MessengerDoctor Tukes, Off the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-34/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #34 | Summer / Fall 2018 CRITICISM: Literary Godparenting and the Hemingway Bundle: Stein and Hemingway in the Little Review — Justin Reed FICTION: Blood Moon — Donna GordonThe Market — Meghan HoulihanPublic Space — Peter Joseph KochThe Hawk Mercury — Ashley MayneVacation — Molly QuinnWhat We Gained in the Winter — - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/halley-parry-isnt-that-nice/) - Isn't that Nice Halley Parry Marielle had a tooth yanked from her gum on a Tuesday while most people she knew were gliding around carpeted office buildings moving papers from one window to the other and eating salads from round plastic bowls, their feet secretly bare beneath their desks. After the procedure as she approached - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/ashley-mayne-the-hawk-mercury/) - The Hawk Mercury Ashley Mayne When they pull me out, I tell them I’ve seen a pinecone rolling inside a typewriter, back and forth as the tines spring forward, and I tell them I’ve seen a man who keeps the extinct birds in his belly, two of each. But they hand me a plastic spoon, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/jt-price-lessons-from-the-masters/) - Lessons from the Masters JT Price In 1993, he found a job teaching English to elementary-age kids in Aguilar de Campoo, a town in northwestern Spain with a hill at its center. On top of the hill at the edge of the town stood the ruins of a castle among patches of tall yellow grass. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/jaclyn-gilbert-the-woman-in-the-barn/) - The Woman in the Barn Jaclyn Gilbert Joseph and I are soon to be hitched in my sister's house with white sideboards and purple geraniums sprawling from black pots. Joseph didn't give me any kind of engagement ring. He gave me a wooden clock. I told him, Joseph, let's be more like the English and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/michael-martone-chili-4-way/) - CHILI 4-WAY by Michael Martone Michigan Pike When you were in college, at Butler, you would drive out Michigan Pike to eat at the Steak 'n Shake there. It looked like a Steak 'n Shake but it wasn't quite right. It looked the same as other Steak 'n Shakes—black and white with the chromium fixtures - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/tom-perrotta-nine-inches/) - Nine Inches by Tom Perrotta Ethan didn't want to go to the middle school dance, but the Vice Principal twisted his arm. He said it was like jury duty: the system only made sense if everybody stepped up and nobody got special treatment. Besides, he added, you might as well do it now, get it - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-18/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #18 | Spring/Summer 2010 FICTION: Boombox and Neon Flowers, by Abby Savitch-LewThe Reclamation Specialist, by Elizabeth GonzalezRiven, by Jeff JonesGenetic Disorders, by Nicole FixHoneymoon in Beirut, by Stacy M. TintocalisNine Inches, by Tom Perotta NONFICTION: Sweet Corn, by Bill CapossereField Studies, by Alexios MooreBalakovo, by Natasha LvovichThe Next Scott Nadelson, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/michelle-holley-caretakers-blues/) - Caretakers Blues + Devil's Bridge by Michelle Holley Caretakers Blues To sing this tale, I should be blind— like Lemon, or Willie Johnson singing in the dark, of love and loss just like old Joe Reynolds, or Reverend Gary Davis, blind at three weeks— blind before he could see. You beg to die before - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/alexandra-teague-a-brief-history-of-ice/) - A Brief History of Ice The iceberg cuts its facets from within. Like jewelry from a graveElizabeth Bishop Outside the Tate Modern on Christmas Eve,everyone is touching the blocks of ice two artistshave shipped from the Arctic so we can feeltheir melting: a petting zoo of ancient beasts we slaughtered by accident, now guiltilyglide our - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/bradley-clompus-periphery/) - Periphery by Bradley Clompus As though stuck at thirteen,as though mother werefixed in mid-forties. Beside,an uncomposed demolitionof sounds, iron ball slowlyarcing into the top level ruins,muddled whump of impact, girdersshearing, tumbling, concrete fists,shoulders, joints staggeringdown to cutters and torchers,massed pushers, haulers. Buildingguts spilling from pre-crash fruitionof 1920s: lawyers, insurance agents,accountants pale from overwork, hopelesshoarding of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/05/philip-probasco-blood-loss/) - Blood Loss by Philip Probasco You promised to give blood on this date every year, and when you keep your promises, things generally go all right for you. You drive around for an hour before you find the blood donation bus in a parking lot. It looks about like you’d expect on the inside: a - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/04/joseph-scapellato-fathers-day/) - Father’s Day by Joseph Scapellato The old man went with his son to a restaurant. The restaurant was in a bowling alley where the old man used to take his son to bowl when his son was a boy. When they sat down, in a booth by the door, the old man said, “This is a terrible - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/08/04/emma-cline-golden-state/) - Golden State by Emma Cline If there was a landscape that was more blessed, none of us knew it. We grew up with the sun generous and round in a blue sky, with fields and fields of dry grass. We knew from childhood the lines of the coast angled against the vast and shifting Pacific, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-20/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #20 | Spring/Summer 2011 FICTION: Golden State, by Emma ClineFather’s Day, by Joseph ScapellatoDavey, by Jesse CataldoAlamo Nights, by Sumanth PrabhakerRaw Material, by Alanna SchubachAn Inheritance, by Dan Pope NONFICTION: Ophelia, by Hannah RetzkinSelf-Portrait, Number 1, by Katherine Lien ChariottThe Politics of Play, by Megan KaminskiI Probably Let Some of - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-27/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #27 | Fall/Winter 2014 FICTION: Sunday Lunch And Black Hole — Joy AllenThe Girl I Hate — Mona AwadUltraviolet — Kenneth CalhounChix and Quarters — Colin FlemingRotten Fruit — Chris MesserStory — Andrew WickendenThe Wild Pandas of Chincoteague — Gregory J. Wolos NONFICTION: The Revolution Continues, Why Do You Water - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/24/andrew-morgan-two-stories/) - Two Stories — Andrew Morgan Doctor Tukes, Off the Clock But that’s all blather. I can’t even remember how old I was. Can’t remember my teacher at the time, my closest friend, or