Letter Review

Rondo – New Poetry by Alyssa Salzberg

Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Rondo My friend finds God in unexpected places.We are in the woods the first time she tells me:rain drumming gentle on the leaves, we stand without umbrellas or coatsat the side of the slow-flowing stream, sing songs in hesitant harmony,and speak. She says, I think that moments … Read more

A (not so) Private Sestina – New Poetry by Emily Standley

Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry A (not so) Private Sestina “Momma needs privacy!”you yell, underwear at your ankles on the bathroom floor.If they hear,they pay no attention.Tiny feet rush in,possessing the same boldness with which they stampeded through the rest of your life.When you gave life,you relinquished your privacy.Some days are too … Read more

Hope – New Poetry by Michelle Bahrain

Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Hope I look out across the verdant fields and am awed-The splendor of the spring flowers, the azure of the sky, andThe lazy sunbeams scattered here and there.I feel at home and comforted, like this is the only placeI can be, here and now.The scents of lavender … Read more

Hungry Animals – New Nonfiction by Ashley Berry

I met a nice man, kind to the core, and took comfort in the strong arms that held me and held me back from myself. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction Hungry Animals There is a tiger inside me who lives to eat and lick itself clean. For years, it lived hungry, pelvic … Read more

Memory Slippers – New Nonfiction by Ruth Stella MacLean

Once inside the store, the clerk led me to a shelf. On it was a slipper, deep blue in color with the same rounded toe I remembered so well from time spent with my great aunts. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction Memory Slippers Yesterday my husband said it was time for me … Read more

The Red Bird – New Short Fiction by Sophie Wainwright

Freya, something’s going on. We’re levitating. Or dreaming we are. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction The Red Bird Just days before, their baby was stillborn, and no cause was found. Now they were stood, embracing. Yet somehow, lifting upwards, right off the ground. Evan, what’s happening? They continued effortlessly rising until … Read more

Holding His Hand – New Short Fiction by Casey Shapack

I tug at my flesh-colored sock and unhook the latch to rearrange my leg. My flushed palms steam the cold metal. Although I’ve put on the prosthetic hundreds of times before, I now fumble with its weight and awkward shape. I recognize how foreign it must look to them; even after three years, it still … Read more

Cold Cut – New Short Fiction by Ben Jones

‘A cold cut,’ said Mac. The fire service risk analysis is always interpreted using hot to cold as a scale of dangerous to safe. Or time critical and life threatening to no rush and take our time. We work in hot areas. Hot zones. Cutting a live casualty from a crashed vehicle is dangerous, so … Read more