Writing is an act of resistance
-
On Hearing of Russian Soldiers Booby-Trapping Dead Ukrainian Civilians with Land Mines
By Karen Kilcup How do they do it— lift a heavy head and place the bomb beneath an ear? Slide the metal disc under a shoulder or thigh? Or worse: do they slice the swollen long-dead chest, flies fluttering, the stink unbearable, nearly? Do they carve a red-rimmed cavity large enough to implant the…
-
Duplex with Gun
By Dotty LeMieux The gun tucked neatly in the large man’s waist I avoid his stare, move slowly, lock the door I move slowly out the door Cap pistol held at the ready The gun moves out in the large man’s hand Children run fast across the lawn I cross the lawn going pop…
-
Smile
By Lisa Brand They only told me to smile, like they know what that means. It’s time to show you who I am. . . . It’s scary, isn’t it? I show some teeth and suddenly you’re all over me like an animal, I should have bared my teeth, I’m not the person that…
-
just-ice
By Samy S. Swayd don’t drink from this dripping cracked cup, for it’s my own heart— my beats poured into words for broken lines, making this page perplexing and pale. but if you take a taste, you must sail with a deep breath and an active mind, and paint a spirited sign to remind…
-
Ode to My Reflection in the Mirror (on just one day)
By Kathy Kremins “I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.” – C.S. Lewis We are better than this No, we are this Always have been Columbus mission schools Tulsa Race Massacre Charlottesville La Operacion children in cages smallpox pipelines voter suppression We are better…
-
Sunny Is Going Through a Depressive Episode
By Livvy Krakower “The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” – Nathan Rabin When Sunny was eight years old her mother fell down the stairs. That doesn’t seem important now as you…
-
Hollow
By William Palmer What happened January 6 was forgettably minor, the most popular Fox host claimed on June 9, the first night of the House Select Committee’s Report, so forgettably minor he did not allow any commercials during his show, decreasing the chances viewers might stray, or might consider the view that what had…
-
Joelle Cantrell’s Fanfiction
By Holly A. Stovall Until the paper that Joelle Cantrell wrote made it to the top of my stack of To Kill a Mockingbird essays to grade for sophomore English at Jackson High, I had been eating clean and feeling good. I was slouching deep into the couch, a pint of Clean Cream sugar-free-non-fat frozen…
-
Welcome to our September 2022 issue
Heather Dorn, Writers Resist news, Dia Calhoun, Laura Grace Weldon, Zoë Fay-Stindt, Penny Perry, René Marzuk, Holly A. Stovall, Flavian Mark Lupinetti, Howie Good, Morning-meadow Jones, Jennifer Swallow, Tracy StamperIt’s been hot. Everything’s hot. Global temperatures, national temperaments—even the bees that hover at the birdbath’s edge are plunging into its waters, only to find them warmed by an unrelenting heat dome. What to do? Writers Resist offers a cool escape: Don a wet t-shirt, flop before a fan, and read this issue. In it,…