Buzz Spector — Vol. 36.1 Cover
We’re excited to share the cover for our final issue, Vol. 36.1, featuring Library of Babel, by Buzz Spector. This particular image is from Spector’s 2012 survey exhibit, “Buzz Spector: Off the […]
Writer – Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc’s first collection of poems, Death of a Ventriloquist won the Vassar Miller Prize, and his second, Deke Dangle Dive, was published by CavanKerry Press in 2021. His poems have appeared recently in magazines […]
2025 Poetry Prize Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize. Our heartfelt thanks go to our distinguished judge, Maggie Smith, for her insightful selections and dedication to the art of poetry.
Off the Page with Leslie Jamison
Each year, december is honored to host a Guest Judge for our poetry and prose contests. Our judges are writers whose work is beloved and whose contributions to the literary […]
Writer — A.J. Bermudez
A. J. Bermudez is an award-winning author and filmmaker based in Los Angeles and New York. She’s “attracted to stories in which extremely intelligent characters are thrown into subservience, stories that track an arc from non-agency to agency. And the most interesting stories to me are both literal and figurative.”
Poet — Bob Hicok
Read Bob Hicok’s poems from Vol. 35.1 here. He has this to say about his work, “My poems only have meaning for me while I’m writing them: I rarely go back to them unless I’m putting a book together, and mostly have a relationship with their birth. Writing poems is my job — job in the best sense: something I like to do, that makes me feel more” connected to life — so the existence of these poems, especially the first two, means I did my job on the days they were written.
Maggie Smith — Guest Judge
We’re thrilled to announce Maggie Smith as guest judge for 2025 Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize contest judge this fall!
Off The Page – Video and Podcast
Video and audio from our inaugral Off the Page event. Hear our guest Judge Dorianne Laux and the winners of our 2024 Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize.
Poetry
All of this will one day end, she says, be it bigots, beauty, Beyoncé, the need for commas
What for?
The first time I talk to Paul after his episode, my chair is uneven; it keeps rocking diagonally. We are on the outdoor patio of the Residence Inn in Florence, Alabama, and the front-right chair leg, upon landing, makes this uneasy scraping sound.