An Interview with Ukamaka Olisakwe
Ukamaka Olisakwe is the Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-chief of Isele Magazine a literary journal focused on dynamic writers who hold a mirror to society, challenge conventions and those who decide them through poetry, essays, fiction, interviews and book reviews. Born in Kano, Nigeria, she is a UNESCO-World Book Capital “Africa 39” Honoree, a fellow of […]
Thea Prieto is the author of From the Caves (2021), which won the Red Hen Novella Award. She is a recipient of the Laurels Award Fellowship, as well as a finalist for the international Edwin L. Stockton, Jr. Award and Glimmer Train‘s Short Story Award for New Writers. She writes and edits for Poets & […]
An Interview with Gail Rudd Entrekin
Gail Rudd Entrekin is a poet, editor, publisher, teacher, quilt maker and hiker originally from Cleveland, Ohio. Entrekin earned a Masters degree in English literature from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to the Bay Area in 1978. Books of her poems include The Art of Healing (with Charles Entrekin) (2016), Rearrangement of […]
An Interview with Matt Borondy
Matt Borondy is the founder, publisher, and Editor-In-Chief of the online literary magazine Identity Theory. A University of Florida alum, he has edited the publication for over two decades. Borondy currently resides in Henderson, Nevada. In addition to his work on Identity Theory, Borondy works as a writer and web developer. Editor Interview I: What […]
Tuesday, 6:49 am “Good morning, this is Sadie Summers from Channel 6 news. I’m here in the studio today joined by–” Sadie’s bubbly voice is cut short as my mom clicks off the small television that resides on our cluttered kitchen counter. I watch the news reporter’s face disappear into an abyss of static. My […]
She Rode Her Bike in Circles Lizzie’s first kiss happened in her mom’s white minivan, in the rain, driving home from the Blue Lagoon. “Hey,” Dylan said, sliding into the passenger seat. “Sorry.” “You’re soaked,” Lizzie said, looking up and down at her dark denim ensemble which clung to her body in a way that […]
The Scripts of the Ancients “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”-H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” I. When I first met Doctor Gregory Bolstari in his cramped Columbia office, I had no idea what to expect. In the interview, he […]
He wouldn’t be me His face grey, fingernails filled up with muckHe sits outside the store change filling his cup“Change that’s ironic,” I say with a smirk“Why don’t you change your clothes and go find some work” “I’ve made only great choices to be in this position I’ve made careful, and cautious, and chary decisions […]
That’s Where You Go Early morning. Crisp autumn of the schoolyard. Beginning of the school day. Donna’s father crouches. Squatting he points. To guide Donna. Long high wall. Blocking October sun. In front of the wall Donna’s father. Gray and shadows and dark brick and Donna looking straight. The door. Brown entrance door. Moments for […]
Storks with Poulets, Peanuts with Pineau “Consciousness of reality is itself a way of being in the world.”Being and Time They sail sphinx-like beyond the house, spread outWhite threads plowing Charente’s Atlantic pathWhile imperious Blanche and good Grise strut cluckingGastronomy upon the bugged-up lawn. Darling, were this a wine tasting stranger,Goobers merely nubile hooters, we […]
Where the Light May End I have traveled so deeply through the temporal spell that so much of the dayhas devolved into remembering.In my seventh decade,the path toward tomorrow seems disappearing and I cannot tell where the light may end. Impulses to share thoughts and feelingsstill ascend.Yet, so many of the once-smiling listeners have become […]
A Tumult Her question transported him like Beatrice’s first salute, yet as he looked at her face for the first time he was filled with terror. He was startled by the speed with which her beauty elicited in him a sense of futility and dread. He remembered standing before the Botticelli in the National Museum […]
The Window I Wish for my niece Xondra A window draped with nightlike a road in rain reflectsmy face, two passing taillights. The pane is cold and hard and smoothas polished stone.Touch stains the glass. At three a.m. abandoned streetsdraw every destination close.Pain pills. Alcohol. Cocaine. The coroner’s report was clear.From an alley view,what could […]
Loneliness There is a painIt feels like school dances and crowded carouselsConversations with no pauses for a breath or a sip of beerRecords left skipping as people filter out of doorwaysIt is a pain that lingers longer amidst the swarms of bodiesA pain that finds a way to seep through the crowdI believed it must […]
Icarus I did not ask for you to catch me.I knew my wings were dipped in weathered wax.Who are you to prevent me from my fate?Why fall, if not for devotion? Thrusting inherently ruptured wings,our souls met but for a second,a triumph reserved by the gods.Warmth, desire, passion incarnate, I welcome his engulfing fire.For him, […]
