We recently talked to Emily Rose Cole. She just released her new chapbook composed of persona poems, Love & a Loaded Gun, from Minerva Rising Press. One of the poems from the book, "Persephone Returns," was first published in The Pinch 37.1 (as "Self-Portrait of Persephone Returning").

Past contributor Erin Adair-Hodges has a new book out from Pitt Poetry Series. Let's All Die Happy was the winner of the 2016 Agnes Lynch Starrett prize. Two of the poems from the new book, "I Would Have Listened to Rush" and "Ode to my Dishwasher," first appeared in issue 35.2 of The Pinch. 

Poetry: Caylin Capra-Thomas, Jennifer Richter, Stephen Cramer, Siarra Freeman, Sarah Cedeño, Xandria Phillips, Owen McLeod, David Kirby, Stephanie Rogers, Natalie Homer, Amorak Huey, Raye Hendrix, Lauren Bolton, Amanda Rachelle Warren, Sierra Golden, Elizabeth Onusko, Kate Asche, Jacob Lindberg, Marco Yan, Sara Lupita Olivares, SM Stubbs, Christine Hamm, and Sonia Greenfield.

Fiction: Nancy Au, Jean Burnet, Louise Marburg, Sam Martone, Ann Stewart McBee, and Jenn Powers

Creative Nonfiction: Amber Taliancich Allen, Claire Polders, Brian Oliu, Beth Peterson, Beth Roddy, Kathryn M. Barber, and Zach Sheneman

Visual Art: Angelika Arendt, Loren Britton, Emily Mae Smith, Clare Gatto, Lisa Sanditz, Anna Werwhein, Camilo Restrepo, Sara Faux, Erin Anfinson, Lani Asuncion, Laura Kraay, and Erica McCarrens

Hunter Choate's story "Mirror Box" was recently listed as a Distinguished Story in The Best American Short Stories 2017. The story first appeared in issue 36.1 of The Pinch, and it captivated our staff with its flawless writing and powerful storytelling. Recently, we spoke with Hunter about how it felt to receive this distinction, as well as what inspires his stories, and where his writing's headed next.

In 2007, Brad Aaron Modlin won second place in The Pinch's  River City Writing Award in Poetry with his poem, “What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade." The poem recently went viral, so we asked Brad a few questions about his writing, his views on social media, and his connection to poetry.

Issue 37.1 includes the winners of the 2016 Pinch Literary Awards. John McCarthy’s “Hymn” won the Pinch Literary Poetry Contest (judge: Alex Lemon), Michael Alessi’s “Goshen Pass” won the Pinch Literary Fiction Contest (judge: Leslie Pietrzyk), and Amy J.E. MacKenzie’s “Shakedown” won the Pinch Literary Creative Nonfiction contest (judge: Nicole Hardy). 

Poetry: Christian Anton Gerard, Amy Rosenberg, Alexa Doran, Laura Brun, Rachel Cruea, Matt Morgan, Bryce Berkowitz, Lana Austin, Julia Heney, Sayuri Ayers, Nathanael Tagg, Rachel Edelman, Zackary Medlin, Tara Ballard, Gaylord Brewer, Matthew Brady Klitsch, Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, Jessica Morey-Collins, Rachel Marie Patterson, Clare Paniccia, Benjamin Zellmer Bellas, Jermaine Thompson, and Adam Houle

Fiction: Eric Lloyd Blix, Cynthia Robinson, Charles Fairchild, Andrew Gretes, and Katie Knoll

Creative Nonfiction: John A. McDermott, Jacqueline Kolosov, Rachel Toliver, Jan Shoemaker, Olivia Dunnn, Paul Vega, Jacqueline Doyle, Jill Talbot & Justin Lawrence Daughtery, Tracy Haack, Jessi Lewis, and Angela Morales

Visual Art: Alex Paulus, Ryan Rasmussen, Jane Callister, Kevin Michael Klipfel, Tracey Harris, Michael Lambert, Linda Lee Nichols, Sharyn O'Mara, Ivan de Monbrison, Kelly Yarbrough, Ashley Hudson, and Linn Meyers

Issue 36.1 includes the winners of the 2015 Pinch Literary Awards. Nina Yun's "The Great Middle" won the Pinch Literary Nonfiction Contest (judged by Lia Purpura); Jennifer Givhan's poem, "Why Birds?" won the Pinch Poetry Contest (judged by Ada Limón); and Molly Reid's "Happy You're Here" won the Pinch Literary Fiction contest (judged by David James Poissant).

PoetryErin Adair-Hodges, Aileen Bassis, Emma Bolden, Ashley Chambers,  Karen Craigo, Kwame Dawes, Matthew Henriksen, Erin Hoover, Cindy E. King, EJ Levy, Laurin Becker Macios, Emily Mohn-Slate, Cindy Hunter Morgan, Nancy Carol Moody, Brian Simoneau, Lindsay Tigue, John Walser, PJ Williams

FictionCharles Booth, Ayşe Papatya Bucak, K.L. Cook, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Nickalus Rupert, Kami Westhoff

NonfictionMarcia Aldrich, BJ Hollars, Devin Latham, Lee Martin, Robin McCarthy, Ander Monson, Alexis Paige, Bonnie J. Rough, Cait Weiss

ArtKatrina Andry, Taylor Baldwin, Luke Ball, Jenny Blumenfield, Dara Engler, Motoko Kamada, Joseph Kameen, Lauren Rose Kinney & Patrick Vincent, Vitus Shell, Bonnie Stipe

The Pinch Literary Journal proudly presents its 35th anniversary issue - a sleek, sophisticated, and distinct tribute to the literary arts. 

