As editors consider submissions, they often discuss whether a text is pinchy. One of our editors discusses the term.

Contributors: Audrey Adams, Jane Ayres, Brenda Salinas Baker, Anthony Bartley, Daisy Bassen, Margarita Brum, L.M. Cole, Cole Depuy, Jacqueline Doyle, Dolly Drori, Kristin Emanuel, Katie Embser, Katherine Espano, Steve Fellner, Renee Flory, Annalise Gallagher, Stephanie Ginese, Emily O. Gravett, Amy Guidry, Siew David Hii, Caleb Hydrick, Phil Keeling, Mickie Kennedy, Erin Kirsh, Rie Kitagawa, Kalia Lancaster, Evander Lang, Sonya Lara, Chissy Martin, Suzanne Martin, Chital Mehta, Adia Muhammad, Alena Muir, Marlene Olin, Aimee Pogson, Adam Poor, Bek Primrose, Jeremy Radin, Jackie Sabbagh, Leah Schnurr, Karen Schubert, Veronica Silva, Sara Solber, Lindsay Sproul, Brendan Stephens, Alyssandra Tobin, Nikki Ummel, Lavanya Vasudevan, Amber Day Wild, Ele Willoughby, Lena Zycinsky

“Must I become a woman? Can I choose not to become one, just yet?”

Wicker is among a cadre of fellows who will spend the year at Harvard Radcliffe exploring a large variety of topics across disciplines.

As she finished up her time as The Pinch’s Art Director, Annalee Elmore sat down with another of our wonderful MFA candidates, Lily Kate Anthony, to discuss the art of The Pinch.

As editors consider submissions, they often discuss whether a text is pinchy. One of our editors discusses the term.

Contributors: Mya Alexice, Sam Baker, John Blair, NJ Bonham, Noor Brody, Kate Bucca, Sher Ting Chim, Sean Cho A, Robert Evory, Jeffrey Feingold, Elizabeth Feng, Olivier Fitzgerald, Raymond Fleishmann, Cassia Hameline, Hailey Rose Hanks, Marisa Lainson, Mark Magnus, Nicholas Mangigian, Katie McMorris, Erin Miller, Rooja Mohassessy, Sara Moore Wagner, Samuel Prestridge, Jason Sepac, Benjamin Soileau, JR Taylor, Jeff Whitney, Kristin Wong, Lucy Zhang, Jane Zwart

Contributors: Andres Arauz, Abe Becker, Neil Berkowitz, Will Berry, Katie Berta, Christine H. Chen, Josiah Ellner, Katie Erbs, Kerry James Evans, Willam Fargason, Emily Franklin, Santiago Galeas, Jessica Hammack, Pam Hassler, Jessica Hertz, Kristie Robin Johnson, Kitt Keller, Candice Kelsey, Jared Lemus, Ariel Machell, Lacy Arnett Mayberry, Steven W. McCarty, Mac McClaran, Ben McCormick, Julia McDaniel, Mark Milazzo, Larry Narron, Natalia Olhova, Benjamin Page, Josh Parish, Claire Scott, Elena Selk, Marguerite Sheffer, Tyler Sones, Meghan Sterling, Eric Tran, Adam Weeks, Tana Jean Welch

Emily Franklin is a novelist and poet whose poem, “The Math of Cows,” won the 2021 Pinch Literary Award in Poetry, judged by Catherine Pierce. She has published 16 YA novels. Tell Me How You Got Here (Terrapin Books, 2021) is her first volume of poetry.

Contributors: Luke Agada, Khem K. Aryal, Brittney Boyd Bullock, Matthew Burnside, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Catharina Coenen, Alyssa Froehling, Fatima Jafar, Di Jayawickrema, Christen Noel Kauffman, Cody Kucker, Catherine Kyle, Ciara LeRoy, Eliot Li, Annell López, Alejandro Lucero, Evan Joseph Massey, Alysse Kathleen McCanna, Fares Micue, Carl E. Moore, Kip Omolade, Fahamu Pecou, Lizzy Petersen, A. Prevett, Khalisa Rae, Todd Robison, Leona Sevick, Liz Shulman, Jayne Sosland, Daren Todd, Seth Brady Tucker, Erin Vachon, Lavanya Vasudevan, Adrian Octavius Walker, Hannah V. Warren, Michael Wilson, James Zhenghui Zhu.

Caki Wilkinson’s third poetry collection––The Survival Expo––is a weird family of poems. Beautiful, complex, breathtaking, but beautifully weird. Contained in the collection are a series of oddities like the date who wore a Titans jersey and a coonskin cap, the juxtaposition (in one line) of swamp tours and sexy gun range selfies, and a good ol’ boy selling apocalypse-prep specifically geared toward cats. We see these weird images every day in the modern world, most of us accept it or ignore it and continue along with our ill-conceived plans, but not Wilkinson.

