Author: ciotola

  • West Branch 109, Fall 2025

    West Branch 109, Fall 2025

    In this Print Issue: Poetry by Alissa M. Barr, Robin Walter, Danez Smith, Lex Orgera, Ian U. Lockaby, Laura Read, Mary Kovaleski Byrnes; Fiction by Joanna Pearson and Lisa Bubert; … Read the rest

  • West Branch 109, Fall 2025: Digital Issue

    Poetry Danez SmithDear Time Leila ChattiThe Thirtieth YearThe Moment When a Feeling Enters Nonfiction Kathryn NuernbergerWhat Is Past Guest Editor Tyler Mills:“Maybe Just a Little … Read the rest

  • Leila Chatti

    The Thirtieth Year after Lucille Clifton I had expected to be an ordinary woman. Dreamed of daughters, beauty, life made whole by them. Then the year of losing came, the … Read the rest

  • Danez Smith

    Dear Time, how many knees wasted at the wrong pulpit? thought i worshipped the future, but it was pleasure all along. thought my prayer aimed for peace, but it was … Read the rest

  • Kathryn Nuernberger

    What Is Past George Washington Carver was fascinated by the yucca, and why shouldn’t he have been? It sends up narrow, sharp-tipped leaves like a ring of swords around stalks … Read the rest

  • Guest Editor Tyler Mills

    Guest Editor Tyler Mills

    “Taken together, these essays tell a story of the city, of the self, and of the art of nonfiction: what the ‘I’ can do with language while telling the story.”

  • “Shaped Language Is Strangely Immortal”

    “Shaped Language Is Strangely Immortal”

    “Indeed, the best poets recognize that language, like a single atom, must be ruptured in order to unbridle all the energies buried deep inside.” — Sarah D’Stair

  • An Interview with Christine Barkley

    An Interview with Christine Barkley

    “‘Wilded’ began as a conversation with other poems I had written, partially as a condemnation of common themes to which I found myself returning without any resolution.” Interview by Maddy Grieco.

  • West Branch 108, Spring/Summer 2025

    West Branch 108, Spring/Summer 2025

    In this Print Issue: Poetry by Christine Barkley, Patrycja Humienik, Anna Lena Phillips Bell, Gary McDowell, Asa Drake, Sara Potocsny, Michael Dhyne, and McLeod Logue; Fiction by Nwanne Agwu and … Read the rest

  • West Branch 108, Spring/Summer 2025: Digital Issue

    Cover Art: Ni Los Perros Que Jamás Me Olvidaron, Ni Los Caballos, Ni Los Abrazos Que Me Dan Mis (#3, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 25), by Edison … Read the rest