Masthead Executive Editors Managing Editor Alexandra Watson Literary Editor Chris Prioleau Editor-at-Large Melody Nixon Publisher Zinzi Clemmons Genre Editors Fiction Editor Scott Dievendorf Poetry Editor Joey De Jesus Visual Art Editor Legacy Russell Nonfiction & Blog Editor Cecca Ochoa Administration and Development Designer & Webmaster Ingrid Pangandoyon Development Manager Crystal Kim Events & Promotions Coordinator Joe Ponce Multimedia Coordinator Belal Rafiq Social Media Manager F.T. Kola Copy Editor Marina Blitshteyn Founders Melody Nixon Zinzi Clemmons Jennifer Ohrstrom Aaron Shin Advisory Board Cathy Park Hong Margo Jefferson Marie Myung-Ok Lee Victor LaValle Roger Reeves Keith Solomon David Mura Paul Beatty Gary Shteyngart Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Mollie McKinley “Dune Redux”, 2014. Glicée Print, 50″ x 40″   “Black Sundae”, 2013. Gliceé Print, 50” x 40”   “Rivershack Temple (The Sacrosanctum)”, 2012-2013. Gliceé Print, 40″ x 30″

By Becca Liu Where evening meets a shell-shocked lover is a distortion of light on water. The shell-mottled sidelines are a construct of winter, contouring a melody nestled in return. We hear the clip of persistence, pearly presence of this gargling world. Gulls plummet in circles and low clouds swagger in. I carve the beach to bring you to water, to forge you a one-winged bird in shallower pits. In the low country, winters are not enough. Heaving seabeds dry to salt. Slowly you peel the skins off a grapefruit, fingers clinging to the cottony pith.