Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters

@asteralesjournal

A new quarterly literary journal publishing 5 poems, 2 prose works, and original visual art. SUBS OPEN 2/1-3/15 Co-founders/editors @djvorreyer.bsky.social and @rebunting.bsky.social

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Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 1d

@carolee.bsky.social is back for Issue 7, redefining loneliness and what we do in the darkness in her poem “When I’m Late Coming Home, I Find the Door Locked, Porch Light Off.” 😍 www.asteralesjournal.com/2-7-bennett-...

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 8d

Enjoy the "blitzed, secret weather" of a mother's presence in @sallypoet.bsky.social's "Not the Kind that You Could Keep" in Issue 7. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-7-kindred-...

She was the message. She was the blitzed
secret weather. Had power. The kind
that, fingerless, moved sheets of glass and water.

"Not the Kind that You Could Keep" - Sally Rosen Kindred

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 15d

Today we begin sharing our Issue 7 gems! Check out @adamg.bsky.social's beautiful ekphrastic meditation "As Above, So Below." www.asteralesjournal.com/2-7-gianforc...

Shadows draw upon the lowly parts as if they were the artist and not whichever light source was kind enough to share its labor. I wonder how much of art in luminosity and how much of it is fear. Adam Gianforcaro, "As Above, So Below"

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 16d

Not only should you check out the amazing work in our newest issue, which debuted last week, you should polish up those prose, art, and poetry submissions---we open on August 1 for Issue 8!

Open for Submissions August 1-September 15
asteralesjournal.com/submissions

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 23d

Issue 7 is here! Poems from @adamg.bsky.social @janezwart.bsky.social @sallypoet.bsky.social @carolee.bsky.social Jill Crammond @fakeourway.bsky.social & AJ Wright. Art from @robinturnerpoet.bsky.social and featured artist @thaddevassie.bsky.social asteralesjournal.com

Issue 7 New Work from Poetry: Adam Gianforcaro, Sally Rosen Kindred, Carolee Bennett, AJ Wright, Samuel Day Wharton, Jill Crammond, & Jane Zwart Visual Art: Thad DeVassie, Robin Turner

asteralesournal.com

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 26d

Reposting the poetry slide because editor @djvorreyer misspelled a name! My apologies to @mrmack88.bsky.social

Best of the Net Nominees POETRY - Allison Blevins, John Paul Davis, Mckendy Fils-Aime, Melissa Fite Johnson, Jill Kitchen, Kerry Trautman

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 27d

More Best of the Net nominees: Fiction: @emcapettini.bsky.social and Amanda Lee Art: @sheilasquill.bsky.social @titaniayellow.bsky.social Sandra Wilcoxon

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· 27d

We are pleased to announce our Best of the Net nominees! First two categories... Poetry: @jillkitchen.bsky.social @mfitejohnson.bsky.social @johnpauldavis.org @mrmack88.bsky.social Allison Blevins Kerry Trautman Nonfiction: @charlesjensen.bsky.social @creakyvoice.bsky.social

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Jun 8

Did you ever ship Velma and Daphne? Did you ever question a relationship? Then you will love these Girl Detective shorts from @emcapettini.bsky.social in Issue 6 as much as we did! www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-capettin...

You take a wrong turn somewhere, even though you grew up here. This road seems to have slipped off any map. You swear it was a different road last time. from "Plot Diagram for the Girl Detective" by Em Cappettini White text on a background photo of a small car driving on a indistinct road lined with trees.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Jun 2

We loved the depth and color work in these amazing abstracts by Jill Khoury. And they complemented the writing in Issue 6 so well!

Three colorful abstract paintings on a beige background with scribbled embellishments and taped corners with black text reading JILL KHOURY

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 27

You still have a couple of weeks to send us work! Poetry, yes, but we'd particularly love to see more prose - fiction/hybrid/cnf, anything from flash to 7500 words.

Submissions will be closing on June 15th - asteralesjournal.com/submissions on a white field framed by a flower

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 25

Let @erindorney.bsky.social surprise you with the simple power of Scrabble tiles in Issue 6. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-dorney

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 18

Jackson Benson captures the weariness, the uncertainty, and the wonder of parenting so well in their poem "Axolotl Night Light". Read it here: www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-benson-k...

White text: I follow the cry to her crib, patting, tapping, slapping any object or surface to orient myself, her room a pitch-black habitat, our kid never more like an animal I struggle to understand." From Axolotl Night Light by Jackson Benson - on a background of a dark room with a crib, the outline of a man backlit in a doorway and a glowing axolotl on the wall as a nightlight.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 12

Get caught up the danger and mystery of want and need in "the lougawou discusses curses by @mrmack88.bsky.social l in Issue 7. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-fils-aim...

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 7

We immediately loved the subtle and evocative work of featured artist @christenkauffman.bsky.social - go check out Issue 6 to see it all! www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-featured...

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 4

Check out @thesunshinelately.bsky.social in our new issue! This poem stopped us in our tracks when we read it. Also, Sunny’s new collection Lye is out now from @fernpub.bsky.social! www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-lately-k...

how I've been able to stop my mouth from drawing questions out of sweetness. from "Popsicle Poetica" by Sunshine Lately in white text over a photo of a red, white, and blue rocket pop melting into red question marks.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· May 1

And...we're open for Issue Seven submissions! Send us your poems, your prose, your artwork...your oddballs, your beloveds, your I'm-not-sure-who-will-like-this. We want to see it all! asteralesjournal.com/submissions

Maroon and pink asters with green stems against a linen background and text that reads Open for Submissions Asteralesjournal.com/submissions May 1-June 15

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Apr 27

Check the danger and sweetness (or is it the sweetness of danger?) in "[To put a plastic bag over bananas reminds me]"by Isaac Salazar in Issue 6! www.asteralesjournal.com/2-6-salazar-...

