Writing is an act of resistance
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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,
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A Supreme Proposal
Roe v Wade overturn, reproductive justice, Narrative nonfiction, abortion rights, Katie Avagliano, SCOTUS Dobbs decisionBy Katie Avagliano I’m not saying cannibalism is the only option. If we’re talking animalistic magnetism—the old horizontal tango-—there are other ways to dispose of the sperm vehicles. Sure, arachnids control their own widowhood, and half of all Chinese mantises have copulations that end in the death of the male. In response, though, the
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Love Songs for End Times
industrial farming, Poetry, climate change, climate crisis, mass extinction, pollution, Zoë Fay-Stindt, end times, superfund site, droughtBy Zoë Fay-Stindt I sing to the green anole in a made-up lizard language— fiddling tongue, whirlwinds and whistle- clucks. He curves his neck, ear hole craned to my porch perch. He pinks his bubble-throat. For years, I saw devil horns peeking from each human head. Yes, the chemical, the highway framed with fields
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Predators
Poetry, Laura Grace Weldon, social media trolls, urban violence, anti-labor, political corruption, corporate violenceBy Laura Grace Weldon If a grizzly wanders into your social media don’t make eye contact or sudden moves. Abandon the sandwich you were eating, leave the small square of chocolate you saved for last. Sharks often appear in parking garages silent, stealthy, even as you confine your blood’s scent under a coat pulled
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America, America
By Howie Good Artist’s Statement My handmade collages are intended as a rebuke to the lifeless perfection of Photoshopped images. They are also intended to provoke an authentic response by combining images in a way that challenges old habits of seeing. Howie Good is a poet and collage artist on Cape Cod. His latest poetry
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Sticky Singles
By Jennifer A. Swallow After several dozen first dates over beer and mozzarella sticks—none of which had led to a second—I decided to change the format. I planned to meet a guy in the park for a midmorning stroll. No pressure. Just a walk and a chat. I told him we could meet at
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Velocity Squared
Poetry, gun control, mass shooting, Flavian Mark Lupinetti, school shooting, AR-15, Second Amendment, high-velocity rifleBy Flavian Mark Lupinetti when the gun smoke clears and the EMTs bring the bodies to my ER and I ask why they bothered and they say we need someone to pronounce them most times I say you pronounced them just fine but today I can’t bear to make that joke because these aren’t
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Oratorio of Arrival
By Dia Calhoun for Ukraine, 2022 Because the woman hugs a green glass bottle yellow-wicked, and waits by the fabric store where she once bought the blue wool for her coat, the scarlet gingham for the kitchen window, coral flannel to snuggle her baby somewhere now on the pouring road to Poland— Veni Magna
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LipStick It Couture Du Jour
Because Extraordinary Times Require Extraordinary Adornment By Tracy Rose Stamper Welcome to RevlOff’s Lip Couture Counter, where science blends with art, topped off with attitude, to bring you colors to carry you through dizzying days. Our makeup counter’s mission is to challenge the slippery slope into post-truth society. By offering an honest line of