This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Her Kind by Cindy Veach, released by CavanKerry Press in 2021.
Woman Climbs Statue of Liberty in Protest
Therese Patricia Okoumou, Guilty of Trespassing, 2018
She said, I climb to protest our nation’s “zero
tolerance” immigration policy. She said, I climb
to abolish ICE. They said, trespasser. They said,
disorderly conduct. When she sat on the skirts
of Lady Liberty, we watched them climb
after her. They said, get down. Our hero
said, I’m not discouraged. She made her bed.
And we watched and cheered and put a curse
on those who wanted to arrest her
for protesting putting children into cages.
Oh yes, we witches watched her carry our truth
up and over that ledge like a beautiful sooth-
sayer, strong and lithe. Goodbye Dark Ages.
We climb with her. We climb with her.
Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind(CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal and an IPPY Silver Medalist in poetry, Gloved Against Blood(CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and a Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read,’ and the chapbook, Innocents(Nixes Mate). Her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, North American Review, Salamander and elsewhere. Cindy is the recipient of the Philip Booth Poetry Prize and the Samuel Allen Washington Prize. She is poetry co-editor of MER.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Her Kind by Cindy Veach, released by CavanKerry Press in 2021.
I, Witch
So what if I woke up changed it’s not like I’m a wild hog
or some Evill thing not a Reall hog
that follows you home Jumps into the window
a Munky with Cocks feete w’th Claws don’t believe
what my Accuser says or believe it
the fact is my divorce attorney’s building
sits on the site of the prison where they kept the Accused
in Chaines in 1692 I came there with a silk scarf
worn loosely at the neck borders looped
with colored thread he came with daisies dark
chocolate and proclaimed
my wife came towards me and found fault with me
downstairs in the dungeon they chained us to the walls
to keep our spirits from escaping in the Liknes of a bird
Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind(CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal and an IPPY Silver Medalist in poetry, Gloved Against Blood(CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and a Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read,’ and the chapbook, Innocents(Nixes Mate). Her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, North American Review, Salamander and elsewhere. Cindy is the recipient of the Philip Booth Poetry Prize and the Samuel Allen Washington Prize. She is poetry co-editor of MER.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Knoxville, TN — The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present Poetry Xfit hosted by Alexa White. This generative workshop event will take place on Saturday, October 22nd from 2 to 4 pm EST via Zoom. Join us at the link tiny.utk.edu/sundress with the password “safta”.
Poetry Xfit isn’t about throwing tires or heavy ropes, but the idea of confusing our muscles is the same. You will receive ideas, guidelines, and more as part of this generative workshop series in order to complete three poems in two hours. A new set of prompts will be provided after the writers have written collaboratively for thirty minutes. The goal is to create material that can be later modified and transformed into artwork rather than producing flawless final versions. The event is open to prose authors as well!
Alexa White is a mixed-race, neurodivergent writer and graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned her BA in creative writing and studio art. While attending, she won the 2022 Bain-Swiggett prize for traditional poetry forms and her poetry and art has appeared in Phoenix, the school’s literary and arts magazine. Alexa lives in Knoxville, her semi-hometown, and is the Grants Manager at Sundress Academy for the Arts. She takes delight in backroads, quarries, and the last few seconds of sunset and redefines her bedtime nightly.
Our community partner for October is Knox Pride. Knox Pride is formally referred to as the East Tennessee Equality Council (Inc.), founded in 2006. They’ve grown to not only hold recurring annual events, but they are fulfilling their mission as educators, communicators, and representatives of their community through their community and outreach center, and the events that they facilitate.
Their developing community and outreach center will be another place for people to find a home base in the Knoxville LGBTQ+ community. They intend to have resources, referrals, and services for other parts of their community. Plus, they’ll host events, and meetings, and allow other groups to come to use their space as a gathering center for their cause. Long-term, they envision a space where people can learn more about their pride community, come get tailored for their next interview, or utilize their food pantry if you’re someone who is in need. All of that, and more to come.
Knox Pride Fest, what they’re traditionally known for, is an open celebration of music, entertainment and speakers focused on promoting equality and inclusion for all. Throughout the weekend, vendors will have the opportunity to display information about their organization and/or business, sell or hand out items of interest and interact with our community to promote inclusion and equality for the LGBTQ+ and ally citizens of Knoxville and surrounding areas. They also host other events like a silent ArtOut auction, a Next-2-Nothing fashion show, a pride picnic, and more events throughout the year — with more added annually.
