Curated from our writing contests at Tadpole Press, this issue features over 50 pieces from 8 different countries.
 
Reading this issue is like:
“savoring the punch of yellow sunshine,”
“laughing through rain-ruined makeup,”
and “wrangling a spaceship.”
 
If these pieces had an origin story, it would be:
“the nectar pulled from stars planted last spring,”
“a body made of floodplains and fault lines,”
“and the match, smoking and sore, that could not give its light without dying.”
 
These stories are best read:
in “the hours beyond dreaming yet before real thinking,”
in “that lunar-pulled place,”
when discussing “light topics of conversation like the patriarchy.”
 
They will:
remind you that “the sun believes in your strength,”
delight you with “the reason for blackberries,”
and explain why you might suddenly be seeing people around town thrusting their heads into snowbanks.
 
Ultimately, “it is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.”
 
Authors:
A.Z. Khan for “The One”
Athina Panteli for “Unseen”
Autumn Bettinger for “Green strawberries grow”
Beth Cogswell for “Snorkeling Montana”
Bethany Kolb for “She said she”
Beverly Roberts for “The Museum of”
Billie August Oh for “baby daddy 2.0”
Brandon Sheaffer for “When we met”
Brianna Alers for “I was stumbling”
Charlotte Husnjak for “She thinks about”
Charlotte Soper Mills for “My daughter saw”
Christen McCann for “Woke up carrying”
Connor Iadevaia for “Calloused”
ebele for “You are who”
Eleni Briar for “You told me”
Eric Tomblin for “It rained so”
Fawn Ledesma Greene for “Mamá”
Fiona Jensen for “On Observing a”
Haeley Cole-Boksner for “The blinds block”
Hannah Paynter for “I wait for”
Hasun Park for “The night of”
Henry Hudson for “His name was”
Jamie Light for “Each Night I”
Jaye Frisina for “Forty-six mason jars”
Jennifer Colwell for “Minefield”
Johnna Yasinski for “Not This Time”
JoRene Byers for “Ripe Berries”
Katharine L. Wiegele for “I cannot hold”
Kay Rae Chomic for “Winter Beach Day”
Kristen Lee for “My friend once”
L. Alecks for “Swallowed by Love”
Lara Shah for “mine.”
Lohini Gudibanda for “Cartography of Ordinary”
Lucy Rajwani for “I still feel”
M Pettersen for “Tyrannosaur Elegy”
Marissa Grunes for “I’d rejoin humankind”
Matthew Daniels for “Invidious Harbour”
Maureen Atwell for “Pregnant like a”
Megan Benham for “The old coat”
Michael Lavers for “Why My Poems”
Michelle Shinn for “You are in”
Nicole Nunez for “Laundry Left to”
Shifra Shaman Sky for “Hawk”
Sienna Africa Lagdamen for “If the night”
Sonja Faul for “With fertile fingers”
Sunnye Collins for “I Know You”
Tamupuwa Kamba for “One day, Earth”
Virginia LeBaron for “Second Marriage Honeymoon”
Vivian Steele for “To Live Forever”
Wenyi Xiao for “I like to”
Yasaman Jalali-Kushki for “Baby elephants” and “Pomegranateblossom”
 
Edited by Amber Byers
Pieces from the April 2025 contest season selected by the Tadpole Press team of writing contest judges: Amber Byers, Laurel Twitchell, Mari Mendoza, Zoë Whittall, Johanna Craven, and Nicola Newman.
96 pages
PDF format
Published September 13, 2025