Bananas ripen fastest when trapped together in plastic. How strange that sweetness is accelerated by a little less world.

from [To put a plastic bag over bananas reminds me] by Isaac Salazar.

Black and white text over a bright blue background and a photo of a bunch of yellow bananas in a plastic bag.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Apr 20

Issue 6 is here! With poems from @erindorney.bsky.social, @mrmack88.bsky.social Renee Emerson, Sunshine Lately, Jackson Benson, & Isaac Salazar, flash from @emcapettini.bsky.social and art from @christenkauffman.bsky.social & Jill Khoury! www.asteralesjournal.com/current-issu...

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Mar 11

Sharing the last of our Issue Five contributor highlights - enjoy the collage/stitchery magic of @titaniayellow.bsky.social. Visit the issue to see these pieces in their full-sized precision and glory.

Black text reads Featured Artist Dayna Patterson with four images of collage work featuring a steam train, a moon, an angel with a scroll, and a woman with a garden around. Each image is enhanced by embroidery work in geometric patterns and chains.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Mar 1

Another gem from Issue 5 - this form-follows-content cnf about the nature of injury and thought from @creakyvoice.bsky.social. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-5-williams...

Both sidea, front and back, all parts, a rhythm of swinging,a rhythm of movement, the predictable way objects are first far away and then become close, closer, and then are moving away again, behind, if you turn your head, farther, farther, and then not seen.

Carolyn Williams-Noren "The Brain Discovers its Injury and Recovery"
all written in black text over a background photo of a road sided by green trees in golden sunlight with the yellow words PAST PRESENT FUTURE superimprosed from the bottom to the top of the road.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 27

The first page of more new work from Asterales Issue Five poet Svetlana Litvinchuk in the new issue of @pleiadesmag.bsky.social!

A yellow background with PLEIADES in white text in a black box with photo of a doll with orange ribbons in dark locks, a teal and red patterned shirt and pants and black arms and feet. The face is patterned with beads and irridescent colors.

Svetlana Litvinchuk

Lily Pond Near Desna Dacha

I carefully turned each item to its shady side, exposing collecting the harder to reach bait on a mission that was to the sun the damp underbellies of discarded things, one-part hunt and one-part forage.

Early mornings were best for trash pit diving, when the dew was still evaporating off the bent lounge chairs, broken toys, heaps of food containers and other trash too hard to burn. Much later I would learn that this faraway smell of country

fires that roused such childhood nostalgia wasn't the earthy fragrance of smoked meat, but of burning garbage, that musky incense of poverty. My tiny hands were ideal for finding the small wriggling bodies, dropping them with a plink

into the can, as entire families helplessly trembled before my pincer grasp filling the container as the men smoked cigarettes and waited to go fishing. This is one way that children become the provider of the family

that no one ever talks about, having no say in the risks to their bodies, only the singular option of doing as they're told disguised as child's play. My own body, pale and small, was accustomed to entering the forest reliant

on men who drink to protect me from the lurking wolves and owls who waited to carry me away, the way my mother cautioned in bedtime stories. When the sun burned off the morning's haze, that's when the flies came out to swarm-

dutiful parents protecting their young from the perils of early harvest. My reward for the morning's labor was a detour to the lily pond where the men watched as I waded into the water, stripped down to my underwear, careful

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 25

Still celebrating our Issue Five contributors while we read subs for Issue 6 - we're open until March 15 and we'd love to see your visual art, your prose, and your poems! Today, enjoy the fertile beauty of Svetlana Litvinchuk's "When I Say I Want Flowers". www.asteralesjournal.com/2-5-litvinch...

A photo of red turnips clustered over ice covered leaves.
Text:
When I say I want flowers, I mean I want to be round and fertile as the Earth. I want to be a turnip left in the ground through the frost-to grow tender in the cold months and leave the earth richer than I found it.
Svetlana Litvinchuk, "When I Say I Want Flowers"

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 21

We are thrilled to have @sjane.bsky.social as one of our featured artists in Issue Five. If you are a visual artist (participating in Februllage, perhaps?), we would love to see your work for Issue Six. asteralesjournal.com/submissions

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 16

While you're prepping your submission for Issue Six, take a break and enjoy this tasty tidbit from Amanda Lee's story "You Need to Lose Weight" in Issue Five. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-5-lee-sloat

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 13

Don't forget, subs are open until March 15. No fee to submit and we want to see your poems, your prose, AND your visual art! asteralesjournal/submissions

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 10

Cradle yourself in the ocean with @aprilist.bsky.social "The Mid-Atlantic Cradle" in Issue Five. www.asteralesjournal.com/2-5-connors-...

White text reading "You are primordial life, my miles-deep mystery. What lives in your absence of light? How does that darkness mold me?" Rebecca Kirk Connors "The Mid-Atlantic Cradle" over a photo of ocean waves at night in white and deep blue.

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 5

Soar and ponder with the evocative movement of "November" by @energiapoet.bsky.social in Issue Five! www.asteralesjournal.com/2-5-gifford-...

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Feb 2

Issue Six Subs are now open! While you prep your submissions, enjoy @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social's work in Issue Five!

Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters@asteralesjournal· Jan 20

Issue Five is now live with words from @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social, Katie Kim, @aprilist.bsky.social Svetlana Litvinchuk, @creakyvoice.bsky.social, Amanda Lee, & Stephen Energia Gifford Bell. Art from @sjane.bsky.social and @titaniayellow.bsky.social! asteralesjournal.com/currentissue