To learn more, go to knoxpride.com and read about all the wonderful work they are doing. In addition to raising money for Knox Pride this month, we will also be running a food drive at our Reading Series event on October 19th to help stock the food pantries Knox Pride runs. Please join us on the 19th with any goods you can share.
John Sullivan’s book, Dire Moon Cartoons (Weasel Press 2021), is an experimental collection of dramas mixes poetry and history lessons with drama to reflect the dangers of imbalances in power and insufficient empathy. Often through straightforward explanations of his work, Sullivan describes this new form as “Poetry, spoken word, and non-realistic/devised theatre are mutually-reinforcing, complementary forms, and the montage process jump-starts a cross-fertilization that often produces really interesting hybrids” (11). The dramatic format lends itself as pedagogical; poetic language captures the attention of mind and soul, ensuring the readers are attuned to Sullivan’s message.
In the first play, “Hey Fritz, Looks Like You Lost It All Again in the Ghosting,” Sullivan reimagines life after death. Memory is a constant figure in many minds; this idea that sticks around for the entirety of the book, personified by various characters’ struggles to achieve “amnesia,” as Sullivan puts it. Fritz Lang, a famous German filmmaker of the 20th century who fled Germany just before WWII and the play’s protagonist, begins with a lamentation. Death is not what he thought it would be: “What dreams may come, indeed,” he says, “Hamlet was right to worry” (Sullivan 16). Even in innocence, even in death, Lang is followed by the memories of this violent past. Lang’s inability to forget the atrocities committed in his home country, even when he had no hand in them, is the main motivator of his guilt-ridden afterlife. Sullivan subsequently reminds readers to hold themselves accountable for crimes against humanity, even as spectators, setting up the rest of the book as a sort of guide on how to (or how not to) lose oneself in empathy.
Sullivan often employs poetic language to set the scene. For example, Fritz Lang describes where he was when the war started, saying, “I was in Los Angeles, then, eating lotus, sucking skin, drinking in the sun, bobbing up and down in the surf like a postcard” (Sullivan 17). Fritz has some stored regret, perhaps survivor’s guilt, from the war. He got out. He’s practically on vacation. But how many millions of people did he leave behind? By using the Brechtian technique in his plays, Sullivan separates the audience from the action, reminding the reader that he intends for someone to learn from this language. Sullivan wants his readers to be aware they are spectating, making things personal.
Each section/scene of the book offers an artful look into the atrocities performed by those traditionally in power: Fritz gets new ears to “hear and do what he’s told to do” (32), actors are treated as props (32), and the “Mad Town Jump Rope Chant” offers another look at commonly used brainwashing techniques (33). Fritz Lang even offers a preparatory remark: “We should all have eyes all around our heads” (61), reminding the reader to pay attention to what’s going on around the world, not only to what they currently see.
As mentioned above, Sullivan discusses “amnesia” (67) as a way to avoid looking at reality head-on. He expertly captures the juxtaposition between what we are told by those in positions of power (i.e. propaganda) and what we can observe ourselves. For example, when the Mouse Van Gogh from the Big White Chair cannot get the “Helmut of Amnesia” over his “big dumb polyethylene ears” (Sullivan 73), he is forced to hear and remember all the violence that follows and all that came before. Over the course of the book, Sullivan also lays out the many ways people (and apparently mice) attempt to escape from reality. If it’s not amnesia, it’s substance abuse in the form of “the ultimate boss cannoli” (Sullivan 74) or objects of denial and power like Grey Sergeant’s “new-new eyes” and his “death wig” (Sullivan 123). When the Baby Rookie’s death is smeared on the white wall in The Baby’s Rookie Year, for example, denial transforms into a struggle to be remembered, even for heinous acts of violence.
Although Sullivan is critical of human actions, he is delicate in his treatment of said criticisms. His writing comes across as helpfully demonstrative and effectively engaging. Kookie word usage, fun sets and props, as well as wild, outlandish characters make for an informative, sometimes necessarily uncomfortable, but always entertaining set of dramas. Sullivan uses real human history to teach lessons on empathy, greed, power, and human nature; he tucks away the lessons in succinct humor and sarcasm interspersed with shocking acts of violence. And so, when Fritz Lang says, “I want a better history right here, right now…” (35), the reader feels it, too.
