This lyric-hybrid essay was one of two finalists for the 2026 Dogwood Literary Prize, now out in Dogwood, a journal of poetry and prose, Volume 25. The essay combines poetry, writing practice, and memoir building. Bridger will be featured at the upcoming Grand Mesa Writers’ Symposium along with Craig Childs, […]
It’s very hard to write about something you don’t fully understand. I did not know the term agoraphobia until years after my first episode at eleven years old. I found it inside of an old psychology textbook. Specifically, agoraphobia with panic disorder. Panic attacks often come with the […]
I often recall Mrs. Grumalski, my 7th grade home ec teacher, when I contemplate the necessity of writing and all art. Mrs. G was a holy roller of the rolling pin, a prophet of the gospel of homemade bread. Her devout fervor for home economics was leavened by a […]
If you’re getting ready to send out a poetry manuscript, this post gives you a solid place to start. I walk through how to research presses, what to pay attention to beyond the guidelines, and the kinds of questions that help you understand whether a publisher is truly […]
In March 2025, I read the poem “To Sew a Freedom Suit” by Danielle Legros Georges in The New Yorker. Georges had passed away the previous month. At the time, I’d been in the US for 3 years after relocating from Malta (Europe). I’d viewed the US as […]
In 2025, I returned to submissions after several years away, during which I published a book and had a daughter. I’d drop my daughter off at daycare, go to a cafe about a block away, and amp myself up with caffeine while I tried to bang out five […]
O my people—they loved words. Misunderstood bible verses, nursery rhymes, and misquoted lines of Shakespeare. There’s nothing like the early seventeenth century rhythms of King James’ English. It’s why so many folks hold on the KJV, when better translations abound: why should we work to understand something in […]
Landscape with Womb and Paradox, Erica Goss’s second full-length poetry collection, was published by Broadstone Press in January 2026. My debut, full-length collection of poems, Night Court, took three years and thirty submissions before it found a home at Glass Lyre Press, winning the 2016 Lyrebird prize, with […]
As I’ve been making other resource lists, I’ve been slowly tucking all the queer lit journals and mags off to the side so I could give them their own list. Because they/we needed their/our own list. Thus, I present to you: a completely non-exhaustive list of lgbtq2s+ centered journals and lit […]
“Ekphrasis” often conjures up memories of going to a local art museum, sitting in front of a painting, and writing a poem about how the artwork makes you feel, your interpretation of the piece, or the mindset you think the artist was in when they painted it. I […]
