January 09, 2025
Congratulations to Andrew Garvin, Winner of the Prufer Poetry Prize!
Pleiades congratulates Andrew Garvin, winner of this year’s Prufer Poetry Prize, judged by Sarah Ghazal Ali. He will receive an award of $1,000 and his winning poem, “County Fairs,” will be published in the Spring 2025 issue of Pleiades.
Andrew Garvin (he/him) is a queer writer based in San Francisco. He was a Finalist for the 2023 ...
December 02, 2024
Robert Busby
Steer Away from That Darkess
Bradley steered his Chevy S-10 through the dark to the back of the Campbell property to drop off the deer. He saw Dewayne back there discussing something into a cordless phone, pacing across the open-aired shed where deer and other game were processed. In a past life the processing plant had been an abattoir where ancient Campbells of only a slightly better economic ...
November 22, 2024
Kelly Lynn Thomas
Let's Call It Deliverance
One
I know it’s cliché to start with the face in the mirror, but Cassiopeia, how can we begin any other way? Your high cheekbones, arched eyebrows shading ochre eyes, stately nose, and strong chin. Your hair, sometimes blonde, sometimes chestnut, coiled atop your head or framing your face in wavy ringlets. Your small, pert breasts, half covered by diaphanous ...
November 22, 2024
Kate Sweeney
Substratum
I keep my fingernails short so that when I touch myselfI will never tear through my interiority. Each time I leavethe house I remind my husband to touch the children
often to fold them gently into him. Put his hands overtheir hands, notice the security of diminishing pulseon their unbothered skin while they sleep. As a child
people only remembered to touch me when I was ...
