poetry

WELCOME TO TEEN SEQUINS 2022!

Greetings readers! Today kicks off the release of our featured Teen Sequins writers of 2022. Follow along this week as each day we reveal our featured poets for 2022: Yechan (Chloe) Lee (age 14), Arihant Jain (age 15), Caitlin Villacrusis (age 16), Taber Cannon (age 17), and Jessica Kim (age 18). We couldn’t be more excited to share these poems with you!

Along with our feature, we also celebrate all those who submitted with a truly deserved honorable mention. An honorable mention means: We hear you, we see you, and we can’t wait to see where you’ll go next.

Honorable Mentions, Age 14:

Ali Nasir, Hyunsoo Nam, Minha Kyun, Sophia Wong, Hanna Masudi, Nora Gupta

Honorable Mentions, Age 15:

Dorian Andrews, Brookelyn Bates, Julia Sholl, Aakriti Garg, Urja Shah, Yarima Gonzalez, Ava Jones, Hasmik Tumasyan, Erin Yoo, Charlotte Lebedeker, Sarah Ding, Keira Armstrong, Victoria Huang, Soleil Wizman, Shaliz Bazldjoo, Heather Qin, Iris Cai, Fiona Jin

Honorable Mentions, Age 16:

Kian Dierks, Vivian Huang, Ava Yu, Skyelar Wiedrich, Hanna Warren, Haley Deng, Serena Young, Katie Tian, Julia Sholl, Rho Bloom-Wang, Dylan Eskovitz, Paul Reiger, Larkin Helman, Kashvi Ramani, Hasanah Mishahal A. Mansour, Julia Ongking, Sabrina Guo, Cooper Branch, Ruby Parker, Sean Kim, Madina Khasanboeva, Isabel Connolly, Tara Prakash, Thatcher Mulholland, Allison Xu, Eric Zhu, Ava Chen, Eileen Budiyono, Kaili Revak, Sherice Kong

Honorable Mentions, Age 17:

Logan Meredith, Amiyuh Tobias, Carissa Ceasor, Isabel Brown, Taejah McKnight, Ivy Chen, Yelaine Aguilar, Zachary Cho, Chu-yi Rachel Ngai, Caitlyn Iaccino, Annie Johnson, Kevin Zhu, Joseph Mir, Yujia Li, Catherine Tang, Julianne Park, Mulan Pan, Daniel Son, Fiona Lu, Valli Pendyala, Eva Zheng, Ursula Beitz, Estan Rodriguez, Yemaya Gaspard, Anna Feng, Mimi Yang, Alyssa Tang, Amy Wang, Elyse Hwang, Samantha Hsiung

Honorable Mentions, Age 18:

Helen Chen, Alina Marine, Keiran Elden, Adrian Mora, Alor Sahoo, Sydney Lyons, Bruno Drake, Anna Carolina de Oliveira Alves, Amaya Turner, Ashi Soni

We are so grateful to everyone who has submitted and can’t wait to see what you all do in the years to come.

Sincerely,

Teen Sequins Editorial Staff 2022

Welcome to TEEN SEQUINS 2021 !

An insect’s feast, an east wind, the motorcycle’s younger brother and a self-portrait in erasure and consent and time after death — this is just some of what you’ll find in the poems of our featured Teen Sequins writers of 2021. Follow along this week on our website as we reveal each day our featured poets for 2021: Emma Tian (age 14), Sophia Liu (age 15), Alexander S (Age 16), Stella Lei (age 17), and Suraj Singareddy (age 18). The feature starts TOMORROW, November 8th, and we couldn’t be more excited to share these poems with you.

Since 2015, we have set aside a week each year to celebrate the writing of teenagers, and the mission to choose just one poem to feature for each age category is nearly impossible — there is so much poetry deserving of praise. We celebrate here in our kick-off all those who have submitted with truly deserved honorable mention!

