Variant Literature
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variantlit.bsky.social
Variant Literature
@variantlit.bsky.social
Variant Literature is a small press and magazine.

http://variantlit.com/

Issue 22 coming in early 2026!
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⚠️ 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
January 13, 2026 at 2:49 PM
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🌸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!
January 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
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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
.
From 'The Fun of Speaking English' (2012)
—Dorothea Grossman

#poetry #poems #poem
January 7, 2026 at 2:37 PM
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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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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
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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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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I'm listening to the audiobook, which is excellent. ❤️📖📚
January 5, 2026 at 12:27 AM
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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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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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Sparrow’s Work Song
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
December 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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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.
December 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
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December 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
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thankful to @mayacpopa.bsky.social for including this wonderful Ellen Bass poem in her newsletter today
December 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
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Calling poets! Shō Poetry Journal opens for submissions tomorrow, December 15, at midnight MST.

Full guidelines: shopoetryjournal.com/submissions/
Submit here: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
December 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM