Debbie Hall – Writers Resist

Welcome to Writers Resist Fall 2026

This issue was hard to build. Hard, because the works herein are such powerful representations of the brutal conflicts through which we are slogging, seemingly ever increasing. Still, such vivid reminders are sometimes gifts.

These works reflect 27 saviors distributing words as lifesavers.

From our own Debbie Hall’s conflicted photograph, “Found Art,” to the many pieces demanding trans justice to the exultation of calls to action, they lend hope. Hope, rage, love, humor. We need them all to sustain the resistance. And, perhaps, we might receive some resolution when U.S. voters cast their values on 03 November.

In the meantime, as the image above demands, borrowed from Chelsie Zuccollo’s excellent call to action in “Smash, Build, Rise,” we must—and we will continue to—RISE UP.

On Saturday 14 November at 5:00 pm PACIFIC, we will host this issue’s virtual reading, Writers Resist Reads, at which we envision a bit of celebrating. Please email us at writersresist@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

And so, we welcome you to our hard and powerful Writers Resist Fall 2026. Please read and share your thoughts with these brilliant resisters.

Found Art by Debbie Hall

Two Poems by Marcy Rae Henry

Cost of Living by Nana T. Baffour-Awuah

Testifying with My Daughter Against Missouri SB597 by David Tager

After Roe Was Repealed by Jennifer Karp

Cherry Blossoms by Beck O’Leary

EXPO Marker by Jennifer Elise Wang

Girl (an erasure) by Elizabeth Mercurio

My Rape Wasn’t a Choice by Alberto Lau-Chang

Lemonading by Victoria Melekian

Letter to Self by Joycelyn Zhang

Monarch by Deanna Altomara

transcription by olive bly

On Viewing the Porn Trading Cards Catalogue (1925–2025) by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff

If Only There Were No Trans Kids by Mitch Roshannon

Silence by Isla Laust

Three Poems by Tushar Sen

Coincidence by Minnie Bartlett

Two Poems by Mia Leonin

The Shirt by Elizabeth B. Morse

Smash, Build, Rise by Chelsie Zuccollo

Aunt Annie’s Recipe for the Resistance by Jane Frances Gilles

“There Will Be Casualties” by Ashley Mace Havird

Static Between the Folding Tables by Fendy S. Tulodo

To my father, whose mother tongue is a village dialect by Anonymous

The Most Radical Protest Right Now Is Handmade by Amanda Jackson

Two Poems by Susanna Lang

A Note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist on our Give a Sawbuck page.

Found Art by Debbie Hall

Artist’s Statement

My twin creative passions are poetry and photography. Both pursuits involve close attention and discovery—new ways of seeing and understanding. I’ve always been fond of juxtaposition in my writing and in the visual art of photography. In this photo of the back of a heavily etched restroom stall door, I was struck by the seemingly contradictory statements of “Fuck Ice,” and “Be Kind.” And yet, this is where we find ourselves these days.

A Note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist on our Give a Sawbuck page.

Welcome to Writers Resist Winter 2025-26 Issue

It’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.

Cover The Cruelty

The Cruelty focuses on the legacy of abuse. What learned behaviors from extreme abuse and mental illness can set individuals up to be controlled and manipulated to unimaginable levels. Daquin’s debut novel highlights connections between sexual abuse, sadism, extreme pornography and domestic violence. This fictional story posits the question: What if you lost everything and someone controlled your entire existence, how would you survive?

Available from the publisher, Bookshop.org, your independent bookseller, and the evil one.

Poetry Editor Debbie Hall’s collection of poems, Mixtape: Marginal State, was released by The Poetry Box in December 2025.

Cover art of Mixtape: Marginal States

The poems in Mixtape: Marginal States bear witness to members of our human family who exist just outside the mainstream of society. In these portrayals, we see individuals struggling with homelessness, those uprooted from their native countries, asylum seekers, and others dealing with altered or challenging psychological states—states that anyone of us might occupy at some time in our lives. The hope of bearing witness is to foster compassion and inclusion, human needs shared by all.

Available from the publisher, Bookshop.org, your independent bookseller, and the evil one.

Now, we are delighted to present the following writers and artists’ representations of resistance—join them for a virtual reading of this issue on Saturday 31 January 2026 at 5:00 pm PACIFIC. Email WritersResist@gmail.com for the link.

