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So, what exactly are we looking for when we read through miCRo submissions?

Associate Editor Caitlin Doyle: As spring approaches and new books of poetry make their way into print, many of them by first-time authors, we’re abuzz in the CR office about debut collections from the recent past that have held us in thrall. In celebration of the season, I’m happy to highlight The Taxidermist’s Cut by …

When we mail out each issue to contributors, we encourage them to let us know if they’d like to expand the context for their work in our pages, via our blog. For Issue 15.2, we’ve heard from several writers; the latest is Sophie Klahr, who’s interested in explaining the impetus behind her two poems in …

Associate Editor Molly Reid: We first had the pleasure of featuring Jolene McIlwain’s work in our miCRo series. Her story “Drumming” captures a tender moment in a diner between Dusty, who works behind the counter, and Elbert, a customer and former classmate. Because of the deft, subtle narrative maneuverings, these characters remain with the reader …

But why choose a flip-book and not, say, the traditional page breaks of a lyric essay?

Editorial Assistant Chelsea Whitton: “Someone says it is difficult to write poems / that are both domestic and ambitious,” writes Victoria Chang in Barbie Chang (Copper Canyon, 2017), her fourth collection. This book rejects the implication that domestic poems—work about childbearing and rearing, about caring for one’s aging parents, about social anxiety and the link …

We’re pleased as punch to announce the tenure of our second guest literary nonfiction editor this year (Literary Nonfiction Editor Kristen Iversen was awarded a Taft Center Fellowship for the 2018–19 academic year and is on sabbatical). Starting this week, through mid-June, Lee Martin will read submitted essays and curate our literary nonfiction section for …

After each issue lands in readers’ hands, we encourage our contributors to say a little bit on our blog about their work. For issue 15.2, our first such post comes from poet Rose McLarney, who worked with artist Gary Hawkins on a broadside of her poem “Old Road” from our pages, as described below: Rose …

Just a reminder that you have four more days to take advantage of The Cincinnati Review/Acre Books holiday pack! For only $20, you get a one-year subscription to the CR, plus one of two Acre Books titles (your pick): The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist: A Novel, by Michael Downs or …