“I love that poetry is a form that honors history, and I’m always going to be doing that, and I always want to be doing that in my writing—and I think that’s an act of love, acknowledging what has happened before you”

“So, for people putting together a first book, it’s really just the self you want to see in a physical form. And it’s okay if you don’t like that self, too. Because who does?”

“But the poem itself is smarter than you. It needs to be better than the poet, and the only way to do that is to de-center yourself.”

“The description of Promises of Gold/Promesas de Oro describes Olivarez as having “explore[d] every kind of love―self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural” in this collection.”

“I’ve always thought of Luther Hughes as a keystone in our contemporary poetic moment. There are few as dedicated to the good work of celebrating others as Luther, and I’ve been both grateful and inspired by their commitment to accessible literary spaces.”

Saida Agostini’s let the dead in is a marvel; a monument to stubborn love, to a healing community, and to fat black girls everywhere, this book thrives because of the care and introspection Agostini brings to her work.

Editor in Chief Dorothy Chan interviews Sneha Subramanian Kanta on her new chapbook, GHOST TRACKS.

Interviews Editor Zakiya Cowan talks to the amazing Kendra Decolo.

We inherit these concepts of who we are from our parents, and I appreciate the things my mother taught me, but sometimes the concepts we inherit are outdated or troubling.

We get all these sad endings and trauma, and there are a lot of heavy things and dark things that happen in the book but I like the fact that the characters actively have to make the choice to choose their happy ending which doesn’t come necessarily naturally to any of them. I think that’s probably more realistic.

I’m not sure about the white spaces (louder line breaks, perhaps?), but the fragments are often a result of my thriftiness.

Addie Tsai interviews Kama La Mackerel.