Writing is an act of resistance
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Welcome to Writers Resist the Spring 2025 Issue
March is many things. It’s officially the bloom of Spring for some, Autumn for others. It’s Women’s History Month, days of madness for college basketball fans, a time to celebrate corndogs and trees, Benito Juarez and books. Beer, pigs, and Sigrblót, peasants and heroes and transgender awareness, and countless other things living, inanimate and conceptual.…
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Two Poems by Steph Sundermann-Zinger
right to marry, surviving trump, Poetry, LGBTQ rights, Steph Sundermann-Zinger, same gender marriageWhat if instead of the inauguration, I wrote about birds? The rabble of small brown onesbeneath the feeder — the ones we can nevertell apart? Or the chickadees,sacking away sunflower hearts againsta long, bleak season? Even now, the woodpeckerbeats a concussive staccato, war drumfor the bruise-blue crows mobbingto protect their nests, while the hawk preenshis…
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Finger Banging Slutty Young Woman
Poetry, misogyny, sexual assault, Caiti Quatmann, sexualization of girls, objectification of girls, gendered oppressionBy Caiti Quatmann This poem contains themes and explicit descriptions of trauma,including sexual violence, misogyny, and systemic oppression.Readers are encouraged to approach with care. When you’re the first girl in third gradethat has to wear a bra (the same yearthat spice girls release their first album),the boys will start calling you “Slutty Spice.” & the…
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Enough
By Alyssa Beatty I add another rowan branch to the fire underneath the brazier and test the water with my pinky. Almost hot enough. A quick count of the bundles of herbs on the kitchen counter to make sure I have everything I need. Rose-tinted sunset streams in through my back door, propped open with…
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The Sea Gazelle
By Bänoo Zan For Ahoo Daryaei My body—my voice— Time is out of jointin this sea of forced hijabs I wear a hoodie sweater to campusTo force me to wear a hijabthe Sharia militiamen rip it to shreds I show you whose body this is—I roar—Now that my torso is exposed—I get out of my…
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Assigned at Birth
Narrative nonfiction, Ellen D.B. Riggle, sex assigned at birth, transgender, nonbinary, gender spectrum, gender queer, gender neutralBy Ellen D.B. Riggle I needed only search a few minutes to find the aging heavy cardstock piece of paper labeled in block letters across the top, “BIRTH CERTIFICATE.” I scanned a copy of this original document into a PowerPoint slide for a talk I was scheduled to give on so-called “bathroom laws”—legislation restricting who…
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Ode to America, November 6, 2024
By Joanne Durham Oh America, I desperately wantto praise you, but even this poemhas begun wrong, like you beganwrong. How easily you claimedthe name of two continents,the lands of other peoples. Hereyou are, states untied, no beltof decency holding them together,all the rot of unentitled claimsshredding your fraying fabric. Lying in bed before dawn, I…
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Second Flags
hate crime, rainbow flag, Lauri Ann Carleton, Pride flag, Narrative nonfiction, homophobia, Annette L. BrownBy Annette L. Brown I was slicing tomatoes from the garden, their rich juice nearly overwhelming the grooves in the cutting board, when I heard the story of Lauri Ann Carleton’s murder. I stopped to make sure I heard correctly, my knife hovering mid cut. Yes, Lauri Ann Carleton, 66 years old, died August 18,…
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Identity Theft
Janan Golestané, sofreh, Persian poetry, Iranian diaspora, Woman Life Freedom movement, Islamic Republic of IranBy Janan Golestané My second-generation,Iranian-Canadianvoicespeaks without an accentin English. It’s been known to recountmy many fortunes as thedaughter of anIranian woman who chose to leave Iran.She, the only one of seven siblings to immigrate.Me, the only one of my maternal family born with basic rights and freedoms. My second-generation,Iranian-Canadianperspectivewas then that I gained immenselyfrom my…