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Letter From the Poetry Editor

Philadelphia Stories is proud to share the winning poem in this year’s Sandy Crimmins National Prize in Poetry!

By Courtney Bambrick

Poetry

Aphorism 31: The Immortality Box

It’s said that many of our diseases are phenotypic consequences of adaptation

By John Blair

Poetry

That Vonnegut Thing

My best friend who I haven’t seen in ten years texts: It’s a Vonnegut thing…when old couples follow each other back to back like that…

By Partridge Boswell

Poetry

Learn to Tell Time!

To navigate the tenacity of the dark do I wave an ochre pistil?

By Shabnam Piryaei

Poetry

as a river

some ppl see gender as a line but I see it as a river

By Corinne Newbegin

Poetry

TEST SITE FOR A MEMORY SURFACE (I AM EXPELLING THIS)

all the way back to when i was shrieking and my sister was too 

By Leena Joshi

Poetry

The Weight of Loss

I don’t hear the doctor at first when she asks if I’ve been sleeping

By Robert Fillman

Poetry

apparent death

you wish you had a body like most birds: strong, supple, sharp.

By Liya Chang

Poetry

It’s Not True What They Say About Thunder – ONLINE BONUS

and lightning and how if you count the seconds between the flash and the rumble, you can tell how close

By Erica Abbott

Poetry

Foxes & Hounds – ONLINE BONUS

In my pocket, the shudder of a newborn marsupial. Along my back, a stampede

By Jonathan Greenhause

Poetry

The Reading – ONLINE BONUS

You haven’t heard this one, but we were there. In the bright ugly room behind a row of bald professors.

By Karen Rile

Fiction

Karakung

There used to be a hulking, gothic prison in the exact same spot as my neighborhood’s fancy grocery store.

By Matt Goldberg

Non-Fiction

The Dilworthtown Oak

The first book assigned by my new book club in Hong Kong, meeting half a world away from the action it described, detailed the life and career of the Marquis de Lafayette

By Genevieve Hilton

Non-Fiction

Smoke Rings – ONLINE BONUS

My grandmother chose Benson and Hedges in the gold package until she saw an ad campaign for Eve and switched because it made her feel more feminine.

By Kathy Smith

Review

Count Each Breath by Maria James-Thiaw

Maria James-Thiaw’s latest collection of poetry, Count Each Breath, evokes images of Eric Garner and George Floyd’s deadly encounters with police and the systemic racism built into our justice system.

By Jaimee D. Cali

Review

Burning Sage by Jennifer Rieger

With the subtitle “Collected Writings on Unconventional Motherhood, Unconventional Teacherhood, and Unconditional Love”, author Jennifer Rieger’s debut essay collection, Burning Sage, attempts to warn you of her emotional journey to come, however, it hardly scratches the surface.

By Kris McCormick

Review

Monsoon Daughter by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu

Monsoon Daughter by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu Review by Ollie Shane To read the review of Monsoon Daughter by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu, click HERE.

By Ollie Shane