Letter Review

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories. Features: Themes of violence, warfare. February 13, 2022 | The Before I leave Alaska for Haiti in twelve days. I will be in Cité Soleil, abidonville of Port-au-Prince. I find myself here again, sucked by the swell of opposing forces. I crave home and stability yet … Read more

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories. Features: Self harm. Most days I don’t like my brother, Dan. He’s bigger and four years older than me. Besides, he’s always saying he’s smarter than me, but that doesn’t matter anymore. It all started on Saturday night when everyone in Crawley’s Corner celebrated the return … Read more

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories Listen up, compadre. If you want to run a bodega successfully in the Boogie Down, you need to check your scruples at the door. See that upside-down milk crate by the potato chip rack? That’s a chair. See that cold-cut slicer in the deli? That’s … Read more

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Poetry We see so little of the world, a mere corner,they say, though today, nothing seems scanty—the oaks around the meadow, full of spiked leaves and fear- ful band-tails, life’s matrix pulsing every nerve—it’s morethan more: it’s a slow explosion, even if its plentyis mere sliver next … Read more

Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry The house in its placecould never replace it. A three-car garagewhere the bar used to be. “I wonder what would happenif I knocked on the door and told the cast insideit was happy hour? Might they invite me infor a cameo? A curtain call cocktailon the … Read more

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Poetry i.      In the field,        light cuts across my palms        and draws nothing        but a new shadow. A gift        mistaken for darkness. ii.     In a poem        you can be anything        but a better                            son. iii.    Half a country away,        I carry your name –        a hummingbird                            sleeping        between my palms. iv.    You never taught me        how to suffer, mother.        Which … Read more

Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction Kenneth would not look back into the room, only out of the window at his dying garden. She had come a long way. Two buses, a train, another bus. His three sons, all grown, had been trying to encourage him to turn his head ever … Read more

Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction Zeke slid the rusted step-side under the cypress moss and wiggled the shifter into neutral. He circled his window down first and reached over Jeannie Mae to crank hers. Which was a hassle given the knob was broken off and persuasion was needed to hold … Read more

Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction One month into the pandemic, I bought a telescope. It was my wife who suggested it. In the first few weeks she’d started running, practicing yoga, and joined a book club. None of those appealed to me, but I’d always liked space. I spent a … Read more