Honorable Mentions, Age 14: Shaliz Bazldjoo, Julia Dun Rappaport, Chloe Lee, Iago Macknik-Conde, Matthew Martins, Ryan Park, Avantika Singh, Emma Tenzler, Ziyi Yan

Honorable Mentions, Age 15: Samaira Bhalla, Marlo Cowan, Kiera Darling, Katherine Dyal, Sabrina Guo, Madhalasa Iyer, Daniel Kim, Anna Laine, Sophia Liu, Asanda Mdikeli, Abby Nelson, Jamie Nguyen, Michelle Park, Tara Prakash, Kashvi Ramani, Franny Shaloum, Katie Tian, Rachel Xu, Suchita Vanguri, Aileen Zhao, Selina Zheng

Honorable Mentions, Age 16: Alli Benthien, Faith Bet, Anna Feng, Arriyana Franklin, Isabella Fron, Amelia Harrington, Jay Jarboe, Andrew Kang, Gayatri Kapoor, Elane Kim, Shannon Kim, Anoushka Kumar, Sangeeta Krishen, Aebby Lee, Ella Lüking, Avery Mcguire, Isabella Merino, Francesca Mills, Aamina Mughal, Eric Pak, Amrutha Reddy, Vivian Rong, Lena Singh, Jazmine Thomas, Tara Tulshyan, Noel Ullom, Amy Wang, Andrew Wang, Ally Wong, Katherine Wei, Amanda Zhou, Kevin Zhu

Honorable Mentions, Age 17: Miriam Alex, Julia Bertino, Daniel Boyko, E.J. Carnegie, Ana Carpenter, Helen Chen, Viviane Fontoura, Kevin Gu, Yong-Yu Huang, Andy Hunjan, Lauren Hyunseo Cho, Jasmine Kapadia, Erin Kim, Tyler Kruger, Mia Hoppel, William Kim, Zoe Lafontant, Amelhyne O’Regan-Farineau, Yahir Ortiz, Irene Park, Halle Preneta, Evy Shen, Jordan Teitelbaum, Courtney Trusty, Sakshi Umrotkar, Hanishree Vichare, Yixuan Wu,

Honorable Mentions, Age 18: Antonius Dalsgaard, Fallon Davidson, Cole Granahan, Naya Dukkipati, Julie Larick, Divya Mehrish, Sylvia Roussis, Grace Song

Issue 10.2 Contributors!

Hello! We are pleased to announce the contributors to issue 10.2 of Gigantic Sequins! Here they are…!

Kelsey Dean

L. Reeman

Jessica Thornton

Annie Woods

Lauren T. Yates

PRE-ORDER HERE. (OR HERE IF YOU NEED IT TO BE SHIPPED OUTSIDE OF THE USA.)

GS 7th Annual Summer Contest Results!

Thanks to our judges & all who entered. Here are the results!

POETRY

“Maadulampazham (In Which Her Daughter Hears the Diagnosis).” by Kari Ann Ebert, winner selected by celeste doaks
“~~Annotations for~~ [Redacted] ~~Elegy~~” by Derek Berry, finalist
“An Oral History of a City Destroyed by Fire” by Kitt Keller, finalist
“IF I WERE ANY MORE AMBIDEXTROUS I’D SLAP MY OWN ASS LEFT HANDED” by Zachery Elbourne, finalist
“Passed Down on Slow Hands” by Claire Fallon, finalist
“Portrait of George Stinney, Jr, as Police Report and Trial” by Len Lawson, finalist

FLASH FICTION

“The Collectors” by Julia Coursey – winner, chosen by Rachel B. Glaser
“Evolution” Katheryn McMahon, finalist
“Father’s” by Zach VandeZande, finalist
“My Fake Brother” by Leonora Desar, finalist
“The Murderous History of Tumbleweeds” by David Drury, finalist
“Timber” by Christopher Linforth, finalist
“Walks Like a Lion” by Nancy Au, finalist

Starting tomorrow: TEEN SEQUINS 2018

A dead deer, a dick pic, obedience; girlhood, sainthood; plastic flamingos and shattered language: Welcome to the 4th Annual TEEN SEQUINS celebration! We are honored this week to present another galaxy of poems.

This year, poems flew to us from all over the U.S., from Canada, Indonesia, France, Japan – from all over the world. One hundred and fifty-one teen writers (yes, you!) bravely sent us your voices , and as always, we ardently wish that we could feature more than just one poet in each age category!

Our 2018 Teen Sequins featured poets are Ottavia Paluch (14), Taylor Fang (15), Sophie Paquette (16), Vidhima Shetty (17), Morgan Levine (18), and Annabelle Crowe (19). The work offered by these writers is exemplary of what we see teenage writing is in 2018: full of wonder and watchfulness, furious and self-aware.

As we put together this feature, it was a pleasure to realize that all of our 2018 poems are written by women, some of who are people of color, some of who are disabled. We don’t look for any particular kind of voice or background when we read work – we choose poems that chime with us most deeply- but we are proud to find that we are holding up voices which often must struggle to be heard.

