It’s not just the sacrifice of time, it’s that I want to do these things on my own (Or with your mother). I want to prove to myself that I can accomplish the lofty goals I set for myself, but when you get here, I must transfer my love and passion onto the development of … Read more
“You don’t have to do everything together,” she said. “He can do music on his own, and you have your poetry, and then you can come together in the evening–“ “And, what, watch Netflix?” I interrupted her. “No, we can make this work, I know it. Because when it does work, it’s glorious.” Winner of … Read more
And I had done it, I had created something genuine, something good, and I thought I’d succeeded and made something lasting and done something cool with my life: I owned a nightclub in Austin. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books The Marfa Deal I It was the spring of 2021 and already … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books Earthen Wares Nondescript, earthen wares of our bones, red letterbox, a fakir’s tombstone.Pilgrim’s chakras swirl red to white grindstone. Faint footsteps, the echoes of lived homes.Faint scents of cloves, saffron, unpack new home. Gods of time march in hallways, stroke our skins.Will passage of time bare … Read more
“Are those…” Yes. They were. No doubt. Those were stars. A dusty scattering like a setting scene in Star Trek, shifting slowly, rotating to the right. New stars came into view. I sucked in a breath to tell Charon she needed to explain this when a new, brighter light illuminated the left side of the … Read more
Later conspiracies flourished saying that enthusiasm to see it and the experience of seeing the work was changing it gradually, was even recreating it – the work itself – making later viewings different from earlier ones. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction ┤ -TOTL – (pr: TAWT’L) “The cradle rocks above an … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Upon Stealing Smithsonian Folkways from Franklin Library, Summer 1974 My plans for sainthood were falling apart anyway.I’d started thinking about giving —wrong— a try.Some secret sort of violence. Crime.What I meant to do was steal something.Anything. This would be a start. There were records in the town … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry A Recording of a Recording Damen is a mulit-award-winning Australian poet. In 2024, his prizes include the Fingal Poetry Competition, the Ware Open Poets Competition and the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize. Damen’s poems have been published in the Marrow, Florida Review and the London Magazine among other … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry No This “Let’s approach this calmly, shall we?”There is no this. Alreadythere is no we, onlyme—you with yourwhatever, whoever, not wanting meto make a scene and nowyour back towards me moving away from metowards the city (cafes, bars, on either side).My feet are walking my lifedown the … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry The Blue Pearl Moments before I politely inform herher services are no longer required,the lawyer in her plush leather chairadvises me not to concern myselfwith how the custody agreement will turn out,because “you’ll lose interest soon enough,”then suggests I buy food coloring on the way home,because “a … Read more