whether that summer I played T-ball, “minor league” (where the coach pitches), “major league” (where I pitched, “hard” and under the pretense - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/05/31/justin-taylor-student-paper/) - Student Paperby Justin Taylorfrom Post Road 29 The negation of the negation is based on a correct reading of the wrong books. -- Donald Barthleme, "The Rise of Capitalism" Let the reason remain outside of the fact that the world does not involve magic: only chance, intelligence, and skill. There's this idea of people creating their own - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-29/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #29 | Fall/Winter 2015 FICTION: Seeking Advice and/or Assistance re: Mountain Lions — Matt TompkinsIn Her Place — Maria D'AlessandroTwo Tons Of Manure — Libby FloresChameleon — Phil HearnGreyhounds — Devin KellyA Boyfriend, Obamacare, a Cat — David James PoissantAccompaniment — Gary SheppardLynx — Alice G. StinetorfStudent Paper — Justin TaylorHow to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/04/07/1163/) - A Hunger So Honedby Tracy K. Smithfrom Post Road 7 Driving home late through townHe woke me for a deer in the road,The light smudge of it fragile in the distance, Free in a way that made me ashamed for our flesh–His hand on my hand, even the weightOf our voices not speaking. I watched - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/04/14/1305/) - Mel RolleriAsheville Mural, 09/23/17Digital Photographfrom Post Road 36 - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/04/22/sheila-heti-on-vonnegut/) - Kurt Vonnegutby Sheila Hetifrom Post Road 14 My friend Misha Glouberman, who is one of the smartest people I know, yet who never reads literature and knows nothing about world politics, and who has in his apartment only self-help books like Loving in Flow and feels no shame about this—he admitted to me this morning, when I - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/05/02/mary-morris-on-willa-cather/) - Lucy Gayheart by Willa Catherby Mary Morrisfrom Post Road 8 I came to Willa Cather late. It was odd that she escaped me because as a girl and young woman I read books that grew out of my love of the heartland where I am from. I read Twain, Dreiser, and, of course, Laura Ingalls - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/06/paul-doherty-100-word-memoirs/) - Six 100-word Memoirs Paul Doherty IRISH From the sunroom off the parlor, now converted to his sickroom, my father would call out as I left the house, “Remember you’re Irish.” I believed his good-bye to be ironic. Unlike his own father, a zealous Fenian, my father was pleased and proud to be American and had no interest - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/diana-george-paternity-within-the-limits-of-reason/) - Paternity Within the Limits of Reason by Diana George 1. A sheet covers the father where he lies in the hallway. He has wept brown tears that stain and reek. The father has more than two eyes, and not only on his head, or else he has other weeping-holes. 2. The daughter sows the floor about the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/ander-monson-a-huge-old-radio/) - A Huge, Old Radio, by Ander Monsen Josh waits his turn, shirtless, in the dark. He hears his friends’ voices tossing back and forth in the quiet, wet air up ahead, punctuated by spurts of canned music and talk coming from behind, open car windows a hundred feet back on M-26 through Baraga, through L’Anse, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/june-unjoo-yang-gentility/) - Gentility, by June Unjoo Yang Evenings, he teaches an amateur watercolor class at the local community college. His students are housewives baffled by the proper use of perspective, their foregrounds peppered with importunate saucer-eyed spaniels, fox cubs huddled in foliage, deer. They’re wounded, says Barb, a new divorcée. Get it? Yes, he gets it, averting his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/nicholas-montemarano-last-last-last/) - Last, Last, Last, by Nicholas Montemarano Would you do something for me? I hate to ask this of you, of all people, especially since I’ve spent most of these last years of my life asking you to do things for me. I wish there was another person I could ask to do me this last favor, and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/toby-leah-bochan-why/) - Why, by Toby Leah Bochan Because when I was little, my mother paraded around the house naked. I could too until I reached a certain age, until it didn’t seem right for my father to see me naked. I never in my life saw my father fully naked. That was my childhood. Mother dressing and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/a-j-aronsen-paul-kahan-chicago/) - #GentlemanlyPursuits in Paul Kahan’s Chicago,by A-J Aronstein I woke up on the hardwood floor of Tyler’s apartment, twisted into a crumpled pile of chewed up meat. There was blood everywhere. On my shirt, my pants. The tip of my thumb was sliced somewhat less than totally open and had turned an alarming shade of purple. Something - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/dora-malech-two-poems/) - Dora Malech: Two Poems Face For Radio As usual I am unusually tired.All night my fingers double-crossed me,tangled up in someone else’s hair.Breakfast is sand with a promise of pearls.If I were an operation, I’d be fly-by-nightand very bloody. If I were a sow,I’d be hog-tied. I was born underthe sign of the toy breed, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/glen-pourciau-adjust/) - ADJUST, by Glen Pourciau No one could say I was idle. I walked miles every day. I didn’t sit in my apartment moping. I had mixed feelings about being among people on a bustling sidewalk, exposed to their looks and judgments, but it was better than being alone in my apartment. When I walked I often had the feeling - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/will-eno-two-monologues/) - Behold The Coach, In Sorrow, Unemployed by Will Eno Dramatis Persona The Coach Setting A press conference. A podium with microphones mounted on it. Periodic flashbulbs THE COACH (He enters. Cameras flash.) All right, everybody, let's just get going. You people know what I've come here to probably say. This should all come as all - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/two-prose-poems/) - From I Spy: Prose Poems by Elizabeth Powell 12. District Courthouse, Divorce Court, White Plains, New York His wedding ring shimmered like an inviting lake. His height was like a diving board, something she wanted to accomplish. She would perfect the three step approach before the bounce and lift off, before she'd let go into - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/the-artist-and-his-sister-gerti/) - The Artist and His Sister Gerti Christine Schutt The buckskin color of her