Self-Congratulation by M. M. Adjarian

A One-Way Correspondence with Fruit by Christine Strickland

Two Poems by Nnadi Samuel

Anarchists Unite by Kirsty Nottage

Skin by Frances Koziar

Bone China by Robert L. Reece

Graffiti Artists by Andrea L. Fry

Photograph and essay by Nina Pak

I visited Gaza in my sleep by Sophia Carroll

What Did You Wish For? by Myna Chang

Secret Light by Marianne Xenos

I’m Not Happy, the Therapy Client Says by Suzanne O’Connell

Don’t Talk About It by J.L. Scott

Incubator by Bethany Bruno

The Price of Standing Still by Melissa Moschitto

Louder then Silence by Rabia Akhtar

Burn This Book by Odette Kelada

I Manage My Dread of the Election by Reading About the Eradication of Murder Hornets

By Debbie Hall

In November we inched closer to the ledge over which one only falls once.
—Mary Jo Bang

One definition of dread (noun): great fear in view of impending evil.
As a verb, it can mean to be in shrinking apprehension of.

Derived terms include: dreadable, dreadly, and dreadworthy, as in:
the specter of four more years of Trump is dreadworthy indeed.

It may seem counterintuitive to read about murder hornets
as an anti-anxiety strategy, but re-reading Poems for Political Disaster
only reinforced my terror of the possible.

When the first murder hornets were spotted, U.S. scientists warned
they could decimate honeybee populations and establish such a deep presence
in our country that all hope for eradication could be lost.

In May, the onslaught on just one colony: thousands and thousands
of bees, heads torn from their bodies, hives plundered, the remains of bees to be
harvested as food to sustain and grow more murder hornets. Dreadworthy.

But yesterday a reason for hope: Crews located and vacuumed out
a basketball-sized nest of murder hornets in Washington State.

Imagine watching this mass of orange-faced invaders, still spitting venom
as they are overthrown and dispatched to the netherworld—

Oh honeybees, oh Earth, oh people—imagine the sweetness of that moment!

Debbie Hall, a poetry editor at Writers Resist, is the author of the poetry collection, What Light I Have (2018, Main Street Rag Books) and award-winning chapbook, Falling into the River (2020, The Poetry Box). She received an honorable mention in the 2016 Kowit Poetry Prize and won second place in the 2018 Poetry Super Highway Contest.

Photo used via a Creative Commons license.

Introducing a New Writers Resist Editor

We’re delighted to announce a new addition to our editorial team, Debbie Hall, who’ll be joining Ying Wu in reviewing poetry submissions.

Debbie is a psychologist and writer whose poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals and anthologies, including the San Diego Poetry Annual, Serving House Journal, Sixfold, Poets Reading the News, Poetry24, Bird’s Thumb, Califragile, Gyroscope Review, and Hawaii Pacific Review. Her essays have appeared on NPR’s This I Believe series, in USD Magazine, and in the San Diego Union Tribune. She completed her MFA in 2017 at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Debbie received an honorable mention in the 2016 Steve Kowit Poetry Prize and won second place in the 2018 Poetry Super Highway contest. She is the author of the poetry collection, What Light I Have (Main Street Rag Books, 2018), a finalist in the 2019 San Diego Book Awards, and an award-winning chapbook, Falling Into the River (The Poetry Box, 2020).

In addition to writing, Debbie’s passions include photography and world travel. She and her partner, both native Southern Californians, live in north San Diego County.

Enjoy this poem by Debbie. …

Against Doom

Corona I’m not going
to write about you
or read or think
about you
any longer today
I want a divorce
from you.
To not think about
you I will take a drive
to mail one small envelope
that is not urgent
not touching the mailbox
or getting out of my car
enjoying scenery
on the way and back
sights that are well known
to me and usually fairly
boring but suddenly
are bright and compelling.
For lunch a comfort
dose of peanut butter
seems necessary
and instead of thinking
about you I am
contemplating the wind
and orioles fighting
over grape jelly
in the feeder.
Then it is time
to brew tea—
Earl Grey with its
floral notes and
while I drink it
I do not consider
the loss of taste
and smell some people
infected by you
have reported.
Once I have written
this poem that is not
about you I will watch
the evening news
but avert my eyes
& mute the sound
when the topic
of you comes up
and sip my gin martini
with its delightful scent
of juniper berry.
When I go to sleep
tonight after
not thinking about
the vast unknown
hampering science
right now in its
fight against you
and your ilk
I will dream of sailing
far out to sea
where you are but
a faint apparition
on a distant shore—
soon to be disappeared
by the morning tide.