Issue 40
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About the Artists in LIT 40
Jacelyn Yap
(on the cover) Saphire Organic 01
Jacelyn (she/her) is a self-taught visual artist who ditched engineering to make art because of a comic she read. Her artworks and photography have been published by the Commonwealth Foundation’s adda, Chestnut Review, The Lumiere Review, and more. She can be found at https://jacelyn.myportfolio.com/ and on Instagram at @jacelyn.makes.stuff
Alessandro Avondo born in Milan, Italy in 1983, studies languages and then audiovisual production. He meets, at his first job, photography that accompanies him daily for 20 years. -
Letter from the Editors
Dear Reader,
Melting as we are in the in the heat of the Northeast, the world stage has run amok and our eyes always seem to be trained on another disaster, and another’s disaster. The bombardment of crises through the lens of all media doubles, triples, then exponentially shatters to a galaxy of views, skews, opinions, and news. We are overwhelmed by trying to hold fast and follow word salad narratives and fractured lines of logic not meant to carry any water, as another disaster or disastrous narrative breaks through the fore seemingly intended to disrupt and distract and we forget what it was that we were trying to understand in the first place.
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Three Poems from “Static”
art by Tiffany Babb
by Emily Barton Altman
the birds on the power wires
stretched down the street. French doors.
our plants are particular. I can’t seethe source of the sound.
an abandoned home improvement project.
a bowl of cherries.the whistle of the neighbor’s tea kettle, the low murmur
of inarticulate voices.
it’s a soft sound right now. the bodygets used to the rhythms.
a faint smell of lavender from the closet. it catches me
unawares. -
Self-Portraits as Bestiary
art by Ami Watanabe
by Amanda Gaines
One you is a beaver and a flood is coming. All your fellow beavers say Yeah, of course. There’s always one disaster or another on the horizon. But you are convinced this flood will bring an end to everything you’ve built. You are leaving this colony to join another in two months with your beloved in the hopes that together, you will be able to brace the coming storms as a solid front. You will construct a humble dam where the two of you will groom one another and eat cattails until your bellies distend and watch the eastern sky burn with sequined holes that remind you of all your once-lives.
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Her Lover As Luck Would Have It
art by Stephanie Ann Farra
by Dana Salisbury
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Headshot--
one knobby shoulder higher than the other
narrow torso
tiny wideset nipples
swirling chest hair defining sternum, breast, rib cage
a smattering of old-man arm-hairs
cocked head
big red ears
stringy red neck
scraggly shoulder-length fine light brown hair
only fuzz left on top
high forehead
lightly furrowed semicircular brow
solid nose, long upper lip
craggy cheeks
short scruffy blond and white beard
self-accepting eyes
that look straight at you
narrow lips
wide slightly-cockeyed closed-mouth smile
that would laugh if you will too
*
In the bedroom. -
Barbasol Hologram
by Anastasia Nikolis
Anastasia Nikolis is an Assistant Professor of English at St. John Fisher University. Her academic research focuses on confession and secrecy in post-1945 American poetry, with special interest in poetry and the public humanities. In her creative writing, she explores the intersections of visual art, place and the body. You can find her work in Stone Canoe, Ghost City Review, Arkansas International and Tampa Review.