Dire Moon Cartoons is available through Weasel Press.
Kenli Doss holds a BA in English and a BA in Theatre-Performance from Jacksonville State University. She is a freelance writer and actress based out of Alabama, and she spends her free time painting scenes from nature or writing poetry for her mom. Ken’s works appear in Something Else (a JSU literary arts journal), Bonemilk II by Gutslut Press, Snowflake Magazine, The Shakespeare Project’s Romeo and Juliet Study Guide and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Study Guide, and The White Cresset Arts Journal.
Sundress Publications is open for submissions for grant applications from Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers with a chapbook in progress. All eligible authors are welcome to submit during our application period, which closes on October 31st, 2023. The Light Bill Incubator Microgrant will award $500, a slot in Sundress’s reading series, a one-week residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN, and the potential for digital publication to one Black and/or Indigenous writer with a chapbook in progress to support the completion of said project.
All applications will be read by members of our editorial board. One writer will be selected, who will then work with Sundress’s reading series coordinator, residency team, and editorial board.
Applicants may apply for any genre; however, the proposed project must be a chapbook-length project, meaning the planned final version will be fewer than 48 pages.
To apply, please send a sample of the chapbook in progress along with a brief (no more than 500 words) artist/personal statement. These items should be sent to our editorial board as DOCX or PDF files at sundresspublications@gmail.com. Please include the phrase “Light Bill Incubator Microgrant Application” in the subject line. There is no fee to apply.
Stories served as my escape, whisking me away to wondrous worlds of adventure, magic, friendship, and romance. Television and movies were my initial portals, consuming every captivating narrative my parents allowed (and many that weren’t). Among them, tales of magic and thrilling adventures held me spellbound, stirring my imagination and igniting a lifelong love for storytelling.
Reading didn’t initially come naturally to me. I struggled deeply with learning to read and once I learned, I didn’t seek it out due to the memories of that painful time. But soon it became a consequence of missteps. As a punishment, TV would be taken away, and my father insisted I read a book of his choosing and write a report on it. However, the punishment soon evolved into an avenue for escape. Through books, I discovered stories of resilient girls yearning for acceptance, desperately seeking their place in the world. Manga like Skip Beat! and novels such as Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle became my companions, transporting me to realms where I felt understood.
Although I dreamt of writing, as a child, it seemed like an unattainable aspiration. However, when I entered college, the power of poetry beckoned me. I began writing poems for myself, realizing that I could also weave words lyrically. Encouraged by my creative writing professors and advisors, I started to see myself as a poet. As I read the works of Audre Lorde, Evie Shochley, Khadijah Queen, and Tina Chang, writing became a means of understanding the world I inhabited, delving into my family and friends, and how my culture shaped my experiences. It transformed from an escape into a vessel for bearing witness to the realities of life. I am immensely grateful to the friends and professors who supported and nurtured my writing journey. Their unwavering encouragement has been instrumental in my growth as a writer. They continue to inspire me to write each day, to delve deeper into the complexities of our world.
My journey from an avid consumer of stories to a writer has transformed my relationship with words, turning them into vehicles for understanding and bearing witness to the world around me.
As my writing journey has evolved, I have ventured beyond the realms of personal creativity and embarked on a path of community-based work with poetry. In this endeavor, I found solace in aligning with presses that prioritize uplifting diverse voices. For this reason, I look forward to being a part of the Sundress family.
Zora Satchell is a Black and Chinese American queer poet and cinephile who writes about mental illness, film, family, and friendship. She holds a degree in Ethnic Studies from Colorado State University. She was awarded the Brooklyn Poets fellowship for winter/spring 2021. She tweets from @Zora_thee_pony. She lives in Queens, New York.
This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Not Flowers by Noreen Ocampo, released by Variant Lit in 2022.
litmus test
Would you buy flowers
for yourself? Can you
tell me all the people who would?
The people who have?
Are you looking forward to what comes next?
Can you visualize
yourself there? Where are you
standing? How
are your knees? How does it feel to dial
your memorized numbers?
What do you say
when they pick up?
Do you trust your luck? If I tell you
luck was never a part of it,
what then? Are you
translating people’s faces with kindness?
