‘Why did you think we brought your daddy?’ Turquoise asks. Drusilla slams into Emily’s side again. The air stills, just as it did before. ‘Sweetheart,’ Minerva says eventually, ‘do you mean your donor?’ Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Books Donor Family ‘Once upon a time,’ Emily says, ‘there was a lady who wanted … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction Concerning Renovations to the Community Pool OFFICIAL CITY OF MITTELSBERG BLOG Completely honored to be your interim City ManagerDate: Tuesday, December 6 Hello residents of the great little city of Mittelsberg! My name is Logan Appel and if you don’t know me you probably know of … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Tailbone There are ancient and almost-lost andnext-to-unknowable secretsthat echo at a divine frequency native only to a tailbone. Somewhere,tailbone-you is reaching out beyond its own body-world looking for that lost counterweightfor tree-walking and soundless flying leaps,for its mystical abilityto find the thinnest places in time,where other lonely-only … Read more
“How come Papaw is so quiet?” Mama looked at me. “He’s like you,” she said. “Shy sometimes. But mischievous. You get those blue eyes of yours from him.” “I’m not mischievous.” Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction Liable To Be I went to the front yard and yelled their names as loud as … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Hunger It is not food I crave,But the ache of being filled.I want to eat light,To bite into morning,To chew the sound of rain as it slicks across the glass.I want to swallow laughter raw,To taste joy as if it were fruit; pulled flesh from the tree,Still … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Mind Game A bald head curling into a torso?That’s what the scan looked like to me. But, it is not a fetus. It is cancer,a tumor, and a large one, clamberingover and through my left kidney. Not like ivy blanketing a rock outcrop, or tree shoots pushing … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Books In Farthest Light PROLOGUE In the far eastern seas great storms hastened nightfall. Low black clouds were lit from within, soundless flashes of white fire in a great forge. Far below, endless waves crested and exploded in furious wind and rain. There were no seabirds, no leaping … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction How Foolish To Worry I was flying to Louisville to see a man named Evan who had, in his youth, ridden an inner tube at full speed smack into the side of an anchored sailboat on Little Fitts Pond in Holden, Maine. By the time we … Read more
Above me, Seagulls patter my metal roof and screech their hunger to anyone who will listen. The fishing boats are returning to port, and soon, the gulls will have plenty of bones and bellies to feast on when the fishermen empty their ice holds and process their catches. It’s been a week since I’ve set … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Anxiety Controller Micheline Denn works as an aerospace engineer and shares a love for language and poetry in her spare time. While her daily work often includes mathematical equations and data analysis, she enjoys tapping into her creative self to produce works that bridge the gap between … Read more