silky throat signaled her sexual self as did a bird’s breast in its fluttering coloration; and the underside of her, under her chin, was soft, and a small excess of folded-over skin gave her, young as she was, an appearance of age - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-25/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #25 | Fall/Winter 2013 FICTION: Divinatory Experiment, a selection from Installation #9: Revenge of the Nerds: Ideal Suggestion (Love), by Selah SaterstromThe Eater, by Vivian LawryConfessions, by Trinie DaltonRed Owl, by Brandon HobsonBeach Town + Liberty, by Paul LisickyDa Capo, by Kerry LaniganTrees in the City, by Bonnie NadzamThe Child - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-02/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #02 | Fall/Winter 2001 CRITICISM: "Old Man Your Kung Fu is Useless": African American Spectatorship and Hong Kong Action Cinema By Tzarina T. Prater ETCETERA: THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, by Ambrose BierceThe Strange, Entertaining, and Sometimes Behind-the-Scenes Story of Cleo Birdwell and Don DeLillo, by Alan Smithee (Chuck Bock From Daughters - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-21/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #21 | Fall/Winter 2011 FICTION: Meet Me at the Hedge, My Love — Caren BeilinHow We Looked — James ScottChili 4-Way — Michael Martone NONFICTION: The Mouth of the Volga — Trent HergenraderTouch — Eson KimWe Smoked in Silence Peter StensonRondo Elizabeth Bales FrankDirt — D. Foy CRITICISM: For the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-04/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #04 | Fall/Winter 2003 CRITICISM Collateral Damages: Contexts for Thinking of the Liberation of Jamil Abul Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown), by Jeremy Matthew Glick POETRY: Cathedral Parkway Subway Grate + Our Summer Jobs, by Stephen BurtRoom + Extend, by Saskia HamiltonTraducendo Brecht Fortini, Franco. "Traducendo Brecht." Una volta per sempre. - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/marston-hefner-forgetting-everything-i-know/) - Forgetting Everything I Know by Marston Hefner Everyone agreed in the neighborhood that she was the best. She was the beauty. How could she let everyone know she was nothing but a pile of shit? Oh, well. Nothing, really. She did everything perfectly. Not a thing wrong with her. No conflicts. Oh, all the men - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/25/emily-carr-claudia-dey-heartbreaker/) - Recommendation for Claudia Dey’s Heartbreaker by Emily Carr Lately, I’ve been asking writers I respect if they’ve read anything in the last year that they think everyone should read. A book that, given our limited amount of time on this planet, simply Must Be Read—regardless of whether everyone’s going to like it, learn from it, etc. I’ve - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/21/issue-01/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #1 | Spring/Summer 2001 FICTION: Eminence by Gary LutzA Love Transaction by Maile ChapmanAustin by Kelcey Nichols NONFICTION: Yamba by Joyce LombardiPlan of a Story That Could Have Been Written If Only I Had Known It Was Happening by Gail Hosking GilbergThe Man Who Wasn't There by David Manning CRITICISM: - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-03/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #03 | Spring/Summer 2002 FICTION: The Sweater, The Pair of Shoes, and the Jacket, by Rebecca CurtisVegetable on the Hoof, by Chris OffuttWhite Square, by Brian EvensonThe Museum of Speed, by Len Jenkinson POETRY: A History of Kansas + Scenic Overlook, by Jennifer KronovetFrom The Lichtenberg Figures, by Ben LernerWhy - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-06/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #06 | Fall/Winter 2004 CRITICISM: Selling Out: Consumer Culture and Commodification of the Male Body, by Eric Tyrone McLeod POETRY: Notebook + Bones, by Aaron BakerThe Stray + Pulling into Morning Sophie, by Cabot BlackEstimated Drift + Its Owners Became a Dim, by Margaret FunkhouserGleaners + Scarification, by James HochIn - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-07/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #07 | Fall/Winter 2004 POETRY: A Confederacy + Mr. Sweatner’s Parade — David DanielThe Nineteenth-Century Novel + The Nineteenth-Century Novel II — Eve GrubinA Hunger So Honed + Self Portrait as the Letter Y — Tracy K. SmithThe Lais of Lost Long Days + Stripped from the Waist Up, Love - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-08/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #08 | Spring/Summer 2005 POETRY: Device for Burning Bees and Sugar + It’s Your Turn to Do the Milking, Father Said, by Mark WunderlichGood Science + Heart, by Stephanie PippinThe Wings of Butterflies + The Eyes of Fish, by Jude NutterAnd the Ship Sails On + Beckett’s Endgame, by Joel - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-09/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #09 | Fall/Winter 2005 CRITICISM: “The Americans Who Matter”: Michael Moore’s White Liberal Racism in Bowling for Columbine, by Taro Nettleton FICTION: A Couple of Polaroids, by Alan TinklerSimply Natural, by Patricia BjorklundTheatre of the Cruel, by Eugenio VolpeLate, by Robert Mentzer ART: Michela Griffo: Paintings and Drawings Introduction by - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-10/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #10 | Spring/Summer 2006 ART: Mark Mastroianni: Paintings CRITICISM: Matthew Barney versus Donkey Kong, by Wayne Bremser ETCETERA: Soliloquy: Overheard: Wake Up New York City, September 2001, by Andrey GritsmanLibretto: Hell, by Eileen MylesBibliography: Joyce Carol OatesElegy: Falling Objects: Chicago, by Gail SiegelEssay: Horrible Endings: My Brother and The Complete - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-11/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue 11 | Fall/Winter 2006 ART:Andrew Richmond: Photographs CRITICISM: The Omission of Comics, by Ralph McGinnis ETCETERA: Tour: The Dostoevsky Walk, by James BoobarMissives: Four Ways of Trying to Hold onto It, by Paul SalopekIndex: Characters from The Stories of John CheeverEssay: An Inquiry into the Psychological Roots of America’s Death - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-12/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #12 | Spring/Summer 2007 ART: Erin Cowgill: Nations’ Cup CRITICISM: On the Dating Prospects of Feminist Daughters, or Dear Maureen Manjula Martin ETCETERA: Reprint: What’s A Story, by Leonard MichaelsTour Diary: The Diviners, North America, 2005, by Rick MoodyLibretto: Tonya and Nancy: The Opera, by Elizabeth SearleReport: Vegas Valley Book - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-13/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #13 | Fall/Winter 2007 FICTION: Alabama, by Murray DunlapFamous Cake, by Kim DrainFrom Rune to Ruin: An Alphabet (Excerpts), by Miranda F. MellisDream Trailers, by Julia SlavinNothing to Look at Here, by Richard Hoffman NONFICTION: Ghost of Ten, by Shara SinorA Hundred Years at 15, by Xujun EberleinDown in the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-15/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #15 | Fall/Winter 2008 FICTION: Possum, by Mary MorrisThe Lunch, by Alex KuoBennett’s Cheap CatharsisO Saddam!, by Rusty BarnesVictor, by Michael Czyzniejewski Evan Lavender-SmithConquest, Tourism, and Eternal Canadian Rapture, by Stephen Ausherman NONFICTION: The Illusionof Symmetry, by Logan PerkesRedemption Window, by Eve AbramsThree Short Stories, by Michael HearstWriting Him Off, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-16/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #16 | Spring/Summer 2009 FICTION: Chris Stops the Boys Dawsen — Wright AlbertsenWhatever Happened to Harlan? A Report from the Field — David HollanderThe Doctors — Kirsten Menger-AndersonThe Day They Were Shooting Dogs — Samuel ReiflerBody Language + Balloons and Clowns and Popcorn + Mash — Kim ChinqueeMonster — Rebekah - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-14/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #14 | Spring/Summer 2008 FICTION: Lalita and the Banyan Tree, by Shubha VenugopalNan, by Nathaniel BellowsPizza Man, by Jennifer HaighCrooning with Dino, by Ann HoodMarge, by Michael Lowenthal NONFICTION: Working Nights in the Artificial Day, Working Days Confessions of a Pilsner Drinker CRITICISM: Eat, Memory, by Irina Reyn POETRY: Calculus - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-22/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #22 | Spring/Summer 2012 FICTION: The Zulo, by Julian ZabalbeascoaMan's Best Friend, by Ann HoodSailor Man, by Jason OckertLittle Marvels, by Julie Innis NONFICTION: The Memory Pavilion, by Elizabeth KadetskyThe Coffin Handles Were Stalks of Wheat, by C. Ronald EdwardsOnce In Cuba, by Eliezra Schaffzin CRITICISM: A Literary Manifesto after - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-23/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #23 | Fall/Winter 2012 FICTION: We Shared a Duplex, by Jenn HollmeyerSeeds Like Teeth, by Delaney NolanSliding Door, by Nora CameronWisteria, by Catherine ParnellYour Translator, My Brunette, by Amy BoutellCharcoal for Locust, by D. Gatling PriceBig Ray, or Some Things Concerning My Childhood, with an Emphasis on My Father, by - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-24/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #24 | Spring/Summer 2013 FICTION: That Time He Felt the World Turn + The Splitting Image, by Ethel RohanFlutter Flake, by Ross BarkanNight Class, by Jessica Francis KaneSunset Judas, by Steven TweddellBalloons, by Michael GravesReaders and Writers, by Ryan BoudinotThe Revenge of Umslopogaas, by Tony Eprile NONFICTION: A Woman in - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-26/) - Post Road Magazine: Issue #26 | Spring/Summer 2014 FICTION: Loan Suite — Emma HealeyBright Shiny Things — Martin CloutierOmniplanet — Robert UrenHaystacks — Jaime deBlanc-KnowlesThe Summer Hannah Wore a Hat — Matt IzziThe Price of Admission — Jonathan PapernickThe Woman Who Came from the Garden — Rachael InciartePeople Are Just Dying to Meet You — - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-28/) - Post Road MagazineIssue #28 | Spring/Summer 2015 FICTION: Uprooted — C.C. RobinMurmurings — Jane BuchbinderGrandpap's Burials — Casey QuinnPity — Lisa GornickAllapattah — Michael HawleyMine Dont Never — J S KhanChiara — Jonathan Wilson NONFICTION: Ma Picks a Priest — Marianne LeoneThe Backyard — Nicholas WardGoodnight Moon — V. HansmannThe Pass — John O'ConnorThin, Brilliant - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-35/) - Post Road Magazine - Issue #35 | Winter/Fall 2017 CRITICISM: Hearing the Text — Ran Keren FICTION: CHARISMA! — Becky TuchAll Americans — Ryan RidgeNo Diving Allowed — Louise MarburgThe Last Date — Hillary FifieldFive Steps — Suzanne ReederThe First Time — Jason VillemezThe Painted Lady — Harris Lahti NONFICTION: Voo Hunting — Lori Yeghiayan - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-37/) - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/23/issue-17/) - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/21/1588/) - A Love Transaction Maile Chapman It takes us hours to get everything cleaned up. I do the lighter jobs. He does the heavier jobs. He does anything with lifting, anything with twisting, anything that I can’t do because I am prone to having cramps around the baby-thing. The entire area is sore, and lifting is bad, it provokes the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/gerry-hunt-four-video-installations/) - Jerry Hunt: Four Video Translations At the age of twelve, Jerry Hunt founded his first church, using a friend’s lithograph machine to print tracts, which he then sent to followers who responded to notices he had posted around suburban Dallas, Texas. In the pamphlets, Hunt combined lectures on alchemy with devotional exercises, simplified yoga, voodoo - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/diane-williams-my-first-real-home/) - MY FIRST REAL HOME by Diane Williams In there, there was this man who developed a habit of sharpening knives. You know he had a house and a yard, so he had a lawnmower and several axes and he had a hedge shears and, of course, he had kitchen knives and scissors, and he and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/06/here-by-jason-namey/) - Here by Jason Namey Pickle likes his ex-wife’s house because when he steps out for a night piss the Tallahassee streetlights light and shape the plants like clay dogs. He coughs into his elbow and curls down on the couch, pulling the sheet up to his wet armpits. It’s patterned Winnie the Pooh and must - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/06/marina-richie-city-kingfisher/) - City Kingfisher By Marina Richie The belted kingfisher I pursued all summer on a wild stretch of Rattlesnake Creek now perches on a high wire above the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula, Montana. He’s gone urban this winter. How could he have become such a suave, natty bird who seems to have forgotten the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/06/dalton-day-spring-break-at-the-dmv/) - Spring Break at the DMV by Dalton Day For Mathias Author’s Notes The transitions between each scene can be as smooth or as opposite-of-smooth as possible. Lighting can be used to indicate the end / beginning of a scene, or the actors can just start the next scene without any break at all. “//” denotes - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/two-poems-by-wang-jiaxin-translated-by-diana-shi-and-george-oconnell/) - Two Poems by Wang Jiaxin(translated by Diana Shi and George O'Connell) Glenn Gould by Wang Jiaxin (translated by Diana Shi and George O'Connell) A pair of hands invisiblytouch the keyboard, and slowlyyou step into Canada's knee-deep snows.I'm listening: is this still the vast winter day of North America?No, the scope of silence itself, the musicpeacefully - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/abby-savitch-lew-boombox-and-painted-flowers/) - Boombox and Neon Flowers by Abby Savitch-Lew She walk on Rockaway. She swing purple hips. She buy a bag of green genips like sweetness from the Guyanan people at the corner. The juice gloss her lips, the rubbery rind curl in her palm, the jell ball roll with her tongue. She in 99¢ Century on - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/07/07/marianne-leone-ma-picks-a-priest/) - Ma Picks a Priest by Marianne Leone "I rest my case." My sister, Lindy, thrust a statue of Saint Anthony in my face, tick-tocking him like a metronome. Saint Anthony was wearing a rakish pink scrunchie stuffed with red and yellow artificial flowers around his waist. We were arguing about holy cards and which saint - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/06/01/rebecca-donner-recommendation/) - Ask the Dust by John FanteRebecca Donnerfrom Post Road 9It's not often that someone grabs you by the lapels and tells you that you must, absolutely must read a particular book. Not in my experience anyway. Usually my friends' recommendations come with their fair share of disclaimers and qualifications, the sort of hedging we all - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/06/08/rebecca-curtis-the-sweater-the-pair-of-shoes-and-the-jacket/) - The Sweater, the Pair of Shoes, and the Jacket by Rebecca Curtisfrom Post Road 3A daughter disobeyed and the mother of the daughter hit the daughter very quickly with her hand, a thing she had not done before in the past. Soon the daughter disobeyed again and again the mother struck the daughter in the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/06/23/george-choundas-fun-with-peter/) - Fun with Peter by George Choundas 12/03/05 Peter is born. 03/15/09 Peter and I walk to the playground down the street and hop onto the swings. We bore quickly of rote pendulum motion. We invent Battleswing, a martial-themed game that awards a point each time a player—er, warrior—succeeds in touching his foot against the opponent swinging alongside - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/02/25/drought-by-jensen-beach/) - Drought by Jensen Beach Her great uncle Gerald had died. Amy just finished reading an email that contained a scanned photograph of his obituary clipped by her Aunt Mary Margaret from the Miami Herald. The obituary did not indicate cause of death, but Amy knew that he’d had some heart trouble recently. The news of his - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/05/18/1320/) - Peripheryby Bradley Clompusfrom Post Road 36As though stuck at thirteen,as though mother were fixed in mid-forties. Beside, an uncomposed demolition of sounds, iron ball slowly arcing into the top level ruins, muddled whump of impact, girders shearing, tumbling, concrete fists, shoulders, joints staggering down to cutters and torchers, massed pushers, haulers. Building guts spilling from - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/03/27/1294/) - Dear Readers,We're hoping that everyone is taking care during this difficult time. While our office at Boston College was closed when classes were moved online on March 11, we're continuing to update the website and maintain our existing production schedule. Until our staff is able to return to campus, though, we won't be able to - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/03/17/1158/) - Recommendation for Claudia Dey’s HeartbreakerEmily Carr Lately, I’ve been asking writers I respect if they’ve read anything in the last year that they think everyone should read. A book that, given our limited amount of time on this planet, simply Must Be Read—regardless of whether everyone’s going to like it, learn from it, etc. I’ve - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/03/09/1168/) - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/03/05/1274/) - AWP & #VirtualAWPWhile not all of us from Post Road are attending this year's AWP, our Assistant Managing Editors are there in San Antonio! Please stop by table 2060 to check out our new issue. We’re also joining #AWPvirtualbookfair, and offering a special sale on subscriptions starting now and running through March 8. Please click - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/02/28/1200/) - ERRATUM When copies of Post Road 36 arrived from the printer last week, we were dismayed to realize that we'd made a significant editorial error: we'd failed to include the beautiful introduction that Suzanne Matson wrote to preface her Guest Folio. We've printed an errata sheet to correct this error, and we've modified the website ## Pages - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/) - Cover Art: Zachary Schomburg, “Two Orange Chairs” ART:Elizabeth Awalt CRITICISM: Vanessa Gregorchik FICTION: Eric Buechel, Christina Craigo, L Favicchia, Shane Jones, Christopher Kang, Eric Lundgren, Douglas Mac Neil, Louise Marburg, Vi Khi Nao, Darina Sikmashvili, Greg Tebbano, Allison Titus GUEST FOLIO: Edited by Allison Adair Yalie Saweda Kamara, Maurice Manning, Philip Metres, Matthew Olzmann, Leslie Sainz, Mary - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/masthead/) - Post Road was founded in New York City in 1999 by Jaime Clarke and David Ryan with the following core editors: Rebecca Boyd, Susan Breen, Hillary Chute, Mark Conway, Pete Hausler, Kristina Lucenko (1999-2003), Anne McCarty and Michael Rosovsky. Editors Emeritus include Sean Burke (1999-2001), Jaime Clarke (1999-2008), Mary Cotton, as Publisher and Managing Editor (2004-2008), - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/45-splash/) - ART:Carlos Bautista Biernnay FICTION: Rachel Aydt, Christopher Chilton, Alex Minagar, Pavle Radonić, Derek Shirae, Nik Slackman, Marisa Viola, Sophia Hyland-Wolzak, Todd Lazarski, Ellie Jackson GUEST FOLIO: Edited by Suzanne MatsonMartha Silano, , Kathryn Gilmore, Ralph James Savarese, Dan Albergotti, Philip Metres NONFICTION:D’Ann Drennan, Patricia Westerhof, Terrance Wedin, Harvey Silverman, Erin Ruble, Carlos Rafael Gomez POETRY: - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/subscribe/) - Subscriptions One Year Subscription: $26 Two Year Subscription: $45 Three Year Subscription: $65 Archives Issue OneSold Out, but available on Amazon.com. Issue TwoIn Stock: $24.00 Issue ThreeSold Out, but available on Amazon.com. Issue FourIn Stock: $24.00 Issue FiveIn Stock: $24.00 Issue