Spy Reprints “Butchery” by Josh Trapani
Editor's Note: "Butchery," from the 15th edition of the Delmarva Review, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction. Author's Note: "When you're a scientist doing fieldwork in another part of the world, uncertainty comes with the territory. That includes the other scientists on your team. How will they act, especially if things go … [More...]
Spy Reprints “I Want to Order a Man from the Sweets Catalog” by Fran Abrams
Author's Note: "I wrote this poem after taking a class on how to write a cento. Looking for a source of words, I thought of the Sweets Construction Catalogue I had used when I worked in an architect's office after college. 'Sweets' then was a large collection of three-ring binders but is now online. As I dipped into its pages, … [More...]
Spy Reprints “Authors” by King Grossman
Author's Note: "This poem virtually wrote itself when I was hole up writing in Marfa, Texas, a thin place, as in hardly separated from the source. One afternoon outside my back door I espied through the coke-bottle glass, a young girl who sat at a card table on her porch across the street happy as you please writing in that red bird notebook. I … [More...]
Spy Reprints “Goodbye Mr. Kamali” by Sepideh Zamani
Editor's Note: "Goodbye Mr. Kamali," from the review's 15th anniversary edition, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction. Author's Note: "Growing up in a country under theocratic rule, I witnessed most Iranians suffering from religious and cultural cleansing, the root of Iranians' ongoing uprisings today. Minorities, … [More...]
Spy Reprints “Now Only in Part” by Marda Messick
Author's Note: Since I first looked into a kaleidoscope as a young child, I've been fascinated by and deeply curious about perception. How do we perceive the world and apprehend mystery? How do we know what we know about anything? Our limitations and the possibility of enlightenment always are juxtaposed, as they are in the poem. I've come to rely … [More...]
Spy Reprints “Lemon Ginger Tea” by Robin Gow
Author's Note: I wrote "Lemon Ginger Tea" after spending a winter afternoon with my brother. We are both at really transitory moments in our lives and this felt especially true that day. Both our conversation and where we sat felt so indicative to me of both being in a liminal space together. In a lot of ways, I see the poem as being about … [More...]
Spy Reprints “Rescue” by Jessica Claire Haney
Author's Note: "Rescue" was my first attempt at writing flash fiction when I craved something immediate and stark in between revisions of a novel. That initial dabble with flash years ago spawned a series of stories about women who reluctantly come to care for dogs. While most of the other pieces-flash fiction, short stories, and a novella-deal … [More...]
Spy Reprints “The Entropy of Little Things” by Martina Kado
Author's Note: I live just outside of Baltimore, in a historically blue-collar neighborhood surrounded by water and wildlife. Sometimes it feels like living in a novel Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Kurt Vonnegut could have written together: filled with the magic and tragicomedy of the universe. As people and animals were dying around me, I wrote … [More...]
Delmarva Review Announces New Pushcart Prize Nominations for Poetry and Prose
Six Authors Nominated Delmarva Review announced six Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from the literary journal's 15th anniversary edition, released in November. Poetry nominations are "Red Beans," By Catherine Carter, of North Carolina, "Now Only in Part," by Marda Messick, of Florida, and "Learning to Swim," by Ellen … [More...]
Spy Reprints “A Room Too Small for Sunsets” by Sayan Aich Bhowmik
Author's Note: The poem tries to uncover the gnawing sense of loneliness and alienation that has become a characteristic feature of life in the cities. With every passing day, no matter how well we remain connected to the outside world through social media, there is always this sense of emptiness that devours us. This poem tries to … [More...]