Issue 35.1 includes the winners of the the 2014 Pinch Literary Awards. Sarah Viren's essay "My Murderer's Futon" won the Pinch Literary Nonfiction Contest (as judged by Lee Martin); Mark Wagennar's poem, "Shake & Bake Blues (Midwest Blues)" which won the Pinch Poetry Contest (as judged by Adam Clay); and Emily Ruth Verona, who won the Pinch Literary Fiction contest with her short story, "Care."

In Issue 34.2 we’ve got a lineup of fiction from Gretchen VanWormer, Jessica Newman, Vera Kurian, Alisha Karabinus, Kim Drew Wright, Mike Meginnis and Gabriel Houck.

Creative nonfiction in this issue comes from Sarah Vallance, Matthew Vollmer, Emily Rich, Angela Woodward, Sarah M. Wells and Jamie Lyn Smith.

In Issue 34.1 we’ve got a lineup of fiction from Mary-Kim Arnold, Claire Harlan Orsi, Christine Friedlander, K vish, Anne Doten and Nick Kocz.

Creative nonfiction in this issue comes from Alicia Catt, Rebecca Huntman, Jill Talbot, Kathleen Blackburn and Melissa Ferrone.

We’ve got poetry for you from John McCarthy, Mark Wagenaar, Carleen Tibbetts, Eric Anderson, Kat Finch, Shivani Mehta, Rick Bursky, Molly Beckwith, Abraham Smith, Lena Moses-Schmitt, Lucy Biederman, Mikko Harvey, Ryan Bollenbach, Catherine Bresner, Chloe Anne Campbell, Kim Stoll, Opal C. McCarthy, Leia Darwish, Suzi F. Garcia, Julie Henson, Alan Michael Parker, Emily Bludworth De Barrios, Colleen Barry, Anders Carlson-Wee, Charlie Clark, Priya Keefe, Lauren Clark, Paul Beilstein, Tarfia Faizullah, Katie Willingham and Carrie Green.

In Issue 33.2, we’ve got fiction from Joseph Rein, Jaclyn Dwyer, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Amanda Leahy, David James Poissant and Tessa Mellas.

We’ve got creative nonfiction from Marcia Aldrich, Kristen Radtke, Steve Adams, Sonya Huber and Aubrey Hirsch.

Poetry contributors for this issue are Allison Seay, Sharon Wang, Jen Edwards, Avni Vyas & Anne Barngrover, Cindy Beebe, James Tadd Adcox, JD Scott, Doug Fuller, C Dylan Bassett, Kelly Forsythe, Felicia Zamora, Sandra Meek, Erin Dorney, Kathleen Rooney & Elisa Gabbert, Nathan Parker, Janet Bowdan, Anne Champion, Emily Sketch Haines, Lee Sharkey, Norman Dubie, Kim Lozano, Gordon Osing, Chris Emslie,  Wendy Xu, Carl Phillips and Kwame Dawes.

In Issue 33.1, we’ve got an interview with Randall Kenan, author of Only The Dead Know Chapel Hill, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, and A Visitation of Spirits, among others.

Our fiction offerings include work by Darren Morris, D.J. Thielke, Lindsey Drager, Dylan Brie Ducey, and Devin Murphy.

We’ve also got creative nonfiction from Marilyn Abildskov, Andrew Johnson, Rachel Riederer, Joey Franklin, and Jillian Weiss.

This issue, we’ve got an interview on story craft and character development with the always spectacular Bobbie Ann Mason. We’re also serving up incredible poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction from Roxane Gay, Michael Croley, Nicholas Wong, Christine Stewart, Meg Cowen, Ray McManus, Raymond Fleischmann, Christopher Kempf, Eireann Lorsung, David Roderick, Daniel Browne, William Lusk Coppage, Jax Peters Lowell, Derek Palacio, Susan Gubernat, John Vanderslice, Allison Campbell, Maria Rapoport, Traci Brimhall, Charlotte Boulay, James Crizer, Bryce Emley, Mark Jay Brewin, Jr., Helen Phillips, Brad Henderson, Harold Whit Williams, Ira Sukrungruang, Elizabeth O’Brien, Anthony Opal, Tim Hayes, Sydney Lea, and Tory Adkisson. We’re also pleased to bring you the winning entries from the University of New Orleans Creative Contest, as judged by the editorial staff of The Pinch, including pieces by Kiki Whang, Jill Frischhertz, and Anne Royan.

Featuring interviews with Marge Piercy and Richard Tillinghast. Fiction and poetry by our wonderful Literary Award winners: Stu Dearnley, Judith Edelman, Claudine R. Moreau and John Sibley Williams. We also have incredible poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction from Steve Adams, Will Boast, Gaylord Brewer, John F. Buckley and Martin Ott, Josh Dorman, Chris Fink, Mary Flanagan, Amy Fraser, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Carrie Green, Todd Hearon, Darren Jackson, Jaybo, Jason M. Jones, Jason Koo, Anna Leahy, Scott Nadelson, Alison Pelegrin, Jennifer Perrine, Alison Prine, Shelley Puhak, Jennifer Richter, Alex Roulette, Laurie Sewall, Lee Sharkey, and Matthew Vollmer.

Featuring an interview with Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin.

Featuring an interview with Robert Root.  

Featuring an interview with Lee Sharkey.