SixIn Stock: $14.00 Issue SevenSold Out, but available on Amazon.com. Issue EightIn Stock: $14.00 - [Work at Post Road!](https://www.postroadmag.com/internships/) - Boston College students! Are you interested in applying for an internship for the 2025/2026 academic year? Post Road Magazine is a nationally-recognized biannual literary journal, and our undergraduate student interns play an important role in its production. Because interns have numerous responsibilities – including reading and responding to incoming submissions, distributing issues to contributors and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/25-saterstrom/) - Divinatory Experiment by Selah Saterstrom Opening Note ~ In 1893 Henry C. Wood published one of the first self-help books, IDEAL SUGGESTIONS THROUGH MENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Mr. Wood's theory, coinciding with the advent of photography in popular culture, maintained that one's brain could photograph positive affirmations or "Ideal Suggestions." The "solar light" of the camera corrected - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/42-splash/) - ART:Howard el-Yasin FICTION: Bipin Aurora, Stephen Cicirelli, James English, Scott Mashlan, Ashton Politanoff, Julian Robles, Richard Pels GUEST FOLIO: Edited by Christopher BoucherGunnhild Øyehaug Translations by Kari Dickson NONFICTION:Jonathan Perry, Robert Walikis, Alizabeth Worley, Madeline Jones, Lou Maxwell Taylor POETRY: Brian Simoneau, Dorianne Laux, Deborah H. Doolittle, Chelsea Dingman, Susan Rich - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/5080-2/) - ART:The Connectivity of Our World | The Sculptures of Susan Clinard FICTION:Cameron Darc, Siamak Vossoughi, Matthew Gordon, Nikki Barnhart, Stephen Mortland, Noah Pohl, George Singleton GUEST FOLIO:Edited by Elizabeth GraverGenevieve DeLeon, Ramona Reeves, Franklin Einspruch, Karin Cecile Davidson, Jonathan Todd, Christine A. Neu, Will Dowd, Yang Huang NONFICTION:Andy Gottschalk, Rick Brown, Peter Krumbach, Paula Dimidis, - [Contact](https://www.postroadmag.com/contact/) - CONTACT - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/3048-2/) - Archived News 9.1.21 We're just a few days away from the publication of Post Road 38, which features new work by Kim Chinquee, Carl Phillips, Lauren Hilger, Helena Rho, Guillermo Stitch, Nance Van Winckel and many others, plus artwork by Roycer. We'll be holding a launch for this issue next Tuesday, September 7, at 7 - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/ames/) - Post Road Magazine, an award-winning biannual literary journal, is inviting applications from incoming graduate students for the position of Assistant Managing Editor. The magazine employs two AMEs, and they contribute to every aspect of the journal; they're asked to oversee production, monitor the journal’s online submissions manager, communicate with readers, help run the office and - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/37-toc/) - Post Road 37 — Winter 2020 FICTION:We Must Work on Mother’s Day to Meet the Corporation’s Deadline — Dana DeanIn The High Prairies — Elizabeth Hart BergstromBig Mouth — Rachel AydtT’pree — Greg HrbekAnimal Communication Intensive — Rebecca CurtisThe Dead End — Christopher LukenThree Stories — Damian DressickDavid Dog — Joe MenoThat My Mom Did - [Production Calendar](https://www.postroadmag.com/calendar/) - [Last updated 7.27.20] Post Road 37:Nonfiction/Poetry Readers' Deadline [for 11/19 submissions]: 2.1.20Nonfiction/Poetry Editors' Deadline: 3.1.20Estimated Pub. Date: Fall 2020Guest Folio Editor: Carlo Rotella Post Road 38:Submissions Window: 2.1.20 – 3.31.20Readers’ Deadline: 6.1.20Editorial Deadline: 8.1.20 [Changed on 7.27 to 9.1]Estimated Pub. Date: Spring 2021Guest Folio Editor: TK Post Road 39:Submissions Window: 9.1.20 – 10.31.20Readers’ Deadline: 1.1.21Editorial - [Post Road Issues](https://www.postroadmag.com/post-road-issues/) - Issue #35 Winter/Fall 2019 Work by Allan Peterson, Nomi Stone, Ryan Ridge, Harris Lahti, Ran Keren, Hillary Fifield, Osama Alomar, and more... Issue #34 Fall, 2018 Work by Meghan Houlihan, Ashley Mayne, Donna Gordon, Andrew Blackman, Beth Peterson, Jim Daniels, Guest Folio, and more... Issue #33 Spring, 2018 Work by Glen Pourciau, J.T. Price, Mahreen - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/beijing-by-david-huntington/) - BeijingDavid Huntington A technician has been smashing and mending my air conditioner for six weeks. I’ve become accustomed to the thwapping of window cleaners’ ropes. Four graduates are scraping gum off a forty-story rooftop. Dust is in the air. Awaiting the cementmen to finish the furniture, our elderly till the sidewalks for sorghum. The middle - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/commute-by-e-shaskan-bumas/) - CommuteE. Shaskan Bumas The gps on my phone says the 119 bus to work will arrive in 5. What looks like close-quotation marks above the 5 means the figure comes from a live signal and not some ideal schedule. I'm on time this morning, which shouldn't be as hard as it is; it's not like - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/six-100-word-memoirs-by-paul-doherty/) - Six 100-word MemoirsPaul Doherty IRISHFrom the sunroom off the parlor, now converted to his sickroom, my father would call out as I left the house, “Remember you’re Irish.” I believed his good-bye to be ironic. Unlike his own father, a zealous Fenian, my father was pleased and proud to be American and had no interest - [George Choundas—Fun with Peter](https://www.postroadmag.com/george-choundas-fun-with-peter/) - George ChoundasFun with Peter 12/03/05 Peter is born.03/15/09 Peter and I walk to the playground down the street and hop onto the swings. We bore quickly of rote pendulum motion. We invent Battleswing, a martial-themed game that awards a point each time a player—er, warrior—succeeds in touching his foot against the opponent swinging alongside him, so long - [Last Date](https://www.postroadmag.com/last-date/) - by Hilary Fifield High up and looking down at the desolate beach from the parking lot, she couldn't see them, but lying on her back on the sand by the water she could see billions. Swarms of the smallest flies slanted over her head. The waves lapped as if miles away, muffled by the rust - [Forgetting Everything I Know](https://www.postroadmag.com/forgetting-everything-i-know/) - by Marston Hefner Everyone agreed in the neighborhood that she was the best. She was the beauty. How could she let everyone know she was nothing but a pile of shit? Oh well. Nothing, really. She did everything perfectly. Not a thing wrong with her. No conflicts. Oh, all the men loved her. Her boss - [The Painted Lady, by Harris Lahti](https://www.postroadmag.com/the-painted-lady-by-harris-lahti/) - The snow—a heavy blanket smothering roofs, roads, cornfields, pasture. But Vic Greener's