Unforgettable Were I a scientistrather than justa wondering guy,I’d study what shows uplike a person in a roomwhen you look aroundand she’s there. Give me a maze, some electrodesand a pen skating across a graph,a rat with obstacles and tasks,anything for experience,the kind that sinkswithout being missed,like the girl who cameto school for a year,then […]
Hometown I have memorized this way of thinkinga road that stretches across the darkest hoursthe kind you learn young by the feel of its curvesdips of sunken pavement you could drive blindthe foot moves between pedalsbefore I am aware, automatic motion and emotionfused into neural pathways, reflexes travel through the body the way headlights always […]
Something Awful on Nevada 164 Nevada 164 was a miserable thing, even before the bombs fell. The narrow strip of road cut through the Mojave Wastes, connecting the paltry town of Searchlight in the east with the even less impressive settlement of Nipton to the west. Mostly it sat unused and abandoned. On rare occasions, […]
A Bar in Santa Cruz The bartender slaps my glassand change on the counteras in anger, making me wonder what I did, then I realize it isa need to put rhythm in his work. Children drop by the bar on their way home from school, stretch a hand up to receivea small glass of water. […]
Thunder Early on, thunderrumbled its broad bassecho to tremblemy soles, to excitea deep-rooted tempothat rose up my neckand I awoke toa wide-open skydarkened and boiling,that invited me tobelieve there waspower I couldharness, now worndown to my wornout boots wherea distant rumblestill echoes with eachslow step forward. Mulberry Trees Mulberry trees withdark trunks thick asgiants wrapped […]
19 Reasons
Daydreamers Prisoners in love.Addicts of hope.A tightrope walkerbalanced betweensleep and night,betweendespair and ecstasy. Scribblers of poems,pressed by images,fettered to words,smooth-talking so and so’s,their grimy heartslike captured songbirds. They who sing sweetlyfor the unlikely chancethey won’t be eaten. Does Your Dog Bite? A fine judge of character,he’s simply smiling,he’s airing his grievances,of which there are many.That […]
Woman Under Water I grew up believing femalekind was made of something else, something foreign, something like soil and soap rubbed together into indefinable goo. Chalked into squares, they couldn’t hop or scotch out, lest they get branded liars. Eventually, it came out that they were so alien that scientific tests excluded them, as if […]
Catherine’s Poem There is no room for a story,not even really mine. I lookand look. The world is doingsomething so unsavory.The dirty sparrows bathein the storm run-off. Robinsgo for the cicadas’ empty shape.We just bicker about money,sex, and dinner plans,but we’re so in love—still expectingeverything miracular. The seagull is almoststilled against the breeze.Steady and unflapped […]
An Interview with Joseph Scapellato
Joseph Scapellato lives in Lewisburg, PA with his wife and daughter. In his most recent novel, The Made-Up Man (2019), he mixes humor with an alluring plot line that enthralls the curious, self-reflective mind, and reaches the heart of what it means to ‘know oneself’. Scapellato is an assistant professor of English at Bucknell University, […]
An Interview with Jonathan Dee
Jonathan Dee, a Pulitzer Prize nominated author, has written seven successful novels over the course of his career, including A Thousand Pardons and The Privileges. Originally from northwestern Connecticut, Dee moved to New York City shortly after graduating from Yale University. During his years at Yale, Dee studied fiction writing and learned from some of […]
Lisa See is an author of young adult novels that all incorporate the experiences of Chinese people, particularly the relationships between women within families. Although Ms. See is not completely Chinese, her grandfather was and she has felt very connected to this part of her family. This connection has inspired her to created best-selling novels […]
An Interview with Eric Bennett
Eric Bennett grew up in Michigan and attended Deep Springs College and Harvard College for his undergraduate years. He later received his MFA in fiction from the University of Iowa, subsequently receiving his Ph.D. in English from Harvard University. Bennett now lives in Providence, Rhode Island and is a novelist and an English Professor at […]
An Interview with Lisa Gardner
Lisa Gardner is a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller and mystery writer. She has published over thirty novels including The Perfect Husband, The Killing Hour, The Third Victim and The Survivors Club. Four of her novels were transformed into TV movies including The Perfect Husband and The Survivors Club. She has made personal appearances […]
An Interview with Karen Lee Boren
Karen Lee Boren grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a location she has kept with her in much of her writing. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in English, before getting an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University. She then returned to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in order to earn […]
