Special FeatureJoanna Valentedeziree a. brown, special feature, poetry

deziree a. brown: conjure(s) ghosts

Special FeatureJoanna Valentedeziree a. brown, special feature, poetry
deziree a. brown: conjure(s) ghosts

fibromyalgia.

this body,     these hands –

conjure(s) ghosts

in skin mirrors,     

offer(s) greedy

wraiths        forever

home.

deziree a. brown is a black queer woman poet, scholar, activist and self-proclaimed “social justice warrior” from Flint, MI. They are currently a MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI, and often claim to have been born with a poem written across their chest. Their work has been recently published in the anthology Best “New” African Poets 2015, Duende, Crab Fat Magazine, and Razor.

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteSage Curtis, special feature, poetry

Sage Curtis: Drowning Daddy Issues

Sage Curtis is a Bay Area poet and MFA candidate at the University of San Francisco. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and she performs it whenever possible. Recently, she's been interested in the glamour and grit of addiction, and places we find it unexpectedly. You can find more of her work at sagedaniellecurtis.wordpress.com

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteSage Curtis, special feature, poetry
Sage Curtis: Drowning Daddy Issues
Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJulia Knobloch, special feature, poetry

Julia Knobloch: Don’t Break the Spell

Julia Knobloch is a journalist and translator turned project manager and executive assistant. Before moving to New York from Berlin, she worked 10+ years as a writer and producer for TV documentaries and radio features. Her essays and reportages have been published in print and online publications in Germany, Argentina, and the US (openDemocracy, Brooklyn Rail, Reality Sandwich). She occasionally blogs for ReformJudaism.org, and she recently was awarded the Poem of the Year prize from Brooklyn Poets for her poem Daylight Saving Time. Julia lives in Sunset Park. 

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJulia Knobloch, special feature, poetry
Julia Knobloch: Don’t Break the Spell
Special FeatureJoanna ValenteDavid Boeving, special feature, poetry

David Boeving: A Crucifix Machine

David Boeving teaches rhetoric and writing at Eastern Michigan University and poetry and fiction at the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility. David has published poems in Body Electric (Ann Arbor) and “‘News’ ‘Conference’ or Play Your T. Card” through Frog Island Press, and poems and photographs in NEAT, and Tongue Mag. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his loving partner and their two cats.

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteDavid Boeving, special feature, poetry
David Boeving: A Crucifix Machine
Special FeatureJoanna ValentePhilip Schaefer, special feature, poetry

Philip Schaefer: Everyone Else’s Darkness

Philip Schaefer’s first collection of poems Bad Summon won the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize from the University of Utah Press and will be released Summer 2017. He is the author of three chapbooks, two of which were co-written with friend and poet Jeff Whitney. He won the 2016 Meridian Editor’s Prize in poetry and has work out or due out in Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Thrush Poetry Journal, Guernica, The Cincinnati Review, Salt Hill, Bat City Review, The Adroit Journal, Baltimore Review, and Passages North among others. He tends bar in Missoula, MT.

Special FeatureJoanna ValentePhilip Schaefer, special feature, poetry
Philip Schaefer: Everyone Else’s Darkness