Cincinnati Review

“The peephole is installed backward,” my one-night stand said as I sat up in bed. We were in his high-rise studio apartment. “I keep meaning to tape a piece of paper over it.” I thought about what this meant. A tiny aperture gave passersby in the hallway a fish-eye view into the bedroom. It wasn’t …

“Father would guard the door, saying 
Don’t go in there, your mother is busy
She will be out soon”

In this holiday tale we ride along with the inhabitants of a toy railroad through scraps of the narrator’s own family history.

Two poems by an exiled Iraqi poet that blend the everyday with the horrors of war.

Winshen Liu’s poem “Lunch Break” interrogates hunger and sustenance.

Natalie Villacorta talks about how working with children at WordPlay Cincy and Oyler High School helped her see her own writing practices.

MoPoetry Phillips discusses the power of writing therapy for those who have experienced trauma as well as for those in the corporate world.

L. S. Klatt on poet Kenneth Koch’s relationship to the city where he grew up.

Tyrone Williams on failed attempts to integrate Cincinnati’s literary scene