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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 6d

Our art submissions are open! Here's a quick guide for those wanting to submit art pieces to the Pinch. For more information, please check the link to our Submittable page.

🖼 Art by Marina Manoukian

#art #pinchjournal #litmag

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 7d

Looking for a place to submit your poems? Today is the last day our submission window for poetry will be open for the year! Submit by going to our website linked in our bio or visiting our Submittable page. We look forward to seeing your work! #poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 10d

This week, we present a preview of "how easy, to take the lungs for granted" which is another poem by Amanda Nicole Corbin. Read the full piece on PJO now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 14d

Congratulations to Katie Erbs for "Schrödinger" being today's poem on Poetry Daily! We're so excited and honored to have worked with her here at the Pinch. Check her out on their site today #poetry #poetrydaily #thepinch #pinch

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 15d

Announcing some of our PJO readers for our upcoming release party! Join us on Sept 27th at novel for fun fiction, poetry, and food from our amazing contributors, both online and in print #pinch #thepinch #reading

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 15d

Announcing our last two PJO readers for our upcoming release party! Join us this Saturday the 27th to hear excerpts from their work and more #pinch #thepinch #reading

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 16d

We're so excited to invite two of our contributors from our print edition coming out this week! Join us on Sept 27th at Novel to hear Whitney Collins and Kelsey D. Mahaffey read excerpts from their work #pinch #thepinch #reading

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 17d

Looking for something fun to read today? Check out our latest poem "on my flight home they make an announcement" by Amanda Nicole Corbin. Read the full poem on our site now!

#poetry #pinchjournal

The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 17d

With our release party coming up, we're welcoming back former managing editor Josh Carlucci! We're excited to have him back in town for this event. Join us at Novel on September 27th from 6-8PM for free food and readings from both print and online contributors #pinch #thepinch

The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 18d

Join us in celebrating the release of the Pinch Issue 45.2 on Saturday, September 27 @novelmemphis.bsky.social! RSVP on our website now!

📍 novel. bookstore (387 Perkins Extd. Memphis, TN 38117)
🗓 Saturday, September 27 (starting at 6 p.m.)
🖼 Art by Amy Renee Webb

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 21d

Our art submissions are open! Here's a quick guide for those wanting to submit art pieces to the Pinch. For more information, please check the link to our Submittable page #thepinch #pinch #litmag #literarymagazine #artsubmissions

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 22d

Congratulations to @themartinsdeep for winning the 2025 Furious Flower Poetry Prize! He'll be doing a reading at James Madison University this Thursday #thepinch #pinch #contest

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 24d

Check out an excerpt from our newest piece "Eclipses" by Jimmy Kindree - then go read the full post on PJO #pinchjournal #thepinch #litmag #literarymagazine #writing

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · 28d

If you love poetry, join us this coming Friday, September 12 @1pm for a reading with Keetje Kuipers! Come out to Patterson 451 to hear some amazing poems and chat #visitingwriter #thepinch #thepinchpresents #poetry #reading

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Aug 14

"Hover" by Robert Frankel is our newest fiction piece. Read the full story on PJO now.
#pinchjournal #litmag #fiction

Hover
By Robert Frankel

He’d learned how to levitate when he was young as a defense mechanism against “who-knows-what,” the fear of which metastasizes amongst every raised-right Southern queer. If that was the strangest thing about him, he thought, maybe the bullies would think he was Jesus. Maybe his parents wouldn’t expel him or disown him if they learned anything more pertinent. The bullies grew tired of throwing rocks and soon enough pursued reachable targets. As for his folks, either his strategy worked or he had underestimated them: He received an exaggerated shrug, and dinner—hand-pulled noodles, shiitake mushrooms, Bok choy, a dark brown sauce that took its sweet time biting back—continued, unabated. He has two brothers, after all.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Aug 4

To start August, a new poem. "Rainbow Coat" by Caitlin Cowan is a piece looking back on childhood through the misty and multicolored lens of memory. Read it on PJO now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

Rainbow Coat
By Caitlin Cowan

The best kind of clouds
are the color of car wash foam.
Friday nights I pay
to see a rainbow, to recline
my seat and soak myself
in the soft neon of the tunnel.

