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After Roe Was Repealed by Jennifer Karp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.

transcription (i can’t play sport)

By olive bly

they won’t
force me to fight
in the war

being trans
is a mental
illness, yes

you can’t
fight in the war
if you’re ill

i am
mentally ill
so can’t war

i was
terrible at
sports in school

only
ever really
scored one goal

& ’cause
sport & war are
the same thing

i don’t
think i would be
good at war


olive bly (Tangata Tiriti, Pākehā) is an outer-disciplinary artist of european descent from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and currently based in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia. Her work traverses a variety of mediums, finding synaesthetic links between multitudinous reference points. She adopts playful creative philosophies that blend the naive with the theoretic, underpinned by thematic cyclicality.

Her visual art has recently been exhibited in Aotearoa by MEANWHILE & Uindō95, and her poetry has been published by various literary journals and magazines, including a fine line, bad apple, and Nine Lives. She trained in jazz piano at Te Kōki (New Zealand School of Music) and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington). Her debut poetry collection, chrysalis (d[i̶]s)section, was published in August 2025 with 5ever books. Visit her website at olivebly.art.

Photo credit: No War by hellolittlemolly via a Creative Commons license.


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.