Fiction, poetry, essay, comics, etc., “yrs in quality literature” since 1947. www.epochliterary.com
...and here's a new craft piece from assistant poetry editor Samantha Samakande. "If listlessness or boredom threatens to make a meal of you, stare into its dank, gaping mouth, and even if it means letting it have its course."
One Poet’s Pep Talk to Herself — EPOCHRembrandt, Seated Young Woman Reading, c. 1639-40 Courage might mean sitting in solitude for hours, with nothing to do but have faith that somewhere on a back burner in your mind, an idea isbrewing....www.epochliterary.comTwo new posts up on the blog today, as we prepare for our August submission period! First, assistant fiction editor Fia Zhang Swanson interviews novelist Banana Yoshimoto. "Writing novels is neither fun nor therapy for me."
Interview: Banana Yoshimoto — EPOCH“If you depict the sensory world deeply enough, there is a place where everyone stands on the same horizon. There, the reader is alone, yet sharing the same sensations as the author. This can ease the...www.epochliterary.com...and check out our homepage for a look at the cover and TOC of our new issue, 73.2, out in a couple of weeks www.epochliterary.com
We're happy to announce this year's Michael Koch Memorial Editors in poetry and fiction, Tacey M. Atsitty and Adam O'Fallon Price! They'll be working on 74.1 and 74.2 over the next year. Click through for more info about these great writers.
The 2026-27 Koch Memorial Editors: Tacey M. Atsitty and Adam O’Fallon Price — EPOCHRead about the 2026-27 Koch Memorial Editors, Tacey M. Atsitty and Adam O’Fallon Pricewww.epochliterary.com73.2 is at the printer, and 74.1 opens for submissions in two weeks! Please note we have a new AI policy that you can read on our submission page (TL;DR: we don't want AI-generated text), and a blog post from our editor on the subject, linked below.
On AI, in EPOCH and Elsewhere — EPOCHHuman beings are made to be moved. We respond to patterns. AI generates patterns. When there is nothing of substance there, we use our imagination to fill in whatever will give us what we need. It’s n...www.epochliterary.comToday on the blog: assistant editor Hafsa Zulfiqar interviews poet I. S. Jones about her new book BLOODMERCY: "I have always loved declarative lines in a poem, especially as a woman, there is a very strong and commanding power and being able to say something and then it is so."
Interview: I. S. Jones — EPOCHThis past November, I had the pleasure of speaking to the amazing I.S. Jones over the phone. I first discovered Jones in the summer of 2023 when I had the opportunity to study under her for a five-wee...www.epochliterary.com...and here's a very funny new half-memoir, half-craft-essay, "Jumpsuits," from Otis Fuqua: "We are all, always, writing the characters of ourselves."
Jumpsuits — EPOCHFor me, a masc man with a masc background and a masc wardrobe, a women’s jumpsuit is a sartorial leap. It shows my butt more than I’m used to, suggests I am perhaps more genderqueer than I usually am,...www.epochliterary.comTwo new blog posts up today as we prepare to open for subs in August! First, Zibusiso Mpofu writes about Zimbabwean writer Yvonne Vera: "A woman of secrets, she never disclosed anything to anyone."
Re-Aliving Yvonne Vera: A Review of Petal Thoughts, a Biography of Yvonne Vera by Her Mother Ericah Gwetai — EPOCHShe could not write the way she wanted to while abroad. She needed to be home, close to her people. In many ways one cannot tell the story of Vera without talking about the city from which she hails, ...www.epochliterary.comNew post up on the blog: Fia Swanson's excellent review of Katie Kitamura's novel Audition: "To Kitamura, our agency—and the agency of her characters—is mostly an illusion."
Review: Audition by Katie Kitamura — EPOCHTo Kitamura, our agency—and the agency of her characters—is mostly an illusion. “It is proof of the lulling quality of narrative,”Kitamura has said , that we think we have a great deal of choices. He...www.epochliterary.comWe've just added Timi Sanni's lovely review of Gbenga Adesina's collection Death Does Not End at the Sea. Timi: "For the speaker of Adesina’s poems, there is a silence in the language of the dead that must ring out in the song of the living."
The Memory of Water: a Review of Gbenga Adesina’s Death Does Not End at the Sea — EPOCHThe images evoke a profound sense of displacement that unmistakably recalls the Middle Passage—the forced transatlantic crossing that carried millions of enslaved Africans into the Americas. That hist...www.epochliterary.comNew on the blog: Lara Stecewycz's interview with Askold Melnyczuk: "A poem must carry the nourishment in every line—even if the morsel of meaning can't itself be contained by a single line or stanza. The whole must feel somehow inevitable."
Interview: Askold Melnyczuk — EPOCH“When I was about nine I contracted an illness—eventually diagnosed as pericarditis (water around the heart) which kept me from attending school for over two years. […] This unstructured time gave me ...www.epochliterary.comOur apologies, we aren't tabling at AWP this year due to a bureaucratic snafu. But the new issue is up for sale, PDF or print! And if you see one of our editors wandering tableless around the hall, give 'em a high five
Volume 73, Number 1 — EPOCHVolume 73, Number 1. D.M. Aderibigbe, Hussain Ahmed, Miriam Åkervall, Amir Ahmadi Arian, Jill Barrie, Alexandra Bernhardt, Shlagha Borah, TR Brady, Hedgie Choi, Brock Clarke, Kami Enzie, Ana Emilia Fe...www.epochliterary.com...and assistant fiction editor Sijing Yang interviews poet and essayist Ishion Hutchinson. "There’s probably one corner of heaven where there's no distinction between writers and poets and dramatists and painters."
Interview: Ishion Hutchinson — EPOCH“I think that the writer’s failure drawer must be deeper than the success’s. Because you have to go through it. Whatever it is that comes upon the writer to bring it out, maybe it’s just duty because ...www.epochliterary.comToday we have TWO new interviews with poets up on the blog. First, assistant poetry editor Gerardo Azpiri Iglesias interviews Richie Hofmann. "As a poet I am creating an aesthetic world."
Interview: Richie Hofmann — EPOCH“I think there's a reader who might read my work and think oh my gosh, this is shocking and very naked! And you might have another reader read the same poems and say these are so prudish and buttoned-...www.epochliterary.comToday on the blog, a new review of Domenica Martinello's poetry collection GOOD WANT, from assistant poetry editor Bridget Huh: poetry "that knows just the right things to ask and not ask, that has the immense and unknowable power to forgive." www.epochliterary.com/blog/review-...