On a similar note: We read somewhere recently that women are much less likely than men to re-submit to literary journals, but our 19 year old featured poet, Annabelle, has been submitting to TEEN SEQUINS for three years, and it wasn’t until we accepted her poem this year that we realized this fact! We hope that Annabelle’s story can serve as an example to all of our teens who submitted this year, and to anyone who might read this feature – a rejection from a publication doesn’t always mean no. Sometimes it means, not yet. As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Enjoy this week of poetry, follow along with all the Gigantic Sequins social media, and share share share this wonderful work with everyone you can! Until tomorrow…

Happy reading and writing,

Robby Auld and Sophie Klahr

Teen Sequins co-editors

Announcing… the GS 9.2 Roster!

Gigantic Sequins 9.2 debuts this summer, and we can’t wait. Meanwhile, here are all the writers & artists whose fantastic work will be appearing within its print pages! WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, check out our online store for a SNEAK PREVIEW of the 9.2 front cover (art by Fumi Mini Nakamura, design by meg willing)… and your first opportunity to pre-order this phenomenal issue. A full spread of the cover should go up on our official website within the next month or so.

Dana Alsamsam

Zoë Blair-Schlagenhauf

Meriwether Clarke

Kelsey Gray

Brett Elizabeth Jenkins

Brianna Johnson

Mitchell King

Grant Kittrell

Annalise Mabe

Kristine Langley Mahler

Fumi Mini Nakamura

Simone Person

Natalie Sharp

Sarah Thompson

Alison Thumel

M. A. Vizsolyi

plus, a book review of The Barbarous Century by Leah Umansky (Eyewear Press, March 2018) by Kim Jacobs-Beck

AWP 2018 Shiny Family Schedule

As we look forward to our time in Tampa, we’ve been relishing in seeing the GS contribs & other members of our Shiny Family who are reading or speaking or hosting or just generally doing awesome things during this year’s AWP! We will be at table T-635 in the book fair, and we truly hope you have the opportunity to come say hello if you’ll be attending the conference

Here’s a list of some of these events, onsite and offsite, that you should consider trying to make it out to–each event we have listed here features members of the GS Shiny Fam–including our own event with the UL Lafayette Graduate Creative Writing Program and Yellow Flag Press.

Contributors from issues 1.1, 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, & our most recent issue, 9.1, as well as staff and contest judges, past & present are included, and we are proud and honored to have such a long history of publishing active voices in the literary world.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 7

6-9pm, 8×8: AWP Offsite Reading and Workshop, feat. Kimberly Grey (GS 3.1)

THURSDAY MARCH 8

9-10:15am, R113. The Pleasures and Pains of Small Press Publishing, feat. Olivia Kate Cerrone (GS 3.1)

9-10:15am, R120. Deep-Fried Mic: Running Reading Series and Building Literary Community Down South, feat. Carrie Lorig (GS 6.1)

9-10:15am, R121. Building a Social Justice Writing Curriculum, feat. Adam Falkner (GS 1.2)

10:30-11:45am, R143. Depictions of Class in Contemporary Southern Fiction, feat. Chase Burke (GS 5.1)

12-1:15pm, R189. Fierce Muses: Inspiration During Times of Social Unrest, feat. Paul Lisicky, current Flash CNF contest judge)

12-1:15pm, R191. “The Art of the Possible”: Making and Teaching Graphic Narratives and Poetry Comics, feat. Bianca Stone (GS 6.2)

12-1:15pm, R194. The Revival of Aphrodite’s Daughter: Rhetoric in Contemporary Poetry, feat. Jericho Brown (2nd annual Poetry Contest judge)

1:30-2:45pm, R227. Navigating Uncertain Terrain: Essayists of Milkweed Editions, feat. Alex Lemon (GS 4.1)

1:30-2:45, R228. Crip Lit: Writing Our Truths, feat. Jill Khoury (GS 9.1)

***** 4-6pm, ULL Graduate Creative Writing, YFP, & GS Pop-Up Off-Site Reading, co-hosted by Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS EIC), feat. Eloisa Amezcua (GS 9.1), Emrys Donaldson (GS 9.1), Emily Brandt (GS 8.2), Saul Lemerond (GS 8.1), Clinton Craig (fiction reader), and Patti Pangborn (poetry reader) *****

