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variantlit.bsky.social
Variant Literature
@variantlit.bsky.social
1K followers 320 following 120 posts
Variant Literature is a small press and magazine.

http://variantlit.com/

Issue 22 coming in early 2026!
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the-engine-idling.bsky.social
⚠️ DASHBOARD AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT⚠️

#writingcommunity unite!

We wanna give out 3 awards to poetic pieces published in 2025 in OTHER online litmags!

Deadline: 1/31/26.

Writing Peers, Readers, & Editors can ALL nominate via Google Form: buff.ly/FMfhtG5

Rules & Details: buff.ly/vdm5FlB

⬇️ ⬇️
January 17, 2026 at 7:55 PM
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phoebejournal.bsky.social
Alex Espinoza, the fiction judge for phoebe’s 2026 Spring Contest! Learn more in the post below ⬇️
January 17, 2026 at 9:02 PM
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phoebejournal.bsky.social
Diane Seuss, the poetry judge for phoebe’s 2026 Spring Contest! Learn more in the post below ⬇️
January 17, 2026 at 9:03 PM
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benkline.bsky.social
Bringing this back to the timeline while I'm working on .... some new nose-growing questions and answers this morning/afternoon!

www.palettepoetry.com/2025/12/22/e...
Excerpts from the Pinocchio Interviews - Palette Poetry
"And that magic's smell—vernix and blood / and sweat and earth—I didn't register it / as life. I sensed it and saw my decay."
www.palettepoetry.com
January 17, 2026 at 5:47 PM
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lowermelody.bsky.social
Two new poems up today in @aprosexia.org: "Burning Brain" and "Sad/House/Keeping," a pair of vertical rhyming structures about mental illness & wellness.

My thanks to editor RL for spearheading an interesting new project & for including my work.

www.aprosexia.org/case-2-fall-...
D.W. Baker | APROSEXIA LIT
www.aprosexia.org
January 17, 2026 at 8:57 PM
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shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
We’re 30 days into our reading period and already Shō No. 9 is shaping up to be a great one.

Send bangers!
January 14, 2026 at 4:15 PM
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toddedillard.bsky.social
Hi friends! I am hosting a poetry workshop focused on line breaks via ONLY POEMS in TEN DAYS! Check it out! shop.onlypoems.com/products/end...
THE END OF THE LINE ✦ Todd Dillard
In this workshop, we will decouple the idea of a line break from historical influence and intuition, and explore a variety of craft strategies to use when considering how to break a line.
shop.onlypoems.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:39 PM
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toddedillard.bsky.social
Really, really happy to have a new poem in one of the first literary journals I ever read as a teen trying to find poems in the world. Here’s “After A Few Beers, My Uncle Asks Me How” in The Southern Review.
After a Few Beers, My Uncle Asks Me How for Uncle Tommy do you write a poem? It's like laying bricks, I say. You put down one word, then another, and after a while you've made this path. Bullshit, my uncle says. Tell me the truth. The trick, I say, is the bricks can be anything. A window, the moon, even snow. Snow, my uncle says. I remember when I was stationed in Germany in the 80’s. There was this huge field outside the base. It was the kind of cold that yanks your balls up into your stomach, so much snow you'd smoke a little hash and forget the planet you were on was earth. I was on guard duty. Some civilian on a snowmobile raced out of the woods and rocketed across the field, waves of powder foaming up around him. I remember I shouted: Hey Man! Hey man you're trespassing! But he didn't hear. I didn't hear the gun fire, but when he fell off I knew why. And the snowmobile growling like some animal. I ask my uncle, If you could catch the bullet, if you could turn the bullet into anything else, what would you pick? My uncle takes a long drink. Shit man, he says. Maybe a bird? And it appears: a little white bird in his hands, its wingtips freckled with red. What do you feed the bird? I ask, and, like a piece of bread, my uncle tears a corner off the field. The bird pecks it from his palms. How did we get here? my uncle asks, but there's so much snow, we can’t see the path. Before us, a dark wood. You hear that? my uncle asks. And I do. Something's in there. Something ancient, growling. Second page of the poem in the journal; the entire poem is in the previous image and here: After a Few Beers, My Uncle Asks Me How for Uncle Tommy do you write a poem? It's like laying bricks, I say. You put down one word, then another, and after a while you've made this path. Bullshit, my uncle says. Tell me the truth. The trick, I say, is the bricks can be anything. A window, the moon, even snow. Snow, my uncle says. I remember when I was stationed in Germany in the 80’s. There was this huge field outside the base. It was the kind of cold that yanks your balls up into your stomach, so much snow you'd smoke a little hash and forget the planet you were on was earth. I was on guard duty. Some civilian on a snowmobile raced out of the woods and rocketed across the field, waves of powder foaming up around him. I remember I shouted: Hey Man! Hey man you're trespassing! But he didn't hear. I didn't hear the gun fire, but when he fell off I knew why. And the snowmobile growling like some animal. I ask my uncle, If you could catch the bullet, if you could turn the bullet into anything else, what would you pick? My uncle takes a long drink. Shit man, he says. Maybe a bird? And it appears: a little white bird in his hands, its wingtips freckled with red. What do you feed the bird? I ask, and, like a piece of bread, my uncle tears a corner off the field. The bird pecks it from his palms. How did we get here? my uncle asks, but there's so much snow, we can’t see the path. Before us, a dark wood. You hear that? my uncle asks. And I do. Something's in there. Something ancient, growling. Cover of the 2026 Winter Edition of The Southern Review featuring a blue-black background with a woman’s long white hair
January 13, 2026 at 2:49 PM
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susanlleary.bsky.social
🌸Weekend BOOK Giveaway!🌸