An Interview with Thomas Christopher Greene
Thomas Christopher Greene is a highly esteemed novelist and is well versed in the arts. His work has achieved worldwide recognition and has been translated into eleven languages. He has been nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and his first novel, Mirror Lake, was labeled one of the thirty books to be rediscovered by […]
An Interview with Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay is primarily a horror author, with roots in detective stories as well. His career has garnered praise from other horror writers such as Stephen King, and he has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards. Tremblay went to undergrad at Providence College, and completed his Masters in Mathematics at the […]
Phil Klay is an American author and veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps from Westchester, New York. Upon graduating Dartmouth College, Klay served in Iraq during the U.S troop surge, serving 13 months in the Anbar Province of Iraq between 2007 and 2008, and he completed his MFA at Hunter College after he returned from […]
An Interview with Danielle Evans
Daniella Evans is a young and successful author who is currently coming out with her second novel, The Office of Historical Corrections. Throughout her career she has written pieces highlighting the themes of race, class, gender, and self-actualization. Her first story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self was published roughly a decade ago […]
Save the Date! 2020 Submission Deadline
The Alembic is currently accepting submissions for the 2020 Spring issue. Please submit your work by no later than 11:59 pm on January 15th. We accept poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography. Please follow our guidelines carefully. To submit your Manuscripts or Artwork, please visit our Submissions Page. For any questions or concerns, please contact […]
We’ve been sprawled on the old wood bridge for hours. Our young palms are splintered now by twisted boards and the tops of our feet sting, red from the biting chill whipping our bare skin. I’m more scared than you are. You’re more scared than anything. Icy gray clouds shift endlessly above our sweet warm […]
Based on the painting “Open Casket” by Dana Schutz, 2016 Inside the open casket lies a Black boy Whose face tells his-story An innocent Black boy who was supposed to— Live a sweet childhood Yet, there it lies His mutilated face Upon the pillow of grief All hopes of tomorrow Lost in his Black suit […]
And with my own eyes I see her, breast teasing the orange creek, head cocked backwards, anchoring it softly into the water that Sam calls shit water, that my dad calls golden river. Toes pressed against the rusting dock, little moles sitting on her legs like flies, she hums. I shake, tossing gravel into the […]
Ed Ochester grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is the longtime editor of the Pitt Poetry Series (University of Pittsburgh Press), and the founding editor of the journal SAM. His own collections of poetry include We Like it Here (1967), Dancing on the Edge of Knives (1973), Miracle Mile (1984), Allegheny (1995), Snow White […]
An Interview with Ruth Gilligan
Ruth Gillligan was born and raised in Co. Dublin, Ireland. When she was 18 years old, she moved to the UK, just one month after she had published her first novel Forget, which became a number one bestseller. She works as a full-time lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. She writes regular […]
An Interview with Phillip B. Williams
Phillip B. Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois and earned his MFA from Washington Uni- versity, where he was a Chancellor’s Graduate fellow. He is the author of Bruised Gospels (Arts in Bloom Inc., 2011), Burn (YesYes Books, 2013), and Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books, 2016), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. […]
I was six, or seven. It was a scalding Dominican summer day that began with a hurried packing of bare-essentials— underwear and shorts—as my aunt prepared me for a visit to my grandmother’s in the campo. It was basically out in the wilderness, some miles away from the city. Whilst I was inside, saying goodbye […]
An Interview with Jane Lunin Perel
Professor emerita Jane Lunin Perel ’15 Hon. arrived to teach English and creative writing at Providence College in 1971. She has stretched students’ creative capacities ever since. She also led the initiative to establish the College’s Women’s Studies Program in 1994, serving as its first director, and was devoted to it and the Department of […]
I had a theory about white walls. White is a sterile color, unfeeling and void of emotion but not meaningless. The hospital walls were strategically colorless because memories don’t stick to something so bland. It is a mechanism to help ease the healing process, to try and alleviate the grief and mourning of the families […]