We’re in love with voice-driven writing, pop culture, & the kind of honesty that gets you right in the kidneys. Tweets @bigsisartwitch@ziskayt & @emotes_writes
Our MAY ISSUE is finally here. 🌼
WORDS by: E.P. Tuazon, @rennyxgong, Mary Liza Hartong, & Despy Boutris.
ART by: Christopher Dunlap.
PLUS: @CRSantantasio interviews Kate Broad.
✨️ Enjoy it all right here: buff.ly/pUBKe7b
ALT A dizzying painting: crooked, tessellating cubes in red, orange, yellow, olive, sky blue, and lavender — a bold red imprimatura energizing every surface. The cubes’ white faces recede and flatten at once, the canvas pulsing with geometric tension.
"I drag my chair close to the window, eyes glued on our crooked street..."
✨️ Check out contributor @authorsudha's micro piece in Fictive Dream! buff.ly/XPlDTli
"We’d agreed to never come back to this place yet here we are."
ICYMI: Former Editorial Fiction Assistant @anniejo_17 has a story out in CRAFT! 🤩 buff.ly/HTqXDEb
We're obsessed with our MAY ISSUE cover art. 💕 Don't miss Christopher Dunlap's BRN-R before it hits the archives: buff.ly/JLXTqNk
ALT A dizzying painting: crooked, tessellating cubes in red, orange, yellow, olive, sky blue, and lavender — a bold red imprimatura energizing every surface. The cubes’ white faces recede and flatten at once, the canvas pulsing with geometric tension.
Mark your calendars, fam 🗓️ Contributor KB Brookins will be on the panel “Pride Everlasting: The History of Trans Joy Outlasting Oppression” for Seattle Voice Lab this June 20th, 12-1pm PT on Zoom!!
Get all the info here ➡️buff.ly/ki1BjOz
“A cop, / flustered, tugged up his shorts, plunged / a needle into a pale thigh. He hissed / awake like a soda can. The paramedic / spoke slowly in his ear like a lover” —Steven Espada Dawson, “A River is a Body Running” @splitlipthemagsplitlipthemag.com/poetry/08…
"I don’t remember what we talked about before I got pregnant. Surely, she can see my sweat, the trash bag." Don't forget to reread Mary Liza Hartong's memoir NEIGHBORLY before it hits the archive 💕 buff.ly/zU3BuIp
"Miles was out with the boys and, as is often the case, wasn’t returning my texts, and I was impatient to get Christmas put away."
Don't miss it: Contributor Michelle Ross has three pieces out in Frigg! 🙌 buff.ly/cFeDPig
👏 We're always amazed by our SLM fam: former fiction editor @JonMcConn was selected as a 2026 Individual Artist Fellow by the Delaware Division of the Arts! 🥳
Friendly reminder: We want to see fresh work that hasn’t been published anywhere before (including your personal blog or website). First-time electronic publication rights are really all we ask for 💗 Thank you so much!
Today we're contemplating movies and how they move us--and our writing! Which movies, (or shows) have influenced your writing? Are influencing your writing now? Are any of them comps for your book?
"In a different world, his is not the only face I think of when I think of family." Fiction reader @kplumhoff's flash, titled IN A DIFFERENT WORLD, I AM NOT A STRANGER TO THIS RANCH, was published in @VariantLit ✨ Find it here: buff.ly/dR0qOZ1
"If writing her has taught me anything, it’s to go toward the parts of a narrative that you want to skirt around and to face head-on the parts of your characters you’d rather not see."
Find @CRSantantasio's interview with Kate Broad in our MAY ISSUE 💚 buff.ly/0zXSs6d
Check out our blog, where our flash reader and NEW co-director of social media Marjee Chmiel debriefs her silent artist’s residency in Finland with flash reader/contributor Jack Barrie!
buff.ly/nGTfn4o
ALT Portrait of Marjee looking for portal to the underworld in the Finnish woods.
Looking for a little reading to wrap up the day? Contributor @seancarlson's review of Gregory Alan Isakov's lighting design was published in @MotifMagRI! buff.ly/lN2MKqi