Sometimes I’d imagine that compressing the areas of fat would break apart the tissue and allow it to dissolve into my body. In my downtime, I would knead the fat to a pulp.
...
New Nonfiction by Evan Balkan: In Praise of Awe
It’s hard to define, awe. But certainly we know when we feel it. It’s a rare thing, buried under the onslaught of daily routine and the indignities of, say, a red traffic light when we’re late for ...
New Poetry by Loretta Tobin: “In the Dead Man’s Seabag” and “River City”
A blue ribbon marked
First Thessalonians,
where he had underlined—
Be joyful always;
...
Hope and Heartbreak in Kyle Seibel’s “Hey You Assholes”
About four years ago I first encountered Kyle Seibel’s work while volunteering with this publication (Wrath-Bearing Tree). He submitted a poignant animated story, “Lovebirds,” which surprised and d...
New Fiction by Matthew James Jones: Excerpt from Predators, Reapers, and Deadlier Creatures
I'd been in Afghanistan for three months when I saw the woman in the marketplace die. Thirty or forty men haggled the price of fruit as she skirted a low stone wall in her burka, stomach swollen in la...
New Interview with Matthew James Jones
Predators, Reapers and Deadlier Creatures (PR&DC) is unafraid to be funny about serious subjects. Can you tell us some of the books that inspired you to write something as unsettling and wry as...
New Poem by John Thampi: “Ad Memoriam”
New poem by John Thampi: Ad Memoriam
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New Poetry by Ben White: “Cold” and “Cold II”
New poetry by Ben White – “Cold” and “Cold II”
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Learning to Fly: The Army and The Airborne Mafia
Sometimes in life, one experiences a shock or a revelation so powerful that it stays with you for years. For me, one such shock occurred at the Yavoriv training area in Western Ukraine, in June of 201...
New Nonfiction by J. Malcolm Garcia: And This Is No Matter What
The temperature on this Tuesday morning in Grants Pass, Oregon, is edging up to ninety degrees as Helen Cruz and Justin Wallace enter the J Street Camp. The cloudless sky is a glazed, pale blue. No...
New Poetry by Layle Chambers: “Becoming a Lighthouse #1;” “You Find Wonders;” “Pilot Air”
cold laps the shore
no choice but to step in
stride out, stake my place
transmute into tower
...
New Poetry by Kathleen Murdough: “He Signed Up”
“This is what he signed up for,”
my mother says when
my brother graduates from West Point.
He always wanted to be a soldier,
so she and I pin the bars on his sho...
New Fiction by Eugene Samolin: Narcissus Mask
Olly stood on a chair in his studio with a noose around his neck. “I’ll never love again,” he moaned. He stared at the blank canvas in front of him. I love my paintings, he thought. But they can’t ...
New Fiction by Nathan Nicolau: Returns
Does anyone knock anymore? Even at a friend’s house, an office, or my bedroom, I would knock. No one can be too careful. Everyone was out for you. That was what the news told me. That was what was ...
New Poetry by Devin Mikles: “Telegram to Mrs. Sargent”
ONLY MUDDY BOOTS AND HELMETS CAKED RUSTING ROTTING IN STEAMING GREENHOUSES STICK UP FROM DECAYED REMAINS CAUSED BY DETESTABLE HUMAN ANGER VENT BY WORLD POLITICAL COMPANY FOUNDED ON INORDINATE DESIR...
New Poetry by Aramis Calderon: “Loyal”
New poem by Aramis Calderon: “Loyal”
...
New Nonfiction by Fred Cheney: Tracers
I’ve changed all the names in this story except my own. They’re all dead, but … that afterlife thing just might be true. I’m an old man now, but I was ten or eleven or so in this story. Across the ...
New Poetry by Carol Alexander: “Late of Somewhere in the East”
New Poem by Carol Alexander: “Late of Somewhere in the East”
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New Poetry by Rachel Landrum Crumble: “Against Urgent Brilliance”
New Poem by Rachel Landrum Crumble: “Against Urgent Brilliance”
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New Fiction by Abu B. Rafique: The Madman of Sheen Bagh
The little mountain-village known as Sheen Bagh sat right on the border. So exact was the placement that the people in the village often did not claim either country that surrounded their home, but...
New Fiction by Paul Rabinowitz: Little Death
Each night our mascot—a black and white cat—sneaks into the base searching for a warm lap and scraps of food. Tonight our reconnaissance unit joins an elite group of combat fighters. These guys vol...
New Fiction by Michelle R. Brady: Thirty Broken Birds
I. Valley of Quest Before what happened to Christine, before arriving in Iraq, before even leaving Nebraska, all we knew for sure is that there would be violence and sand. We began by trying to sol...
New Poetry by Nathan Didier: “Hearts and Minds”
New Poem by Nathan Didier: “Hearts and Minds”
...
New Poetry by Rachel Rix: “Experimental Simulation of Joint Morphology During Desiccation,” “Second Deployment,” “CO’s Canon”
New Poetry by Rachel Rix: “Experimental Simulation of Joint Morphology During Desiccation,” “Second Deployment,” “CO’s Canon”
...
New Review: Michael Carson on Kevin Honold’s Our Lady of Good Voyage
CROATOAN: A Review of Kevin Honold’s Our Lady of Good Voyage (Orison Books, 2024). Kevin Honold’s Our Lady of Good Voyage begins in an unnamed Ohio town populated with German ghosts. The Germans, t...
