In the road across the street from our house, there’s a sprig of grass that keeps trying to make its way through the asphalt. My friend Carlos keeps a collection of photographs of these tiny bits of green that yearn for life, overcoming what seem like impossible barriers to find their way into light. Life often stirs in the margins, insisting on survival even when the odds seem insurmountable.

Our winter issue explores that same spirit of resilience, examining how life endures, adapts, and persists even when all seems lost. DeAnna Beachley’s poem “Full of Seeds” considers the uncertainty of life, asking, “How do we prepare for what we don’t know will be?” R. G. Evans’s poem “Solstice” acknowledges the eternity and the endings of things: “The world never ends, / but some worlds end every day.” And Ellen Wright’s “ Commemoration Day at the Monastery” considers–perhaps in an echo of Whitman–“What is death but the dispersal / of the individual self, breath / by breath…?”

Throughout this issue, work by contributors like Ali Beheler, Amber Burke, and Andrea Janelle Dickens navigate the landscapes of memory, identity, and transformation. Their work reflects the interplay between human experience and the natural world, capturing moments of both quiet endurance and profound reckoning. The cover art by Tinamarie Cox visually mirrors these themes, offering a glimpse of nature’s capacity for persistence, renewal, and beauty.

Issue Thirty-Five includes poetry and prose by Ali Beheler, Amber Burke, Andrea Janelle Dickens, Becky Boling, Brooke Horvath, DeAnna Beachley, Ellen Wright, James B. Nicola, Jiang Pu, Jimmy Pappas, Joanne Esser, John Chapman, Mara Adamitz Scrupe, Michael Getty, Neil Ellis Orts, R.G. Evans, Rich Follett, and Stephen Barile, and images by GJ Gillespie and Richard Spang. The cover art is by Tinamarie Cox.

Digital and print versions of our winter issue are available through Mag Cloud. Digital versions of the issue are free, and perfect-bound print copies of the issue cost twelve dollars. You can order print copies and read the issue online at this link.