4:30-6:30pm, Sundress/Flaming Giblet/Hyacinth Girl/Shelterbelt Reading, feat. Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS EIC), Eloisa Amezcua (GS 9.1) and Liz Bowen (GS 7.2)

4:30-5:45pm, R277. New (Per)mutations in Speculative Fiction, feat. Sofia Samatar (GS 8.2)

4:30-5:45pm, R286. The Literary Twitterati, Sponsored by WITS, feat. Analicia Sotelo (GS 3.1)

5-6:30pm, AWP Offsite Reading: Barrels Grimly Crashing into the Sun, feat. Chris Tonelli (GS 6.2) and Emily Corwin (GS 8.1)

6-7pm, Submerging Writer Fellowship Book Launch Party, co-hosted by Tyler Barton (GS 9.1)

6-8pm, Thursday Thursday Thursday reading AWP 2018, feat. Kathleen Rooney (GS 1.2)

6:30-9pm, AWP Off-Site Poetry Reading (Grey Book Press / Anhinga Press), feat. Candice Wuehle (GS 3.1)

7-9pm, Strange Theater: A Menagerie of Fabulists – AWP Offsite Reading, feat. Adrienne Celt (GS 3.2) and Melissa Goodrich (GS 7.1 & 6th Annual Flash Fiction Contest Judge)

7-10pm, The Kiss – Intimacies from Writers, feat. Nick Flynn (GS 5.2)

7:30-10pm, Wine & Words: AWP18 Offsite Reading, feat. Paul Lisicky (Current Flash CNF Contest Judge)

8-10pm, Succinct Situation, feat. Ronaldo V. Wilson (GS 4th Annual Poetry Contest Judge)

9-10pm, National Poetry Series Winners Reading: AWP 2018 Offsite Event, feat. Chelsea Dingman (GS 9.1)

10-11:30pm, AADOREE / Apogee / No Tokens Offsite Marathon Reading at AWP18, feat. Colette Arrand (GS 6.2), Muriel Leung (GS 7.2), Kayleb Rae Candrilli (GS 8.2),

FRIDAY MARCH 9

10am-2pm, Billie R. Tadros Book Signing at ULL’s Creative Writing Booth, feat. Billie R. Tadros (GS 7.1)

10:30-11:45am, F149. Stro ng Medicine: The Poetry of Addiction, feat. Nick Flynn (GS 5.2)

1:30-2:45pm, F215. Open Pedagogies: Teaching Poetry Through Art Inside and Outside of the Workshop, feat. Wendy Xu (GS 3.2)

3-4:15pm, F247. A Reading and Conversation with Tyehimba Jess, Shara McCallum, and Morgan Parke r. Sponsored by Cave Canem, feat. Morgan Parker (GS 5.1)

3-4:15pm, F263. Speak Out: A Milkweed Editions Poetry Reading, feat. Analicia Sotelo (GS 3.1)

4:30-5:45pm, F270. De Aquí y de Allá: Emerging Central American Writers on Finding Their Voices in the Literary Community., feat. María Isabel Alvarez (GS 8.1)

6-8pm, TriQuarterly‘s Annual Reading, feat. Paige Lewis (GS 8.1), Alex McElroy (GS 5.2), Chelsea Dingman (GS 9.1)

6:30-8pm, Queer, Sweet Home: Foglifter Press & Co. Redefining Home, feat. Carson Beker (GS 6.1)

7-9pm, Reading Queer: Poetry in a Time of Chaos AWP off-site reading, feat. Jericho Brown (GS 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Judge)

7-9pm, Tarpaulin Sky / Essay Press/ Reality Beach AWP Offsite Reading, feat. Carrie Lorig (GS 6.1)

7-9pm, An All Human Reading, feat. Alex McElroy (GS 5.2) and Sofia Samatar (GS 8.2)

7-9:30pm, 4X4: Four Readers from Four Literary Organizations, feat. Ronaldo V. Wilson (GS 4th Annual Poetry Contest Judge)

7-10pm, GREMLINS 3: AWP (WONDER + UGLY DUCKLING PRESSE + CIVIL COPING MECHANISMS + THEME CAN), feat. Ben Fama (GS 1.1), Liz Bowen (GS 7.2), and Bianca Stone (GS 6.2)

SATURDAY MARCH 10

9-10:15am, S112. Beyond Genre: Writing, Editing, and Publishing Hybrid Forms in the Age of Fake News, feat. Kathleen Rooney (GS 1.2)