main concern, the roofs. He's brought along his son, Junior, to save his back and shovel off those of his rentals before they collapse under all that weight. But first, a pitstop on the way. The call came unexpected that morning. From the - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/1210-2/) - Five Ways to Read a VillageSam Kemp On the edge of Sanctuary the kiss of skulls, falling against their own parameters toothless in the lilies. The perfume of pagans and traders, layering the valley’s lips in gutter water, when down in the meadows deep ribs throb with fox scat. I undress the rickmaking with two Focke-wulfs coming low through the turn of new light - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/a-brief-history-of-ice-by-alexandra-teague/) - A Brief History of IceAlexandra Teague The iceberg cuts its facets from within.Like jewelry from a grave Elizabeth Bishop Outside the Tate Modern on Christmas Eve,everyone is touching the blocks of ice two artists have shipped from the Arctic so we can feeltheir melting: a petting zoo of ancient beasts we slaughtered by accident, now guiltily - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/1174-2/) - Introduction: “Place as Palimpsest” As I write the introduction to this special folio on “Place as Palimpsest,” I am visiting Verdun, on the banks of the Meuse River in northeastern France. The fields and forests in this region are still scarred in places with the depressions of World War I trenches. “Nature transcends time” reads - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/city-kingfisher-by-marina-richie/) - City Kingfisher Marina Richie The belted kingfisher I pursued all summer on a wild stretch of Rattlesnake Creek now perches on a high wire above the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula, Montana. He’s gone urban this winter. How could he have become such a suave, natty bird who seems to have forgotten the meaning - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/i-came-here-for-some-answers-lois-roma-deeley/) - I Came Here for Some AnswersLois Roma-Deeley At the top of the Grand Staircasein Bryce Canyonthe hoodoos call to one another—these rock waves,crests of limestone, siltstone, dolomite, mudstoneparalyzed by time, patiently resist the dark night sky.I came here for some answers.But if these stone towers and red spiresknow anything, they’re not telling me.I’ve never understood - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/true-abandon-by-gretchen-steele-pratt/) - True AbandonGretchen Steele Pratt This is how you must leave – The phone off its hook, piano lid open, fall board up – the shawl across the bench. Sheet music goes without saying – spread across the rack. The one crystal already fallen from the chandelier, let it alone. Let the crucifix hang, the bath - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/in-the-shadow-of-the-el-excerpt-paul-mariani/) - In the Shadow of the El (excerpt)Paul Mariani New York City. July 28th, 1945.This much I’ve figured out: the brown bomber will have been about forty stories above the rectangular tarred tops of the tenements, all of them lined up east of the Third Avenue El, the wing and nose wheels of the plane groaning - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/ilya-by-ashley-keyser/) - IlyaAshley Keyser The year of the radioactive boars, drills replaced morning aerobics. Boys wound through the schoolyard, marching mock-blasé and awkward. As the gym teacher barked a countdown, the swashbuckling tails of his mustache fluttered. The boys put on gas masks. Only Ilya fumbled, the rubber stuck over his forehead. A row of round lenses - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/if-in-new-york-near-toroks-grave-cal-freeman/) - If in New York Near Torok’s Grave Cal Freeman and cold, don’t puzzleover sprung umbrellasappearing with the suddenness of rainand distending with the anatomical logicof hand-shaped clouds.The bleared leaguesof glass will make eidolonsand ciphers of Alphabet City’sencrypted avenues.There’s one in the hooded figure of a wolf,a claustral shield emblazoned with lionsriveted to the gate.Another overly-tallwith a - [Recommendations Queries](https://www.postroadmag.com/recommendations-queries/) - We ask our Interns and Student Interns to invite writers who have published one book or more to write a recommendation for Post Road. To initiate this query, please download and complete the attached form and send it to Professor Boucher or one of the Assistant Managing Editors. We'll send out the initial query on - [pr.edu](https://www.postroadmag.com/edu/) - Recommended Literary Journals Recommended High-Profile Consumer Magazines Recommended Lesser-Known Consumer Magazines Websites About Books & Journals Resources for Writers Great Local Bookstores Prof. Boucher's Reading List [in-progress] Articles of Interest for Writers & Editors How to Submit a Recommendations Query Tutorial: Basic HTML & CSS Tutorial: WordPress Development Tutorial: Publishing Workshop - [Prof. Boucher's Reading List [in-progress]](https://www.postroadmag.com/prof-bouchers-reading-list-in-progress/) - Novels Speedboat, by Renata Adler The Dead Father, by Donald Barthelme U.S.!, by Chris Bachelder If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, by Alexandra Kleeman The Age of Wire and String, by Ben Marcus - [Information for Contributors](https://www.postroadmag.com/contributors/) - Dear Contributor, Thanks for reviewing this page; we’re delighted to be featuring your work in an upcoming issue of Post Road. Below you'll find information about copyedits and discount copies. Copyedits You’ve probably arrived here after receiving a Microsoft Word document which contains copyedits saved as “track changes.“ Ideally, it’d be great if you - [Great Local Bookstores](https://www.postroadmag.com/great-local-bookstores/) - Brookline Booksmith Newtonville Books Porter Square Books - [Articles of Interest for Writers & Editors](https://www.postroadmag.com/articles-of-interest-for-writers-editors/) - "Running the Editing Gauntlet," by Sven Birkerts [AGNI, 9/15] "Omission," by John McPhee [The New Yorker, 9/14/15] "Wired's Apple News Experiment: What It Says About The Future Of Journalism," by Kalev Leetaru [Forbes, 9/20/15] Apple's News Publishing Guide "Anatomy of a Discovery: How a Literary Magazine Editor Finds New Writers," by John Freeman [from Electric Literature, - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/an-interview-with-suzanne-koven/) - An Interview with Suzanne Koven This Friday, September 30, Post Road will present a reading by contributor Suzanne Koven at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books. Dr. Koven is a primary care physician and Writer in Residence in the division of general internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her essays, reviews, blogs, and interviews have