Writing is an act of resistance
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Welcome to Writers Resist Spring 2026 Issue
JL Smither, Ann Grogan, Poetry, Johanna Haas, Narrative nonfiction, Dennis Humphrey, Fiction, Maxochitl Cortez, Marissa Glover, John L. Holgerson, M.R. Mandell, Robin Michel, Nardien Sadik, Mx.Asher, Alice Benson, Marsha P. Johnson, Robert A. Mazurek, Waverly Vernon, Alexis Rhodes, Laura Ann Reed, Dion O’ReillyWelcome to the vibrant words and images of spring, celebrating the memory of Marsha P. Johnson, beloved and befamed transgender LGBTQ rights activist and Stonewall Inn heroine. If you’d like the link to the virtual reading for this issue, 18 April at 5:00 pm PACIFIC, please email us at writersresist@gmail.com. Now, join us and our…
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Why does a tranny cross a yellow brick road?
Poetry, transgender, Mx.Asher, Stonewall Inn, Marsha P. Johnson, Stonewall riots, STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, tranny is a slurBy Mx. Asher Everything ends.My five minutes behind a microphone.The vileness of Presidential pedophiles.The bad habit of saying I love you from a youthful after-sex brain.Red hats and alligator crowns.Our tears after cuddling dogs. . .the cuddles end, too. Everything ends,our joy, our pain, our harm, our hope, our lives. But death only plays after…
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To David Lehman
Poetry, Gaza, war poetry, Waverly Vernon, poetry is not political, poetry for change, “Poetry and Politics”, David LehmanBy Waverly Vernon David,you say poetry is not political,as if Gaza is a metaphorand not a place where childrenfold themselves into rubble. On my television,the anchors call it a war.I count the seconds between bombs.Your voice is nowhere in the smoke.You are busy arranging flowers. I want to be like those poetswho care about the…
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Run
LJ Smither, health insurance, medical industrial complex, running away, federal funding cuts, reality, chaos, FictionBy JL Smither People will tell you they run toward things—a thinner body, a stronger heart, their girlfriend’s house. But most people run from things—their own fat ass, their addictions, their girlfriend. Me, I run from voices, from anything that’s out to get me, from everything that could go wrong, from the chaos of the…
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Ahead of the Storm
By Laura Ann Reed after Osip Mandelstam In the aluminum light poolingon the juniperthe tendrils appear to compressand contract, the blue-green needles to flattenas though made by dread aloneinto a beaten weight.At the same time, no one can believethe expansive passion of the roots.It takes a tractor to extract them.We think it’s theirs: such…
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Absent Hills
Poetry, climate justice, Johanna Haas, environmental justice, fossil fuel, climate poetry, AppalachiaBy Johanna Haas In 1980, West Virginia had green hills of magic.The sky was small and the land wide.Others saw only coal.Others saw black diamonds.Fireflies lit dark July skies,A child could chase them forever.My place of Hillbillies.My place without luxury.People say little girls should be quiet,Fed upon sugarplums and restraint.I cannot stay silent.I cannot return…
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This Is the Way Our Words End—
By Dennis Humphrey So, as I teeter on the dizzying brink of retirement, I am thrilled with a tingling anticipation of a life I have dreamed of since I was a teenager—the life of a full-time writer. For the first time in a lifetime of doing what had to be done to pay the bills,…
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Doomscrolling isn’t solidarity
Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, Maxochitl Cortez, doomscrolling, racial justice, two spirit, Poetry, Tortuguita, police brutality, resistance, social justice, environmental justiceBy Maxochitl Cortez I too doomscrollscroll a screen of California firesTexas floodsprotests for black and brown kinthe news it flows too easy on the screen I seepolice brutality LA resisting protecting people picked uppiece by piece offthe streetsour streets stories seep out of memy language is documentationnot the kind of documents they want to see how…
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Warning
detention, unmask ICE, Warning by Leonard Cohen, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Poetry, ICE, John L. HolgersonBy John L. Holgerson after the poem Warning by Leonard Cohen If your neighbor disappearsOh if your neighbor disappears The Hispanic man from Venezuelawho helped you paint your houseor the young woman who babysatyour children while dressed proudlyin that rainbow-colored blouse If your neighbor disappearsOh if your neighbor disappears Don’t ask what happenedto the multi-tatted…