Writing is an act of resistance
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Welcome to Writers Resist Winter 2025-26 Issue
Poetry, Narrative nonfiction, Fiction, Writers Resist, Debbie Hall, resistance art, creative resistance, No Kings, Candice Louisa DaquinIt’s been, hmm . . . a year. Enough said. Let’s read some creative resistance instead. To get you all started, we’re excited to announce publications by two of our editors. Poetry Editor Candice Louisa Daquin’s novel, The Cruelty, was released by Flowersong Press in November 2025. The Cruelty focuses on the legacy of abuse.…
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Self-Congratulation
reproductive rights, abortion, reproductive justice, Poetry, M. M. Adjarian, abortion bans are murderBy M. M. Adjarian Texas women love and curse with fatal bless your hearts. Sun burned plains enclose them, their multi-colored bodies corralled in branded jeans. Tender cuts on man-sized platters piled high to heaven with heaping sides of disrespect, they live to be consumed and then discarded like Porsha Ngumezi. Doctors wouldn’t scrape her…
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A One-Way Correspondence with Fruit
Gaza, Palestine, Christine Strickland, epistolary essay, separating undocumented children from parents, armed conflict, protest, Black Lives Matter, BLM, Narrative nonfiction, children in cages, wild firesBy Christine Strickland January 15, 2020 Dear Pineapple, I’m tired of thinking of how to explain this to you. I’ve been trying since you were a blueberry, remember? What to say to you when the day comes when you ask me: Did they really throw kids into cages? Did you all really let them? I’m…
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Two Poems by Nnadi Samuel
Hottentot Venus – Sarah Baartman “Nature is a temple, where the living pillars sometimesutter indistinguishable words. Man passes through theseforests of symbols which regard him with familiar looks.” —from Baudelaire’s poem “Correspondence” There is a leash plagued with fancy, enough to dog a Negro round the continent. this one comes to England of her own naked…
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Anarchists Unite
By Kirsty Nottage Sandwiched between middle-aged, middle-class people in suits, I feel like a clown. The costume doesn’t help, but it’s more than that. I know, I know, it’s my own fault. Why would I stand for election as an anarchist? “Let’s protest the system,” Matt had suggested. “It’s elitist, corrupt and outdated!” I’d jumped…
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Skin
By Frances Koziar Skin colourdoes not dictate culture— I could tell you all the waysthat this is true, speak of abandonmentsand adoptions that sink deeperthan flesh, of homes and not-homes,of the erratic mixingof bloodlines; insteadI want to say that being whitebut not Whiteputs you in a uniquekind of danger. We are attackedby our own and…
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Bone China
By Robert L. Reece She saw him coming. She always saw them coming. As he trudged through the musty swamp to the small shack in the distance, he began to realize why no one had bothered to interview this woman before, and he was beginning to wonder if the meager check was worth the effort.…
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Graffiti Artists
By Andrea L. Fry The authorities will start with shame—the lecture on personal propertyas if it would reform. But not even close—the claim of ownership is as aliento ghost writers, as the acceptance of defacement is to those who own. But how persistent, how alive the calling card! Yesterday, the overpasswas grey and mournful…
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Photograph and Essay by Nina Pak
Resistance Wears Many Faces By Nina Pak Resistance wears many faces. Sometimes it marches in the streets, a cry against injustice that refuses to be ignored. Other times it is quiet, invisible. Nothing more than a refusal to yield, a single word withheld when obedience is demanded. Victory is never guaranteed. You may rise against…