New Nonfiction by Jennifer Crystal: An Excerpt from One Tick Stopped the Clock
Chapter 12 of One Tick Stopped the Clock Published by Legacy Book Press Excerpted from ONE TICK STOPPED THE CLOCK Copyright © 2024 by Jennifer Crystal. Used with permission of Legacy Book Press, Ca...
New Nonfiction by Adrian Bonenberger: “An Alternate View of Moral Injury”
An Alternate View of Moral Injury Introductory note: I originally composed this essay between 2022-23. I’ve gone back and forth about publishing it; it’s true, I stand by everything I’ve written, b...
New Poetry by Douglas G. Campbell: “The President’s New Children’s Crusade”
New Poetry by Douglas Campbell: “The President’s New Children’s Crusade”
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New Poetry by Sylvia Baedorf Kassis: “Detritus”
New Poetry by Sylvia Baedorf Kassis: “Detritus”
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New Fiction by Jake Bienvenue: Chasing Colonel Sandro
Dr. Maldonado fiddled with the picture of his hot wife and blonde sons, making sure I noticed. Hot professors are rare at Christian universities. They’re mostly Anglican, for some reason. Such a ch...
New Nonfiction by Kyle Abbott Smith: The Superman Fight
Fights within the infantry were common enough that their variations came to be source material for a dark form of in-unit comedy. So it was with one of my tussles in the Pendleton dirt. My platoon,...
New Fiction by Robert Miner: Shades of Purple
Danny Llewellyn hadn’t shit himself since he was a toddler, back when nobody minded. Since then, he’d joined the Army, gone to war, left the Army. He was, by most people’s estimations, a man, espec...
New Fiction by Jesse Nee-Vogelman: Improv
The terrorist sat down at the cafe at a quarter to one. She had always been punctual. Beneath her clothing was a bomb improvised from ammonium nitrate. The bomb was uncomfortable. She kept thinking...
New Poetry by Richard Epstein: “The Dance”
New Poem by Richard Epstein: “The Dance”
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New Poetry by Ellie J. Anderson: “Impact, 1984”
New poem by Ellie J. Anderson: “Impact, 1984”
...
New Interview by Larry Abbott: Doug Rawlings
Doug Rawlings had his life planned out: graduate school, business school, eventual law school, and a career in business. But then, like thousands of other young men, he received the dreaded SSS Fo...
New Poetry by Peter Mladinic: “Fist”
In Okinawa I made a fist and my fingers stuck together that stop over night my one stop before Danang, between two worlds, the flag burning, tear-gas U.S. and the Vietnam rat-tat-tat automat...
New Poetry by David Burr: “Harvest”
Hurl of metal – iron, steel – as shrapnel,
as bail hail, as HE detonation, all
forged and spit out again with new fire,
matériel barrae, meat-mincer for
...
New Nonfiction from Per-Olof Odman: “Mystery Mountain”
In the remote and forgotten northwestern corner of Vietnam looms the vast, rugged and rain-drenched Hoang Lien Mountains. Here, Vietnam’s tallest summit, the 10,326-foot-high Fan Si Pan, towe...
New Fiction by Dwight Curtis: “The Thirty-Two Fouettes”
The chair came to a stop and with great effort, haltingly, the figure lifted himself to his feet. He took a single jerky step forward onto the stage and the wheelchair receded from view. It was L...
New Poetry by Jayant Kashyap: “The War”
New poetry by Jayant Kashyap: “The War”
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New Poetry by Phillip Sitter: “Krakivets, Odyn” and “Elemental”
New Poetry by Phillip Sitter: “Krakivets, Odyn” and “Elemental”
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New Nonfiction by Avory Schanfelter: “Condition Black”
Time in a combat zone passes strangely. When you are surrounded by the incredible, the human mind has a tendency to dull your senses so that the days aren’t memorable, but there are a few days that...
New Fiction by Adrian Bonenberger: “Checkpoint”
Every two or three months Jon and Steven would meet for lunch at the McDonald’s outside the town center where Main Street met Route 1. Jon was married and Steven was single. Steven had been marrie...
New Nonfiction by Michael Jerome Plunkett: “Four Letter Words: A Meditation on Fuck”
The most versatile piece of equipment an infantryman carries is a four-letter word. It can be used in almost every conceivable situation. It’s sharp, cuts smooth and clean. It can sever all manner ...
New Fiction by Dion Wright: “Your Land”
“Drone up,” said Lieutenant Levi. Heads turned and eyes followed the drone’s swift ascent to the sequoia canopy 350 feet above. It briefly hovered there before slipping out of sight, free of the en...
New Review by Maggie Gamberton: Nancy Stroer’s Playing Army
A Game of Soldiers – A Review of Playing Army by Nancy Stroer LT Minerva Mills is a hot mess. Literally. We meet her with ‘sweat pooling in her waistband’ as her mother rams through a termina...
New Poetry by Shawn McCann: “All I Can Do Is Watch” and “No Way To Fight Back”
New Poetry by Shawn McCann: “All I Can Do Is Watch” and “No Way To Fight Back”
...
New Poetry by Kathleen Hellen: “People Boats” and “Pretending There Is A Garden In The Spring, Paradise In Time”
New Poetry by Kathleen Hellen: “People Boats” and “Pretending There Is Garden In The Spring, Paradise In Time”
...
New Nonfiction from Patty Prewitt: “Missing Amy”
Missouri inmate Patty Prewitt has been in prison for almost 40 years. She is serving a life sentence for the murder of her husband, Bill, in 1984. The conviction, however, is problematic. The prose...