How afraid are you of their teeth?
How afraid are you of yours?
Noreen Ocampo is a Filipino American writer and poet from metro Atlanta. Her collection Not Flowers won the 2021 Variant Lit Microchap Contest, and her work can also be found in Palette Poetry, Sundog Lit, and Depth Cues, among others. She holds a BA in English from Emory University and currently studies poetry in the MFA program at The University of Mississippi, where she is working to document and elevate stories of Filipino Americans in the Deep South.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Not Flowers by Noreen Ocampo, released by Variant Lit in 2022.
crane game
I would fit in seamlessly in the belly of any claw machine
swelling with plush toys. Imagine: me & the duck with
the very pink cheeks & the pillow-shaped corgi that’s all
hear—wouldn’t we be grand, the three of us & our eighty-
six closest friends? Softness would be the most desirable
way to lack, the way we would slip through silver &
cushion each other’s tumbles. We would only have to say
goodbye once a year at most, & if the time really came, we
would celebrate that our friend was going home to
someone with steady hands & conviction.
Noreen Ocampo is a Filipino American writer and poet from metro Atlanta. Her collection Not Flowers won the 2021 Variant Lit Microchap Contest, and her work can also be found in Palette Poetry, Sundog Lit, and Depth Cues, among others. She holds a BA in English from Emory University and currently studies poetry in the MFA program at The University of Mississippi, where she is working to document and elevate stories of Filipino Americans in the Deep South.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Not Flowers by Noreen Ocampo, released by Variant Lit in 2022.
In which I am cast in a Studio Ghibli film
I am drawn in a side character’s uncertain lines, cursed
with flimsy ankles & tipping over. I still bike to school
because I have to, because Mom & Pop are running
a florist-bakery-café combination. I smell like burnt butter
& coffee beans, which makes everyone forget that we also
sell flowers. I am seventeen & having a quarter-life crisis
that only pays me in my best friend’s exasperation
as he sits in front of me in class. He sighs like he practices
the puff of his chest in the mirror & is drawn with
the charisma of a main character whose clothes are always
suspiciously crisp. I have been in love with him my whole life.
But he’s stuck in a love triangle with the class president
& the news co-anchor whose teeth literally twinkle
when she smiles, so I’m surprised when he bikes home
with me. One day, he tells me he’s set on moving oceans
away after graduation & I pause in the middle of the street
because there are only twenty-three minutes until the credits roll
& I’m not sure how we’ll patch this up in time. He laughs,
sparkling with cherry blossoms & afternoon light, &
for a moment, we’re more than a collection of penciled-in lines.
Noreen Ocampo is a Filipino American writer and poet from metro Atlanta. Her collection Not Flowers won the 2021 Variant Lit Microchap Contest, and her work can also be found in Palette Poetry, Sundog Lit, and Depth Cues, among others. She holds a BA in English from Emory University and currently studies poetry in the MFA program at The University of Mississippi, where she is working to document and elevate stories of Filipino Americans in the Deep South.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from
Not Flowers by Noreen Ocampo, released by Variant Lit in 2022.
Kitchen
There’s sliced cheese in the fridge,
underneath the avocados I’ll forget about.
You can make sandwiches
until you’re tired & you don’t have to ask
how many you’re allowed.
I want you to be like me. I want
you to have reasons to live. Maybe two
of those reasons are sandwiches
& cheese. Maybe our people
are watching from heaven & horrified,
or watching from the living room
& disappointed, but
we can also boil elbows al dente
& grate a block of whatever else is hiding
in the fridge. & maybe old-style mustard,
maybe peas. Third & fourth reasons.
Maybe we weren’t meant to
be making mac & cheese fancy, or at all
& that’s why it doesn’t
turn out right. Or maybe my gaze
over your shoulder is what’s curdling
the sauce & I should step back
& trust that you know
what color the flame should be.
Noreen Ocampo is a Filipino American writer and poet from metro Atlanta. Her collection Not Flowers won the 2021 Variant Lit Microchap Contest, and her work can also be found in Palette Poetry, Sundog Lit, and Depth Cues, among others. She holds a BA in English from Emory University and currently studies poetry in the MFA program at The University of Mississippi, where she is working to document and elevate stories of Filipino Americans in the Deep South.
Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other(winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Reviewand a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.
