ISSUE #2

Theme: Place

Submissions close March 31st, 2026 at 11:59pm ET

On Second Thoughts
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke

For many, myself included, the show feels like it saved our 2025. The show is first and foremost a romance, documenting the nearly ten-year love affair between pro hockey stars Shane Hollander and Illya Rozanov. The two main characters struggle to keep their attraction to each other a secret from the world and from each other. For hockey fans like myself, the commentary about the current state of the NHL is glaringly obvious: as of 2026, there has never been an openly queer NHL player, active or retired.

Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
This Is Why You Can’t Decide 
Culture
Sadie Mayhew
This Is Why You Can’t Decide 
Culture
Sadie Mayhew

Real commitment used to lead to milestones. A marriage, a mortgage, a job, a new city. These were all declarations, not just one-off choices or premeditated decisions. Today, permanence feels less like security and more like risk: to our identity, our autonomy, our finances, even our sense of self—especially as a woman who has been told both to settle and to have it all.

Fair warning, this essay is not nostalgic for compulsory marriage or shrinking yourself to fit into someone else’s script.

Culture
Sadie Mayhew
The Mundanity of Apocalypse à la Centralia Pennsylvania
Features
Sophie Aanerud
The Mundanity of Apocalypse à la Centralia Pennsylvania
Features
Sophie Aanerud

Last summer, I finally made the drive up from Philadelphia to Centralia. Reddit posts warn that little draw remains. Gone are the pits spewing white smoke that Bill Bryson described in A Walk in the Woods while commenting that Centralia is “the strangest, saddest town I believe I have ever seen.” The stretch of Route 61, cordoned off due to the fires and transformed by taggers into a shifting canvas affectionately named "Graffiti Highway,” was buried in 2020.

Features
Sophie Aanerud
On Second Thoughts Blog
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke

For many, myself included, the show feels like it saved our 2025. The show is first and foremost a romance, documenting the nearly ten-year love affair between pro hockey stars Shane Hollander and Illya Rozanov. The two main characters struggle to keep their attraction to each other a secret from the world and from each other. For hockey fans like myself, the commentary about the current state of the NHL is glaringly obvious: as of 2026, there has never been an openly queer NHL player, active or retired.

Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Culture
Sadie Mayhew
This Is Why You Can’t Decide 
Culture
Sadie Mayhew

Real commitment used to lead to milestones. A marriage, a mortgage, a job, a new city. These were all declarations, not just one-off choices or premeditated decisions. Today, permanence feels less like security and more like risk: to our identity, our autonomy, our finances, even our sense of self—especially as a woman who has been told both to settle and to have it all.

Fair warning, this essay is not nostalgic for compulsory marriage or shrinking yourself to fit into someone else’s script.

Culture
Sadie Mayhew
Features
Sophie Aanerud
The Mundanity of Apocalypse à la Centralia Pennsylvania
Features
Sophie Aanerud

Last summer, I finally made the drive up from Philadelphia to Centralia. Reddit posts warn that little draw remains. Gone are the pits spewing white smoke that Bill Bryson described in A Walk in the Woods while commenting that Centralia is “the strangest, saddest town I believe I have ever seen.” The stretch of Route 61, cordoned off due to the fires and transformed by taggers into a shifting canvas affectionately named "Graffiti Highway,” was buried in 2020.

Features
Sophie Aanerud
Opinion
Sophie Aanerud
“Polymerizing is Not Resurrection,” A close reading of Pynchon's “Gravity's Rainbow."
Opinion
Sophie Aanerud

Gravity’s Rainbow is about a lot of things. It explores paranoia and conspiracy, culpability and morality. And all of this is set against the backdrop of Europe before, during, and directly after World War II. It’s dense and disturbing and devastating and somehow hilarious. It’s also all about plastic and how evil it is.

Opinion
Sophie Aanerud
This Week's Weekly Verses
Xia Zhang
Poetry
哀歌 (Elegy)
Xia Zhang
Poetry

Xia Zhang is a poet from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economic Management from Zhongnan University of Economics and a MBA from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Over the years, he has worked in telecommunications, the automotive industry, and held roles as varied as feng shui consultant, baker, cleaner, and security guard. Since 2021, he has been resting at home for health reasons. Zhang began writing poetry in 2008 and has composed over a thousand poems, some of which have appeared on the Chinese Poetry Network.

Xia Zhang
Poetry
Daniel Jacques
Fiction
Jobs & Junkies
Daniel Jacques
Fiction

Daniel Jacques is a writer from West Yorkshire in the UK. After dropping out of school at eighteen years old, he has had approximately twenty jobs, including factories, warehouses, chemical plants, landscaping, gardening, construction, and postal services.

Daniel Jacques
Fiction
KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography
Survivor2
KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography

KJ Hannah Greenberg uses her trusty point-and-shoot camera to capture the order of G-d's universe, and Paint 3D to capture her personal chaos. Sometimes, it’s insufficient for her to sate herself by applying verbal whimsy to pastures where gelatinous wildebeests roam, or fey hedgehogs play. Hannah’s self-illustrated poetry collections are: No One Sighs over Wastrels' Graves (Seashell Books, 2026, Forthcoming), Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks (Seashell Books, 2024), Word Magpie (Audience Askew, 2024), Subrogation (Seashell Books, 2023), and One-Handed Pianist (Hekate Publishing, 2021). Her coffee table books Real and Otherwise (Seashell Books, 2025), Gratitudes: Faith Based Responses to October 7th (Seashell Books, 2025), and are Life’s Colors (Seashell Books, 2025).

KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography
This Week's Weekly Verses
Xia Zhang
Poetry
哀歌 (Elegy)
Xia Zhang
Poetry

Xia Zhang is a poet from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economic Management from Zhongnan University of Economics and a MBA from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Over the years, he has worked in telecommunications, the automotive industry, and held roles as varied as feng shui consultant, baker, cleaner, and security guard. Since 2021, he has been resting at home for health reasons. Zhang began writing poetry in 2008 and has composed over a thousand poems, some of which have appeared on the Chinese Poetry Network.

Xia Zhang
Poetry
Daniel Jacques
Fiction
Jobs & Junkies
Daniel Jacques
Fiction

Daniel Jacques is a writer from West Yorkshire in the UK. After dropping out of school at eighteen years old, he has had approximately twenty jobs, including factories, warehouses, chemical plants, landscaping, gardening, construction, and postal services.

Daniel Jacques
Fiction
KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography
Survivor2
KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography

KJ Hannah Greenberg uses her trusty point-and-shoot camera to capture the order of G-d's universe, and Paint 3D to capture her personal chaos. Sometimes, it’s insufficient for her to sate herself by applying verbal whimsy to pastures where gelatinous wildebeests roam, or fey hedgehogs play. Hannah’s self-illustrated poetry collections are: No One Sighs over Wastrels' Graves (Seashell Books, 2026, Forthcoming), Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks (Seashell Books, 2024), Word Magpie (Audience Askew, 2024), Subrogation (Seashell Books, 2023), and One-Handed Pianist (Hekate Publishing, 2021). Her coffee table books Real and Otherwise (Seashell Books, 2025), Gratitudes: Faith Based Responses to October 7th (Seashell Books, 2025), and are Life’s Colors (Seashell Books, 2025).

KJ Hannah Greenberg
Photography
Comics
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)

Episode 22 (Finale) of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)

Episode 21 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)

Episode 20 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comics
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)

Episode 22 (Finale) of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)

Episode 21 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)

Episode 20 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

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