• Dear— (II)

    Donika Kelly

    Summer 2020


    I take the first snowfall for ash. Mistake,
    I mean, the first flake that comes wisping
    down for the remnant of some thing burned,
    perhaps, for warmth or in error. When we were
    young, we stood with our backs not to the past
    or future but toward the hot desperation
    of being alive and for right now.

    Donika Kelly is the author of Bestiary (Graywolf 2016), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. She teaches at St. Bonaventure University.

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    Ms. Battles

    Sidik Fofana

    The first day of school they assigned me and Cassius with the new seventh-grade teacher, Mr. Broderick, for fifth period, and all I had to do was look him up and down once to tell he was gonna be a mess. White boy with no hair on his chin, smilin at his books.

    The Lover

    Michael Shewmaker

    presses his ear against the thinnest wall
    of his apartment. In the empty space
    between, he hears a static like the sea’s.

    Past that—above the television’s talk
    she always falls asleep to—a loud clock
    tallies the gradual hours.

    Only Connect

    Alice McDermott

    Here’s the simplest advice I can offer to a writer in the midst of composing a novel: for God’s sake, read what you’ve already written. Read it often—daily, if need be. Read it all. Read it thoroughly. Read it always with a keen and critical eye.

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