Assistant Editor Maggie Su: This searing poem by Hussian Ahmed centers around the issue of child witch hunting in Africa. If accused of witchcraft, a child can be subjected to abuse, abandonment, trafficking, or rape. Ahmed skillfully imagines the rich interior life of a child forced to endure under the worst possible circumstances. Ahmed’s speaker swings …
Assistant Editor Maggie Su: A writing professor once told me that novels span decades, short stories last weeks, and microfictions are concerned with eternity. This adage holds true for Mark Wagenaar’s “The Gift.” At just four hundred words, the story details a woman’s supernatural ability to touch objects and know the names of their …
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: The prose poem was born in rebellion, from surrealistic parents. It grew up nourished by juxtapositions, associative movement, a direct statement followed by a non sequitur. It studied intermediate lyrical techniques and the controversy between ragged-right or force-justified text in graduate school. And here, in Maureen Seaton’s hands, it takes …
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: We’re big fans of ghost stories here at The Cincinnati Review; Assistant Editor Molly Reid explained that well in a blog post last fall, highlighting stories from issue 14.2 that fell into that category. Since then, we’ve also featured another sort of ghost story on miCRo, Katie Cortese’s “Neat Freak,” …
It’s a banner day at The Cincinnati Review offices—not only do we get to come back to work after a long holiday weekend away, but our latest issue has arrived. Subscribers should see it in the mail soon, and we’re sending out digital subscriptions today too. Issue 15.1 is chock-full of literary goodness: our …
As hollow as a gutted fish, a hole in the sand, a cistern cracked along the seam— There is no filling such emptiness. And yet— Stitch it shut. Pour and pour, if you wish. Wish and wish, but it’s wasted— Water carried to the garden in your cupped palms. Might as well seal an ember …
What was done was done in our names; we ourselves would never have done what was done to anyone. We wanted to be good, polite, obedient, fun, wanted only not to ever ask What have we done? And yet, in our names, what was done was done. See more poems from Issue 15.1 by …
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: As I prepared this post for publication a few weeks ago, I wondered if this poem would seem too timely on its publication date. Kelle Groom’s “River of Grass” includes specific details that remind us of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but—of course—in the …
We expect Issue 15.1 to ship from the printer any day now! Local folks, we’d love to see you at the launch party on Friday, June 1, at Caza Sikes Gallery in Oakley; the event doubles as the gallery opening for an exhibit of new work by Dewey Blocksma, the featured artist in the …
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: Becky Hagenston’s “Star Girl” feels like a cousin to another piece in our miCRo series, Doris Cheng’s “Earthling,” a story that features a teenager who thinks she might be an extraterrestrial. In Becky Hagenston’s hands, the concern with aliens takes a different turn: The “Star Girl” of the title was …
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