12-1:15pm, S171. Bread on the Waters: How Giving to the Community Gives Back, feat. Emily Brandt (GS 8.2)

1:30-2:45pm, S201. Reports from the Field: Recent Candidates Discuss the Academic Job Hunt, feat. LaTanya McQueen (current GS CNF Editor, GS 2.2 contributor)

1:30-2:45pm, S213. Monster Cultures, feat. Sofia Samatar (GS 8.2)

1:30-2:45pm, S222. Why [Not] Say What Happened?: On Writing Confessional Poetry, feat. Jericho Brown (GS 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Judge) and Rachel Mennies (GS 5.1)

3-4:15pm, S250. By One’s Own Hand: Writing About Suicide Loss, feat. Nick Flynn (GS 5.2)

3-4:15pm, S256. Teaching / Sex / Writing, feat. Ronaldo V. Wilson (GS 4th Annual Poetry Contest Judge)

6:30-9:30, American Literary Review / Cutbank / New Ohio Review at AWP!. feat. Chelsea Dingman (9.1)

SUNDAY MARCH 11

12pm, Poetry Marathon: Readings by Poets in Florida for AWP, feat. Jim Daniels (GS 2.2)

TEEN SEQUINS 2017, DAY 6: LUCIE RICHTER-MAHR, AGE 18

Where “wires are like black eels” and wind is seen as “a bright coil,” Lucie Richter-Mahr engages with a world we have seen and yet, not-imagined. The title tells us of a more than reluctant invitation, but invited, we are given glimpses of a landscape containing immense strangeness, a strangeness we might not otherwise see without Richter-Mahr as our guide. The speaker’s world seems to tilt as she observes the ‘you’ in a space where she has not wanted to see them; how different the world can be, depending on who stands beside us, or who we stand there thinking of. — Sophie Klahr

I didn’t want to take you to the Scots pines

Screen Shot 2017-09-01 at 7.48.42 AM

Lucie Richter-Mahr was born in London and moved to Scotland when she was five. She grew up in Berlin, finished high school in Oxford, and will be attending Edinburgh university this autumn. She believes in Anne Carson and Patti Smith.

Honorable mentions: Matilda Berke (Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA); Alixa Brobbey (Brigham Young Univeristy, Provo, UT); Jessica Chang (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI); Steven Chung (Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT); Annabelle Crowe (Rice University, Houston, TX); Jasmine Cui (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY); Amelia Van Donsel (Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY); Logan February (University of Ibadan, Nigeria); Justin Han (Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI); Caldwell Gregg Holden (Bennington College, Bennington, VT); Avelynne Kang (Concordia University, Montréal, QC); Devanshi Khetarpal (New York University, New York, NY); Caroline Lee (The Hill School, Pottstown, PA); Hannah Leonard (Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Flossmoor, IL); Sharon Lin (Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY); Courtney Munkres (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, New Orleans, LA); Reuben Gelley Newman (Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA); Erin O’Malley (University of Rochester, Rochester, NY); Annasofia Padua (Miami Arts Charter, Miami, FL); Emily Ramsey (John Burroughs High School, Burbank, CA); Khamil Olivia Riley (Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT); Svetlana Sterlin (Queensland University of Technology, Australia); Emma Stinson (Mt. Blue High School, Farmington, ME); Emily Yin (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ); Zuyi Zhao (Stanford University, Stanford, CA)

Blog post to a young poet, rejected from a program, who,for a day, wants to quit writing

Dear ________,

I was in graduate school the first time that I heard the term PoBiz, a clipped, half-cynical half-shruggingly sarcastic way of referring to the Poetry Business, which I had also never heard of. I gathered that the Poetry Business entailed marketing one’s self. Are you a female poet? A poet of color? A poet with a disability? With a disease? A queer poet? A religious minority poet? An eco-poet? Etcetera.…I had always written about the things that I felt made me different, the things that stung, because I was alone, lonely with those weights. I wrote about abortion not because I thought I was going to tap into some niche market, but because it weighed heavily on my heart. I wrote about alcoholism because it was the center of my life, not because I was a Bukowski devotee (though there’s nothing wrong with that). I wrote about god and faith not because I had an academic interest in religion and spirituality but because it felt at many points that my life depended on whether or not I was able to tap into a power greater than myself. I never really had any idea about marketing myself. It was true that I wrote mostly about what was hard in my life, but I also wrote about traveling and fish and movies.