The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jul 28

Looking for something new to read? Check out our latest poem, "Say This" by Lynne Ellis. The full piece is out on PJO. Read it on our site now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

Say This
By Lynne Ellis

Say you drive us across the state at night, one hand on the wheel &
one hand bent backwards on your lips. Love follows in the car behind,
shines its brights into our rearview mirrors. Say we're on river sand,
say we're in those brights, say we're in the moon dark & you wrap two
fingers between my thumb & knuckle, hard. Say I tie your wrists
to the animal bark of a tree & go after your ribs. Say you kiss
my cheek & fill my mouth with apricots.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jul 21

Our newest poem, "Some Baleen Whales Have Learned to Sing at Frequencies Too Low for Predators to Hear" by Abby E. Murray, contemplates the coexistence of violence with peace in the context of marine life. Read the full piece on PJO now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

SOME BALEEN WHALES HAVE LEARNED TO SING AT FREQUENCIES TOO LOW FOR PREDATORS TO HEAR
Abby E. Murray

Some Baleen Whales Have Learned to Sing at Frequencies Too Low for Predators to Hear
By Abby E. Murray

Most days, I am so preoccupied
with trying to understand violence

and its constant evolution, its sick genius
and knack for producing young

with one more row of teeth than it had before,
plus thicker skin, an extra stomach—

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jul 14

"Of Wait" by Elisabeth Preston-Hsu is our latest poem. Read the full piece on PJO now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

Of Wait
By Elisabeth Preston-Hsu

The coastline paradox is the length of a coastline is not static, and depends on the scale used to measure it. Coasts are not made of straight lines. They cannot be measured definitively.

I.
A reindeer grows antlers in the same pattern year to year. No other mammal can regenerate an organ naturally. The same knob on the left remains lower than the right. The same velvet tissue bleeds ribbons onto snow when injured. It’s the same over and over but the possibilities depend on scale. Dark will find light. Heat will find cold. Water will find salt.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jul 7

Read the rest of our newest fiction piece, "Girls Just Wanna Have" by Rachel M. Beavers, out now on PJO.
#fiction #pinchjournal #litmag

Girls Just Wanna Have
By Rachel M. Beavers

Your bed looks like it’s going to eat you, mouth ravenous and open and red like blood. I kick my shoes off next to your desk, black chunky boots that make a thunking sound when they hit real wood, not the cheap Ikea shit. The zipper of my dress catches on my tights and rips them. Another pair ruined. They’re coming off anyway, so I strip down and stand tall for your careless inspection. You’re just going for the bed, like you want to be swallowed up.

The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jun 30

To close out the month of June, "On Coming Out" by Emma Thomas Jones uses natural imagery to reflect upon the feeling of such a singular and distinctive process. Read it on PJO now.
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

On Coming Out
By Emma Thomas Jones

The feathers were slender,
brown like grill marks
or swatches on an aspen.

They belonged to a house
sparrow, clogged
my throat until I fingered

my uvula, burst my lips
like a pillow, feathers
scattering the staircase.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jun 23

A new poem has been published on PJO! Read "I Used to Have Green Thumbs" by Seth Wade on our website now!
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

I Used to Have Green Thumbs
By Seth Wade

Fat, wrath, cobwebs in gin: splashed
hamburger grease burning our arms as we
thrashed to beats of Sting, of KISS—

outside, the lilacs
barked, You
are not
a man.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jun 16

Here is a preview of our latest piece, "Employment History (Partial)" by Sera Gamble. Read the full poem on our site now!
#poetry #pinchjournal #litmag

EMPLOYMENT
HISTORY
(PARTIAL)
Sera Gamble

Employment History (Partial)
By Sera Gamble

I'm naked again on a horse for minimum wage.
My pain tolerance is insanely high.
It's good for business

for a haunted house
to pretend to be
a home.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · Jun 9

Read our latest nonfiction piece, “Middle-aged Lesbian Born Late Emerges Enthusiastically to Oblivious World” by Isaman Cann, out now on PJO!

MIDDLE-AGED LESBIAN BORN LATE EMERGES ENTHUSIASTICALLY TO OBLIVIOUS WORLD
Isaman Cann

Middle-aged Lesbian Born Late Emerges Enthusiastically to Oblivious World
By Isaman Cann

Saturday, I had a very expensive lunch, just in case the woman who wasn’t right for me could be won by generosity. Rationally, I did not want her. Irrationally, I did. This woman was not for me for about six different reasons. And I knew that, except she was willing to speak to me. And we were both lesbians. Like she knew I was a lesbian, and I knew she was a lesbian. And how often does that happen in the old country I might have come from? Then add in that we were both single and both wanting not to be single. These facts were so loud, and so lovely, I couldn’t think of anything else. The fact that I would be miserable in her life and she in mine, that we wanted different things and had different values—well it seemed in the moment that these were small things one might be able to overlook on account of no relationship being perfect.

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The Pinch @pinchjournal.bsky.social · May 13

We're thrilled to announce the winners of the Pinch Literary Award in Poetry selected by Raye Hendrix. A big THANK YOU to everyone who sent us their work, and congratulations to the winner McKenzie Teter, and the runners-up Sandra Gómez and Carlina Duan.

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