Quote post with one of your most cherished poems, whether your own or someone else’s - bonus points if it includes flowers - and you’ll be entered to win a FREE signed, pre‑release copy of MORE FLOWERS, out February 1st with @triohousepress.org!

Winner announced Monday!
Weekend Book Giveaway! Your chance to win a FREE signed, pre‑release copy of MORE FLOWERS! Winner announced Monday! Book mailed Tuesday! Coming soon with Trio House Press
January 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
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toddedillard.bsky.social
I love how "like a gong" feels like a mallet being swung in the air to strike the gong and the shimmery sound of it afterwards

I also love this last line and how it plays so well juxtaposing "everything," without which it loses a lot of meaning IMO
forgottenpoets.bsky.social Forgotten Poets @forgottenpoets.bsky.social · 13d
.
From 'The Fun of Speaking English' (2012)
—Dorothea Grossman

#poetry #poems #poem
I have to tell you I have to tell you, there are times when the sun strikes me like a gong, and I remember everything, even your ears.
January 7, 2026 at 2:37 PM
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janezwart.bsky.social
To have @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social feature my poem on @slowdownshow.org would be a dream come true had I ever thought to dream such a wild thing.
Thank you to all the folks who make this podcast, which has introduced me to many, many poets I admire.

www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2026...
1429: Midlife Crisis by Jane Zwart
Today’s poem is Midlife Crisis by Jane Zwart.
www.slowdownshow.org
January 7, 2026 at 3:12 PM
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mattjakubowski.bsky.social
Thank you to all the readers and editors at the journals who published my work in 2025. It was, at age 50, my most successful year ever, with 7 new stories out. I’m so grateful to be part of the micro and flash community.
January 6, 2026 at 1:27 PM
variantlit.bsky.social
We are so proud that "Escape to a Burning Moon" by @kyleisamu.bsky.social from Variant issue 20 is included here! Congratulations all!
January 6, 2026 at 8:27 PM
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kyleisamu.bsky.social
What an absolute honor, thank you @variantlit.bsky.social and @bestmicrofiction.bsky.social for including me in this spectacular lineup!
January 6, 2026 at 6:12 PM
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jeirizary.bsky.social
I'm listening to the audiobook, which is excellent. ❤️📖📚
January 5, 2026 at 12:27 AM
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okaydonkeymag.com
OKD is open again for free subs until we reach our cap! Learn more about us and submit your best poetry or flash fiction: buff.ly/chQ4jpz

