by Kiera Dennis-Espinal
Our city is beautiful, and people come from all over the world to enjoy it, but there are also people living here every day, working hard, carrying quiet stories that rarely get attention.
Author: admin
Interview With Rafael Cevallos
by Isadore Diaz
Writing the line that you asked me about, “please stay a little longer” was the hardest part to write.
Interview with John A. Birt
Interview by Kyle McGlyn
It felt natural to personify the $2.75 as a young woman who was coming to a sense of her self-worth, especially in a dense city.
Cathedrals
by Ethan Velez
I was still quite young when my mother told me about her dream where she found me having sex with another man. When my mother told me about her dream, I saw her bewildered eyes, her lowered lips, her shoulders turned away from me.
I Was Never Anything/Self Love
by Matthew Pacuruco
Where masculinity is only one option.
Every walk and every expression
is an element of their critique to judge.
Mango from Bongo
by Raisa Zannat
Every passerby who walks in front of her house carries a bit of my grandmother’s love with them. Everyone who enjoys the mangoes relishes a part of the love that my grandmother had to offer.
Interview with Binita Shrestha
Interview by Vanesa Paulino What made you want to submit your artworks to The Lit Magazine? I wanted to submit my artwork to The Lit Magazine to share my perspective and connect with a wider […]
Interview with Akasha Weeratne
Interview by Daraen Kyi ‘What was your process in writing this? Why did you choose a poem format, for example? What led you to this topic? The process of writing this was surprisingly easy. I […]
Interview with Emily Ramos
Interviewed by Joel Pazmiño via email What was writing this piece like for you? Writing “Otra Vida” was unexpected. The first time I read the prompt in my creative writing class, I had a completely […]
Interview with victoria segarra
Interview by Victor Garate Did you plan to use the “she-and-I” format before writing this piece, or did it come naturally as you wrote? I wrote “She and I” as an assignment for my creative […]
Interview with Alvi Chowdhury
Interview by Ethan Velez Let’s start with the title – where did it come from, how did you decide on it? The title “The Art of the Anxious” came very naturally to me. Anxiety is a […]
Chocolate Bar in the Summer
by Joel Pazmiño Rodriguez The chants of the crowd roar in rhythm, and the drum pounds through the speakers. He nods at the owner who’s biting his pen at […]
The Little Differences
by Raisa Zannat On a bright winter morning, I waited inside an army jeep parked outside of a red guesthouse in Sajek Valley, a little valley located in the mountainous southern part of Bangladesh. My uncle […]
Thrift Shop
by Maria Clara Some questions we had for the artist… What is the inspiration behind your art? The inspiration behind my art is fear. Fear prevents us from doing stuff that we enjoy, just because […]
Senses Of Grief
by Melony Hodge Butterflies, corner eyes, reflections on dark screens. Quick looks, Red, red, red, red, red, and red again. Mickey Mouse and vivid dreams. Loud noises, unexplained. Cackling laughs, mischievous baby girl. So many […]
Sage
by Maria Clara Maria C. Perez is a Venezuelan artist who moved to New York four years ago looking for better opportunities. She works with different mediums and subjects to experiment with the different styles […]
I Pledge Allegiance
by Dom Glover [after Danez Smith] You remember how in school they used to make us recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Each morning our young undeveloped overstimulated selves would be giddier than a motherfucker […]
Remembering When
by Melony Hodge Home. It’s still there. Even after all the other addresses 878, where it all began. I remember When Holiday traditions bled into growing up When love and magic kept us fed Cookouts, […]
Mine
by Robbie Atienza There is something in the walls. I can feel it. Sometimes, I sense that I’m being watched, observed, like a fish in a glass bowl. These last few months, it’s as though […]
Three Poems
by Paris Armstrong Existential Sex The sweat at his brow slides down, then up, following touch Gasps and laughter start and stop haltingly Quiet now, be quiet. Too loud or they might hear Her lips […]
The Cardboard Piano
by David Garate (Within the confines of a shoebox, amongst a vast crowd of paperfish). He is laborious, The one on the cardboard piano. One of many who climb the stairs And waltz on stage. […]
My Best Friend
by Juan Paredes Some days I miss you dearly On bad days you consoled me On good days you celebrated with me When reality gets too much you embrace me No matter where I’m […]
Childhood Fragments
by Favi Olmedo Chaotic mornings. Shoes scattered across the living room floor. Missing hairbrush, untamable bedhead. Blurting things out at random times. At the wrong times. Being carried after a bath, to bed, just because. […]
Some Questions for Elias Bailey
What inspired you to write “Inseparable”? My inspiration for Inseparable is the loss of my mother and father so close together just prior to Covid. They stay on my mind constantly, and I’m sure they […]
Inseparable
by Elias Bailey Above you, father, a video montage is displaying the most joyful and carefree moments of your life before we met. Wonderful images of you as a little boy playing with your siblings, […]
Some Questions for Edernis Adames
What inspired you to write “Breaking the Mold”? Breaking the Mold was actually an assignment for English 101. We were asked to write a narrative about the turning points in our academic careers. I chose […]
Breaking the Mold
by Edernis Adames The lopsided desk wobbled as I took a seat. My legs barely fit under it. I moved my arm to reveal the etchings that covered the wooden top of the desk, one […]
Some Questions for Viviana Peña
What inspired you to write “The Birth”? I was inspired to write “The Birth” by an experience I had during labor. I realized while writing this story how deep the wounds were from my experience, […]
The Birth
by Viviana Peña It was time for Francesca to push, she felt exhausted from being poked and prodded. The repeated questions from the nurse about how she was feeling made her anxious. She wished she […]
Some Questions for Arben Alovic
What inspired you to “Cherry Blossoms”? Call me a sucker for a love poem? In all reality, I’m really not a love poet. I can’t say I ever have been, but I wanted to capture […]
Some Questions for Alicia Evans
What inspired you to write “Love in Quarantine”? During COVID I thought about what happens now to the couples that were living as roommates. Now they are forced to spend time together, to speak to […]
Some Questions for Angelica I. Ayala
What inspired you to write “Sunlight”? My mental health journey inspired me to create this poem. With my partner by my side, it has definitely given me the motivation to step into sunlight instead of […]
Some Questions for Clare Kenefick
What inspired you to write “Polarized Politics”? I have been writing more poems again in the past year or so and I am the only one who usually gets to see them. One of my […]
Some Questions for Kiara Byrd
What inspired you to write “Blank”? I wrote this piece for my ENG271 course this semester, my Professor Carrie Conners thought that the poetry my class wrote at that point was really good and that […]
Some Questions for Marlin Muñoz
What inspired you to write “Song for My Beloved”? What inspired me to write the poem that was submitted in The Lit in Spring 2022 was the original poem of Diane Di Prima “Song for […]
Some Questions for Michael Ferrin
What inspired you to write “Paradise”? I had spent some time thinking about my relationship with my father, I guess more specifically, the relationship my siblings and I have with my father. It is a […]
Some Questions for Özgür Peksen-Saccone
What inspired you to write “One Suitcase, Two Languages”? For ENG 101 I was a student of Prof. Tara Coleman. She introduced me to the writer Amy Tan. We read one of her stories, “Mother […]
Some Questions for Samantha Morgan
What inspired you to write “My First Funeral is Yours”? It was maybe my second or third Creative Writing class, which I’m currently taking at LaGuardia, when my professor asked that we “Write what we […]
Editors’ Introduction
As we worked on the Spring 2022 Issue for The Lit, the world outside kept inundating us. At the start of the semester, we were still living under COVID, and at some point we had […]