appeared in The - [](https://www.postroadmag.com/the-baby-by-ethan-rutherford/) - The Baby Ethan Rutherford The weather outside is feral, and snow-clotted. And when the doctor says hold the baby, they do. They’re in the emergency room. The baby had thrown a fever, and that’s why they brought him in, through the Oregon winter, at this time of night. Now, everyone is worried. Hold him - [Recommended Literary Journals](https://www.postroadmag.com/recommended-literary-journals/) - AGNI Catapult Conjunctions Diagram Draft Journal Electric Literature Epoch Fence Georgia Review Harvard Review Kenyon Review The Massachusetts Review McSweeney’s The Mississippi Review Noon The Normal School Pangyrus Paris Review Ploughshares Redivider Salamander The Scofield - [tutorial: Publishing Workshop](https://www.postroadmag.com/tutorial-publishing-workshop/) - Copyedits We hire a professional copyeditor for Post Road; she sends me all of her edits in Track Changes and I work with the contributor to arrive at a final product. Here are some sample copyedits. Proofreading As you know, we review proofs repeatedly in search of errors. With every "round," I send comments back to the Layout - [tutorial: wordpress development](https://www.postroadmag.com/wordpress-tutorial/) - Wordpress is a blogging platform and content management system. There are two ways to use Wordpress – via their server at Wordpress.com, or by installing Wordpress (via the Wordpress.org Codex) on your web server. Both options allow for the implementation of different themes and plugins. If you run Wordpress on your server, though, you can also design - [tutorial: html & css](https://www.postroadmag.com/web-design-tutorial/) - Resources W3Schools [html] [css] Codecademy A Very Basic Webpage Open a Text Editor (I recommend TextWrangler) Cut n' paste the following text into a new document: Page Title This is a Heading This is a paragraph. Save the file with the extension .html. Open the file in your web - [Resources for Writers](https://www.postroadmag.com/resources-for-writers/) - AWP Bookjobs Poets & Writers - [Websites About Books & Journals](https://www.postroadmag.com/websites-about-books-journals/) - The Los Angeles Review of Books The Millions The Review Review - [Recommended Lesser-Known Consumer Magazines](https://www.postroadmag.com/recommended-lesser-known-consumer-magazines/) - The American Scholar The Believer Boston Review Guernica N+1 The Sun Magazine - [Recommended High-Profile Consumer Magazines](https://www.postroadmag.com/recommended-high-profile-consumer-magazines/) - Harper's The New Yorker - [Selected Authors' Websites](https://www.postroadmag.com/selected-authors-websites/) - Aimee Bender Junot Diaz Alexandra Kleeman Emily St. John Mandel Joe Meno Jeff Parker Kevin Wilson ## Categories - [Issue 01](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-01/) - [Issue 02](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-02/) - [Issue 03](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-03/) - [Issue 04](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-04/) - [Issue 05](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-05/) - [Issue 06](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-06/) - [Issue 07](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-07/) - [Issue 08](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-08/) - [Issue 09](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-09/) - [Issue 10](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-10/) - [Issue 11](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-11/) - [Issue 12](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-12/) - [Issue 13](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-13/) - [Issue 14](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-14/) - [Issue 15](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-15/) - [Issue 16](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-16/) - [Issue 17](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-17/) - [Issue 18](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-18/) - [Issue 19](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-19/) - [Issue 20](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-20/) - [Issue 21](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-21/) - [Issue 22](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-22/) - [Issue 23](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-23/) - [Issue 24](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-24/) - [Issue 25](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-25/) - [Issue 26](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-26/) - [Issue 27](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-27/) - [Issue 28](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-28/) - [Issue 29](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-29/) - [Issue 30](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-30/) - [Issue 31](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-31/) - [Issue 32](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-32/) - [Issue 33](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-33/) - [Issue 34](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-34/) - [Issue 35](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-35/) - [Issue 36](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-36/) - [Web Features](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/web-features/) - [Issue 37](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-37/) - [Web-Exclusives](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/web-exclusives/) - [Issue 38](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-38/) - [Issue 39](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-39/) - [Index](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/index/) - [Issue 40](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-40/) - [Issue 41](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-41/) - [Issue 42](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-42/) - [Issue 43](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-43/) - [Issue 44](https://www.postroadmag.com/category/issue-44/) ## Tags - [Fiction](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/fiction/) - [Nonfiction](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/nonfiction/) - [Poetry](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/poetry/) - [Criticism](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/criticism/) - [Recommendations](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/recommendations/) - [Theatre](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/theatre/) - [Guest Folio](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/guest-folio/) - [Art](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/art/) - [Web Features](https://www.postroadmag.com/tag/web-features/)