Carl Phillips wrote a great essay awhile ago in which talked about being asked why he doesn’t say what color the people in his poems are. And here is what I’m trying to say, in a roundabout way: The System, any program, any school, any magazine, is going to somewhat judge you through what makes the actual you unique and not wholly on the quality of your writing. It’s a double-edged sword, and a fluid one. Sometimes it can feel as if the system rewards the person, not the poem.

Here is what I’m trying to say: of course the rejection feels personal. It is personal. Some folks got into the program, and you didn’t. You said that you thought you shouldn’t take it personally, but you have every right to take it personally. We pour our hearts into something, toss the thing out into the world, and watch as nobody puts out their arms to catch our beloved pieces. We watch the gears of the PoBiz grinding along, rewarding writers who maybe we think our work is equal to or better than. We think both Why me?! and Why not me!?

But — the poem is also an artifact. It’s something that has been done, a past action. It’s a product of a different moment, a past self. I love the Buddhist saying of “Do your work, then step back.” It’s very simple, but I have thought about it for many years. Some days I am better at stepping back than other days.

If you feel like quitting writing sometimes, that’s ok. The place where a poem comes from is the place where the urge to paint comes from, the place where the urge to swim comes from. It’s something that wants to move. So, let yourself move around. Make a collage, sing a song, pick up an instrument you’ve never played before. Learn to bake bread. But don’t stop embracing the muscular impulse of your creativity. If writing feels daunting, that’s ok. But make something else. Even if it’s just a dance in your bedroom. And, go outside for awhile, without your phone. That helps. It usually helps everything.

I think the real thing to quit is the search for validation, which is insidious. I have to remind myself sometimes of the same thing. When sending out a poem, the thought should not be: I hope that XYZ publication takes this poem so that everyone knows my poem is good enough to be in XYZ publication… it should be: I hope that XYZ publication takes this poem because i really think it is beautiful / strange / insightful / cathartic / funny / etc. and I want to share it with people – I think it might be important for someone. Writing poetry is about the urge to share something, even just with yourself. It’s not about gold stars. There’s no endgame to poetry, as the PoBiz might have you believe. A bio full of laurels and fellowships means almost nothing. Right before my book came out, and I had to choose what my bio in the book would say, I decided that it would be very short. It lists where I was born, and where I live now, two journals where my poems have been published, and the fact that I do interdisciplinary work. What’s most important to me in my bio is the latter, the fact of interdisciplinary work, because I hope, someday, that a visual artist or dancer or painter will write to me and say they’d like to collaborate. It’s almost like a little Personals posting, an ISO. I chose to leave out my education and prizes and residencies not because I don’t value them, but because — that’s not really what I want to talk to people about.

So, don’t worry about being rejected from the residency. Let it be a Not this time instead of a No, never. If you keep writing, and I get the sense that you will always write, there will be dozens of opportunities you might reach for and dozens of times you may be rejected. You get to decide how, and how long, to hold each disappointment. You get to decide what to expect of your writing. Don’t worry about being too much of one thing, or not enough of another. Don’t worry if you don’t publish anything for awhile, or for a long while.There is no right path for a poet, and there millions, literally millions, of incredible poets and writers and literary journals you and I have never heard of. And what a joy! What an absolute joy, to know there are so many more writers we will meet, who will mean so much to us, and to know that the writers we are today might be vastly different than the writers we are in 10 years, in 20 years…There’s no finish line. In the end, there is only the work itself. Enjoy the moment of your work, and how it feels to read your poems aloud, and how those poems can nourish you. Let the rest fall away. Onwards.

Love,
Sophie
( Teen Sequins Co-Editor )

GS 8.1 Contributors

We’re psyched to announce the contributors for our 8.1 issue, debuting this winter!

ART: Yokim Snow, Sarah Shields, and Miguel Angel Soto

COMICS: Jason Hart and Anna McGlynn

FICTION: María Isabel Alvarez, Andy Myers, Elizabeth Gibson, Kim Hagerich (5th annual Flash Fiction contest winner), and Saul Lemerond

CNF: Benji Alvey, Jacob Little, and Bailey Pittenger

POETRY: Zoë Bodzas, Kristi Carter, Brian Clifton, Emily Corwin, Dan Encarnacion, Dana Fang, p.e. garcia, Marlin M. Jenkins, Paige Lewis, Xandria Phillips (5th annual Poetry contest winner), Katie Prince, and Michael Martin Shea