Sara Biggs Chaney and Michael Chaney teach at Dartmouth College. Michael is a Professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing and Sara is a Lecturer in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and the Associate Coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Sara and Michael have published creative non-fiction in Hotel Amerika and Sycamore Review. Their visual poetry has recently appeared in Redivider, Puerto Del Sol, and Quarterly West.

Contributors: Sahana Ahmed, Faiza Anum, Christopher Seiji Berardino, Amanda Bloom, Christiana Castillo, Sara Biggs & Michael Chaney, Yuan Changming, Steven Espada Dawson, Nate Duke, Austin Eichelberger, Nicola Geddes, Banah Ghadbanah, Mirri Glasson-Darling, Rayji de Guia, Christine E. Hamm, Luther Hampton, Dennis Hinrichsen, Rochelle Hurt, Justin Jannise, Mike Jenkins, Alice Kaltman, Cory Liang, Tracey Lien, Whitney Lorenze, Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Jose Luis Pablo, Miriam Navarro Prieto, Taiyo Okamoto, Kasey Peters, Fraser Radford, John Saad, Jane Satterfield, Taylor Schaefer, Chang Shih Yen, Ojo Taiye, Elizabeth Theriot, zach de venecia, Abigail Wotton, Bessie F. Zaldívar

John A. Nieves has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: North American Review, Crazyhorse, Southern Review, Harvard Review and Massachusetts Review. He won the Indiana Review Poetry Contest and his first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge’s Prize. He is associate professor of English at Salisbury University and an editor of The Shore Poetry. He received his M.A. from University of South Florida and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.

Kito Fortune is one of the best poets in the world. He unleashes rhymes, wordplay, metaphors and dynamic performance, as he invites you into his world through poetry. Although he grew up in Los Angeles, his family is originally from Guyana. He was a member of the poetry slam team at Da Poetry Lounge for three years in a row.  Also in 2018 Kito finished in the top twenty of the Individual World Poetry slam. He was the slam champion at Da Poetry Lounge for two years straight. Kito enjoys sports, anime, and video games and his poetry is influenced by his melanin, and his Christianity.  Kito uses words to paint a vivid picture of his life.  

Interview by CooXooEii Black.

Tiana Clark has published the chapbook, Equilibrum, and a full book of poetry titled I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without The Blood. She has won numerous awards and has been published in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and The Washington Post(just to name a few). A fellow Nashville native, I had the pleasure of watching her career flourish and expand over the years. We officially crossed paths at Sewanee School of Letters where she was my professor in the summer of 2019. We spoke about pantsuits, rage and isolation in the age of the pandemic.

Interview by Massey Armistead.

Photo by Crystal K. Martel

Contributors: Threa Almontaser, Mae Aur, Sarah Bates, Anthony Borruso, Jeff Carter, Servando CuMora, Moisés Delgado, Courtney Fowler, Asha Futterman, Mag Gabbert, Tex Gresham, Rory Hamovit, Ashley Hand, Jessica Hudson, Miah Jeffra, Corrine Jones, Giaae Kwon, Kate Lucas, Matt Muilenburg, Cindy Ostuni, San Pham, Cyndie Randall, Stephanie Rogers, Nick Schleicher, Kirk Schlueter, Cameron Shenassa, Maya Strauss, Melissa Studdard, DeShara Suggs-Joe, Danielle Williams, Christopher Wong, Lizabeth Yandel, Yurina Yoshikawa

Hûw Steer is writer, historian, and comedian from London who holds an MA in Ancient History specializing in the study of ancient science-fiction. His first novel, The Blackbird and the Ghost, was an SPFBO finalist in 2019 and Ad Luna, his second novel, released on July 4th of this year. His short stories have been published in The Future Fire and UCL’s Publisher’s Prize.

Interview by Kalib La Chapelle

Contributors: Aldo Amparán, Megan J. Arlett, Maria Isabelle Carlos, Devin, Xuebing Du, Melissa Dunn, Paige Ellens, Jen Fawkes, Paulette K. Fire, Meg E. Griffitts, Sarah Hamill, Audrey R. Hollis, Taiyaba Husain, Naoko Ito, Katerina Ivanov, Jasmine Khaliq, Jennifer Lynn Krohn, Lance Larsen, David Lassell, Michael Marberry, Addie Palin, Edgar Serrano, Caroline Shea, Aurora Lee Shimshak, Tracy Treadwell, Theodora Ziolkowski

Former contributor Janet Buttenwieser has just released a new memoir, GUTS, available for purchase from Vine Leaves Press. The memoir hits upon chronic illnesses, loss, and resilience; we spoke with Janet about the process of writing such difficult subjects, as well as her go-to journals, and what's next for her writing.