NWWQ October 2023 submissions are closed. We will accept submissions again JANUARY 1–14, 2024. Below you will find the October 2023 issue of NWWQ. We thank all who submitted
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NEW WORLD WRITING QUARTERLY ~ OCTOBER 2023
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Ann Pedone ~ From: The Monogamist
The First Aria
If the opposite of dark is light, then what is the
opposite of the body? Bleeding down your leg
because you can’t find a tampon anywhere?
That one split second before the music starts?
The fact that once you’ve watched someone -
Julie Benesh ~ Zuihitsu
(Translated from Japanese, Zuihitsu means “following the brush.”)
1. My cat’s eyes follow the brush. She feels left out, wishing her tongue were as wide and deep as the bristles I pull across my scalp, and that she could make it reach the length
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Francine Witte ~ You Will Come Back to Me
Maybe on a Thursday, maybe tomorrow. You will knock knock knock at the door. I will be afraid to open it, having grown scarce and wan like I have. I will be afraid of all the things that aren’t love.
I will be in the kitchen.
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Sandra Kolankiewicz ~ Five Poems
Just Fine
At my annual physical,
when the nurse asks me the screening questions, I lie.
No, I am not afraid to go out.
No, I do not feel anxious.
No, I get the same pleasure from everything
that has ever made me smile. -
Roy Gu ~ Three Poems
The Cat That Eats Copper
When Yang Xin’s mom was pregnant it was
during the Family Planning Crash-Down Campaign, and she was given
an abortion shot.
Yang Xin had a big life, as they said, and
survived. Only she looked curled -
Julian George ~ Secretariat Rides into History, Belmont Park, 9 June, 1973
J’aimé un cheval – qui était-ce? – Saint-John Perse
The race is run.
The rest of the field is still out there, eating dust.
They’ll be fine, once they get home. A rub down, an apple. Johnny Carson.
Now,
This way,
Beyond
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Mel Bosworth ~ Calling Hours
I ran by Bob’s grave this morning. He died on September 10th, 2016. He was only thirty something. On his grave were some fake flowers and a small, stuffed Ninja turtle. Raphael, I think. It had red armbands.
Bob lived in the house
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Elodie A. Roy ~ Petra’s Date
Before the first date Petra already knows how futile it all is. She is aware of how inadequate she looks, standing half-undressed in the middle of her room, three or four discarded dresses at her feet. Last night, unable to
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Pavle Radonic — The Malay Archipelago in Short
Sour Taste
The gay guy from earlier in the year still cruising at the mall, more circumspect today with his mum attending. Neat, well-dressed, tidy woman retaining her looks, uncertain whether she knows.
Two small amusements from earlier in the afternoon.
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John Grey ~ Four Poems
I AM STRANGE
I take the leafy road
in midsummer,
below a trove of hidden stars,
drawn by orange light
in the distance,
beyond wheatfields,
in step with a dragonfly,
like the wind’s instrument,
heading -
Anna Mantzaris ~ The Detective
Forget the sleazy storefront agency. I am here. Next to you. Dressed in a fraying trench coat with sunglasses made from an owl. I am living in celluloid. In a piece of black-and-white 16-millimeter film, cut hard and pasted
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Julie Benesh ~ Say
In your next life you could be an orchid
or dandelion. Who’s to say who’s better?
Fragile beauty or gold grit? Seriously:
it takes all kinds. Literally: everythingis designed to be what it is, to do
as it does. You can stamp your tattoo -
Glen Pourciau ~ Three Shorts
Nameless
Not looking for trouble, I avoided an encounter with my former friend, who shall remain nameless because naming him would seem too much like contact. Taking walks helped clear my head, but seeing Nameless (NL) on one of my
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Jianqing Zheng ~ Five Poems
Looking Twice
—Tracy Sweeney’s Rain in Moonlight (oil on wood)
The rain strings a gloomy tune
for the line dance of trees,
the sky beats its heart drum
to silence the croaking frogs,
the moon veils her face
behind fleeting clouds.This is a shadowscape
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Andy Plattner ~ Two Stories
Ristorante
A nine-year-old boy, I wanted a sirloin steak at a neighborhood restaurant, an Italian place on 4th Avenue in Dayton, Kentucky. The week before, I’d heard some guy at the next table ask for that, a leisure-suit man with
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Steve Gergley ~ Mannequin
After work, I find a headless mannequin lying face down in my driveway. The mannequin is dressed in a gold tuxedo and polished, black leather oxfords. A crust of red crystal clings to the craggy stump of the mannequin’s
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Laurie Blauner ~ Five Poems
Rumors to the Contrary
Tired, I was fighting with myself, a duel between my good and bad intentions. I should have known but I couldn’t predict what my opponent would do next. I found myself in every direction in my kitchen. Where could I run? I had an ordinary face, thin
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William Doreski ~ Three Poems
The Scitico Water Tower
Looming black beside the railroad,
the Scitico water tower
shaded and shielded my childhood
from too much sun and puberty.
Dreaming of a railroad life,
obsolete before I was born,kept me pleasantly infantile.
The water -
Wilson Koewing ~ In A Flash
On a perfect summer day in Annecy, France, Valerie rides a bicycle down a winding path toward Lake Annecy’s azure waters.
She reaches a patch of grass by the beach and pulls a baguette from her pack.
A boat passes pulling