LIT 42, Spring 2026
Poetry
At the Wedding of My Transformation by Cassandra Whitaker
Picture of My Dad in an Aircraft Carrier by Patricia Aya Williams
4, 7, 8 (X) by Jan Clausen
Droste Effect by Samuel Piccone
Forward Inside Death Spiral 4 by Carolyn Oliver
Self Portrait where lilies are my body and you’re playing me like chess by Sophie Jefferies
MOONFLOWER by Lydia Downey
Veritable by Stephen Smith
This is the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn by Becca Klaver
The Snow, Slant Ghazal for Winter of 2085 by Linette Marie Allen
Medicine by AJ Bermudez
Ode to the Overpriced Burrito by Luis Lopez-Maldonado
Fiction
Pacifier and Museum Trips by Arthur Mandal
Two Flash Fictions by Zach Murphy
Goodbye from the Edge of the World by Angie McCullagh
These Child Stars Were Supposed to be the Next Big Thing and Now They’re Just Joe Sacksteder by Joe Sacksteder
Nonfiction
Art Therapy by Marilyn Petrokubi
Thrust Fault by Sharon K. McClain
Old 37 by Jon Vickers
Raft by Terry Engel
I Double Dare You by Laura Shaine Cunningham
The One I’ve Been Dying To Tell by Polly Hansen
Hybrid
VOCABULARY TEST by Steven Mellor
Land of Abundant Language by Jose Hernandez Diaz
We Continue Holding, A Girl, Ephemeral Nature of Love by Isabel Hoin
Comparing My Inside to Your Outside at the Water’s Edge by HR Harper
Monkeys, Lioness of Judah, and Hometown Photo by Alex Farber
Money, and 31 Tonight by Elizabeth Schoettle
Birthday Pie by Josie Braaten
The Peng Paradox by Yutong Li
One Last Supper Together by Marie Anne Arreola
How to Live by Helen Hofling
Ekphrastic I by Cait McCann
Windowsill: Monologue of a Past Self by Ilana Maymind
Translation
3 Poems by Leonard Tuchilatu, Translated from the Romanian by Romana Iorga
Almost by Samuel Hamen, Translated from the Luxembourgish by Rob Myatt
Cecilia Gallerani by Martina Clavadetscher, translated from the German by Melody Winkle
Interviews and Reviews
An interview with Peruvian poet Roxana Crisólogo and translator Kim Jensen by John P. Apruzzese
“After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace” an interview with Robert Polito by Charlotte Slivka
An interview with Alexa Yasemin Brahme (MFA ’22) on her debut novel, Good News by Jonny Kesh
A Review of Michael e. Casteels’s, Furthermore, the Lake by Grace Dignazio
A Review of Tony Koji Wallin-Sato’s Poetry collection, Okaerinasai by Richard Berwind
Artists Featured in this Issue
On the cover
“They Should Take the Bait (It Pulls Fists Out of Every Eye)” by JJ Cromer
Other works in this issue by JJ:
Kite
Thank You for Confiding in Me
Stumps
Like a Hissing Balloon, He Said: “I Want to Be Understood, Just Not by You”
Not Just Happiness Hiding in the Bones
Marc Angel
Untitled
Keith Dodson
Shape and Texture
Alex Farber
Monkeys
Moving bridge
Car beneath the storm
Jeff Hartnett
Edinger Insurance Agency
Helen Hofling
Parakeets
Basketballs
Doors
Oppenheim
Cristina Iorga
Untitled
Charles March III
Messenger Pigeons
Mary Petrokubi
Sunflowers
Jenn Powers
Blue Night
Robert Thurman
Scorch
Cynthia Yachtman
Best Silver Maple
Sugar Maple
About the Artists in this issue
Works From the Public Domain
From The MET Museum Archives:
Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes, Marie Denise Villers 1801
for: Self Portrait where lilies are my body and you’re playing me like chess
Two Girls on a Lawn, John Singer Sargent American, ca. 1889
for: Moonflower
Behind Dunes, Lake Ontario, Homer Dodge Martin American, 1883–87
for: The Snow, Slant Ghazal for Winter of 2085
The Public Domain Review:
A Bestiary of Loss
for: Birthday Pie
Starfish, Philip Henry Gosse, 1856
for: Comparing My Inside to Your Outside at the Water’s Edge
Lady with an Ermine, Leonardo da Vinci, 1498/90
for: Cecilia Gallerani
