Issue 14’s lineup…

The winners of Issue 14’s Belief Contest are:

Barbara Ruth‘s poem “Want You to Know,” a beautiful, short, simply poem that moved my insides like sunshine jelly, and…

Richard Manly Heiman‘s story “Ascending Descent,” which blew my mind with its lush descriptive language and, frankly, its rather out there premise.

Congratulations to the two of you! Like all our winners, they’ll be receiving twenty bucks and everlasting fame and adoration.

Now, for the rest of our crew:

Rachel Nix, previous contest winner here at Bop Dead City and big wheel at the cahoodaloodaling factory (as well as Pankhearst), lends us her poem “Believer,” a close runner-up for the contest. Horseshoes and hand grenades and all that though, unfortunately. It’s a killer, though, and I’m glad there are people like Rachel who both support the literary community and contribute to it (and do a fine job of both).

Speaking of previous authors, Nancy Hightower has written an excellent story for us, “However You Spin the Grin.” We published her poem “The Forgetting” last year in Issue 7, which made it into her book The Acolyte , which I got super proud of, even though I literally did nothing to contribute to her success.

Newcomer-wise, we’ve got Chris Stewart‘s poem “She Gambols Red Freckles,” Sara Trattner‘s “Moon,” Les Bernstein (a persistent one) and her poem “Advice from Mother on Your One Less Day,” Olivia Olsen’s “When You’re Born, Child,” Sara Dobie Bauer‘s story “Ghosts of Ice Cream,” and finally Richard Manly Heiman (this guy again?) and his poem “Between foxtrot and tango.”

Tomorrow we’ll have the issue available to purchase, along with the bangin’ new cover art. Congratulations and thank you to all of you beautiful people!