FALL 2025
POETRY
Lana Hechtman Ayers, Prayer Is a Painted Lavender Field
Margaret F. Browne, To build a wasp’s nest
Samuel Burt, Empire Is
Joseph Chaney, Wrong-Footed
Ian Hall, Love in the Time of Company Towns
Dennis Hinrichsen, Pedal Steel Death Song
Mistee St. Clair, And What Are We Now
Mikal Wix, Red Observatory
FICTION
Jeffrey Amos, Witness Trees
Jeff McLaughlin, Safe
ESSAYS
Tori Malcangio, I am Ready. I am not Ready.
Christie Tate, Where’s the Beef?
INTERVIEWS AND REVIEWS
Danny Daw, What’s in a Name: An Interview with Ishion Hutchinson
Bleah Patterson reviews Ghost in the Archive by Jennifer Loyd and interviews the author
Makenzie Stuart reviews Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul
Native New Orleanian artist Shelbey Leco was always inspired by the swamp terrain and intercoastal waterways. She was raised among a lineage of natural storytellers on both sides of her family. As a young adult, Shelbey explored this through storytelling ethnography. She studied at the University of New Orleans where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Urban Society with disciplines in: Education, English, and Anthropology. Her primary medium is mixed media. She chooses to use different mediums, in order to weave them with personal experiences that create a new story. (IG: @shell_b3)
Artist Statement: Growing up in New Orleans, I come from a very diverse cultural background. Sicilian, French, Spanish, Cajun, Filipino. I was raised among a lineage of natural storytellers on both sides of my family. As an artist, I feel that I have gravitated towards mixed media, because it felt the closest to me. I enjoy using discarded materials: old magazines, outdated books, threads, tissue papers, etc. when blended together with personal experiences creates a new story. Similarly, in the way that I am made of many different people of many different stories. My series, In Pain Comes Growth, explores the idea that one must endure suffering and affliction in order to grow stronger. If you picked fruit from a tree, and it never grew back, what would happen?
Top Gallery (left to right): Rebellion (2025, mixed media, 11″ x 14″), You HURT Me (2025, mixed media, 11″ x 14″)
Bottom Gallery (left to right): Pink Envelope (2025, mixed media, 11″ x 14″), Salamin Mata (2025, mixed media, 11″ x 14″), Ermite (mixed media, 2025, 11″ x 14″), Fish Secret Wish (2025, mixed media, 11″ x 14″)