Matt Dhillon Butt Joint Winner of the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips 1. A joint made by fastening the parts together end-to-end without overlap [...]

Ashley Colley from The Let Down Ashley Colley's poems have appeared in Orion, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Southern Indiana Review, Annulet, The Spectacle, and elsewhere. The recipient of a [...]

Nicole Robinson Here in the After Second Runner-up for the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips We linger at the lake a little longer, try [...]

Keana Aguila Labra South Bay Cebuano First Runner-Up for the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips Keana Aguila Labra (they/she) is a Cebuana-Tagalog Filipinx poet, [...]

Jaia Hamid Bashir Silver Alert What syllable opens in the last breath, what plea escapes the foxhole where even a rib becomes a bone to gnaw? What rattles out when [...]

Paola Bruni Wildlife Overpass Driving south on highway 93, asphalt cuts a slim ribbon through the Canadian Rockies, my lover and I are a lone vehicle road-tripping through the brink [...]

Sara Verstynen Extermination Nine years old, shirtless in summer. I rise from my room’s shag carpet, starvation diet a j-hook through my sight. The old tuxedo cat, heavy with babies, [...]

Todd Davis Alverdia Considers the Pillar of Salt that Was Lot’s Wife To turn to salt simply for lookingover your shoulder,for rememberinga friend or cousinwhose house sitson the lip of [...]

Thu Anh Nguyen My Mother Sizes Me You came to me shaking, cradling tissue in your palm so carefully that I didn’t recognize your softness, open to me for once. [...]

Roman Johnson Be Thou My Vision When I was eight, my father kept his car running while the gas exhaust fumes filled the air of my cousin’s apartment complex. He [...]

Jacob Sheetz-Willard First Principles You start from the top down, clearing dust from the tank lid, then draw your torn bath towel over the flush handle, across the tank’s vertical [...]