Okay Donkey is always open for tip jar ($2.50) or expedited ($4.00) subs! Your contribution helps us pay our contributors and cover other mag-related expenses.
January 1, 2026 at 3:01 PM
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chiaradilello.bsky.social
Check out these poets & presses, buy their books, support them!
@summ.bsky.social @gameoverbooks.bsky.social @majda.bsky.social @toddedillard.bsky.social @variantlit.bsky.social @hanvanderhart.bsky.social @ohiounivpress.bsky.social (cont'd)
necessarymess.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/r...
Recommended Reading 2025
Ten(ish) Small Press Titles I Enjoyed This Year Before we exit the madness that was 2025, here is an extremely subjective, non-exhaustive list of small press poetry titles that nourished me this ye…
necessarymess.wordpress.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:05 PM
variantlit.bsky.social
New work from poetry reader @lowermelody.bsky.social on this winter solstice ✨️
December 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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benkline.bsky.social
New work, from my summer stint of working on Twang's second volume.

villaineralit.com/2025/12/19/t...
Three Poems by Ben Kline
I liked to come quietly, the whole house asleep. I enjoyed it under my pillow, the fan and the cricket choir, focused on transcendence instead of a smile for cash, another grin in tractor trailer s…
villaineralit.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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mattjakubowski.bsky.social
4/ “Sparrow’s Work Song” in @variantlit.bsky.social

variantlit.com/sparrows-wor...
Sparrow’s Work Song
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
December 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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lowermelody.bsky.social
New review up today! "Musical Order and New Babel: on APOCALYPSE DANCE by Ethan McGuire" (2025: Wipf & Stock), in Radix Magazine. This full-length collection uses musicality in language to articulate a synthetic mysticism while bearing witness to 21st-century disasters.
The cover of Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire
December 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
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atlreview.bsky.social
On a beige background with gold snowflakes and red stars, is the announcement of Atlanta Review's Chapbook Competition. Win $500 + 25 copies. Submit by Dec. 31st. Final judge: Joan Kwon Glass. Submit at atlantareview.submittable.com.
December 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
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toddedillard.bsky.social
thankful to @mayacpopa.bsky.social for including this wonderful Ellen Bass poem in her newsletter today
Dead Butterfly BY ELLEN BASS For months my daughter carried a dead monarch in a quart mason jar. To and from school in her backpack, to her only friend's house. At the dinner table it sat like a guest alongside the pot roast. She took it to bed, propped by her pillow. Was it the year her brother was born? Was this her own too-fragile baby that had lived—so briefly—in its glassed world? Or the year she refused to go to her father's house? Was this the holding-her-breath girl she became there? This plump child in her rolled-down socks I sometimes wanted to haul back inside me and carry safe again. What was her fierce commitment? I never understood. We just lived with the dead winged thing as part of her, as part of us, weightless in its heavy jar.
December 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
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shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Calling poets! Shō Poetry Journal opens for submissions tomorrow, December 15, at midnight MST.

Full guidelines: shopoetryjournal.com/submissions/
Submit here: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
Copper-red and plum text contained in a 3D square with various shades of purple announce "Get your packets ready! Submissions open Dec 15" for Shō Poetry Journal's upcoming submission call. Copper-red header and plum body text contained in a 3D square with various shades of purple list basic guidelines for Shō Poetry Journal's upcoming submission call. Copper-red header and plum body text contained in a 3D square with various shades of purple list policies and requests for Shō Poetry Journal's upcoming submission call. Copper-red header and plum body text contained in a 3D square with various shades of purple list things that are "Good to know" for Shō Poetry Journal's upcoming submission call.
December 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM