top of page

10

READ • WATCH • LISTEN

Ciara Alfaro's parrot is loose, and he's named his true love Nothing. Now that JeFF Stumpo's antipsychotics have kicked in, he is writing an obituary for the supernatural. Zama Madinana sunbathes his hopes while Chloe Clark watches a piece of the Ariadne crash into the parking lot of the Noah's Ark Waterpark. Andy Tran smokes a cigarette with Mom for the first time. Siobhan Jean-Charles studies the anatomy of a cliche, picking it apart to hear it hum in her hand, so she can give us a poem we haven't seen before. D.W. Davis is up on a ladder, watching us, while Clara Chow teaches us how not to name a girl. Jessica Treadway delivers a blow to the solar plexus. Zachariah Claypole White urges us to dream of belligerent kindness measured against whale's tooth and song. Sanika Phawde is passing along an alert from the state: the water supply is contaminated. Caroline Picker is in Växjö as Runesson snaps his iconic photo of Danuta, "The Woman with the Handbag," while Will Cordeiro hangs out in a field with Tyler, who likes to boost things for kicks—smalltime stuff like candy bars or drugstore sunglasses. Delaney S. Saul does a magic trick, but it's a slow burn: wait for the payoff. Farai Chaka waits, curled in a ball on his bathroom floor. Adrienne Licata introduces us to the candlemaker: will we accept her bargain? Brandon Lopez drives us past forgotten churches with white paint chipped onto the ground below, past towns where what looks like poverty is a simple approach to life—but Paige Blair doesn't go to church anymore. And all the while, Michele Herman is sitting in Paulette Nash's small backyard on Melvin Street, watching us wander, our Dr. Scholl's warm and smooth and loyally rising with our every step to meet our heels. 

POETRY

FARAI

CHAKA

"Lake Kariba, 2024"

and other poems

“There, she touches my arm soft; opposite of aftermath.

...read more

ChakaSubnivean.jpg

SIOBHAN

JEAN-CHARLES

 

“1983, In This Case”

and other poems

"He restitches with Catherine Flon’s / blue for the Black and red for the mulatto."

...read more

SiobahnJeanCharles_edited_edited.jpg

ZACHARIAH

CLAYPOLE

WHITE

"OCD Sonnet #7"

and other poems

“god i hate airports sometimes i say flying / but really it's airports the emptiness"

...read more

ClaypoleWhiteSubnivean.jpg

SANIKA

PHAWDE

 

"Yelp Review"

and other poems

"It is raining outside, and inside / our 300 sq ft studio apartment."

...read more

SanikaPhawde.jpg

ZAMA

MADINANA

"Karibu"

and other poems

"we are all here / bathed in grey dust / of johannesburg’s deserted / mines"

...read more

ZamaMadinana.jpg

JEFF

STUMPO

 

[Tonight you are wascally...]”

and other poems

"you wrap your long ears into /
a turban...
"

 

...read more

JeffStumpoSubnivean.jpeg

PAIGE

BLAIR

 

“October, Southwest Missouri”

and other poems

"running through the churchyard in dirty, cold bare feet"

...read more

PaigeBlairSubnivean_edited.jpg

CAROLINE

PICKER

 

"Danuta"

and other poems

"a swing saying not in my town, / saying never forget"

...read more

Caroline_Picker_Subnivean.jpg

BRANDON

LOPEZ

"Time Served"

and other poems

“Tattoo hugged the buck closely, like it was / his to possess, and it was"

...read more

Brandon_Lopez.jpg

FICTION

CIARA

ALFARO

"The Saddest Barbara Walters Parrot in the World"

"To locals, Pepito was known for sitting outside the southside butcher shop, calling phrases I won’t even entertain memorializing."

...read more

CiaraAlfaroSubnivean_edited_edited.jpg

D.W.

DAVIS

"A Scan"

"He squints, trying to see through the limbs and trees. Is there something up there?"

...read more

D.W.+Davis.jpg

DELANEY S.

SAUL

"A Casual Girl"

"Then, when I broke up with her, she asked me to traffic illegal fireworks over the border."

...read more

Delaney_S._Saul_Author_Headshot.jpeg

CLARA

CHOW

 

"How Not to Name a Girl"

"Do not use the words for greatness, expansiveness or hard-metal radicals."

...read more

Clara_Chow_photo.JPG

WILL

CORDEIRO

 

"Scrapbook"

"It dragged itself in a slow circle, one set of wings beating, helpless and strobe-like, the other wings dead and untrembling."

...read more

Cordeiro_Subnivean_V2.jpg

MICHELE

HERMAN

 

"Terry"

"There’s a space next to the boy in the cutoffs and you walk on your knees to it."

...read more

MicheleHermanSubnivean_edited_edited.jpg

CHLOE

CLARK

"Were the Sky to Fall Where Would You Be"

"Her first and
reasonable thought was that it must have been part of an airplane."

...read more

ChloeClarkSubnivean.jpg

JESSICA

TREADWAY

"The Boy on the Skateboard"

"My mother woke with a start and said, 'Who are all these people?'"

...read more

Treadway_Subnivean.jpeg

ANDY

TRAN

"Birdsong"

"64 people died on board, as well as 125 people in the building."

...read more

BC601400-D49E-4D63-9558-3C23573D41F2_edited.jpg

LISTEN

SUBNIVEAN
EPISODE 5: TEETH

Get ready to be read to like a baby at bedtime. In Episode 5, Subnivean presents stories and poems that have got teeth—the kind that get in deep, and lodge in the bone—by Jervey Tervalon, AJ Donley and Leila Farjami. Special thanks to voice actors Horane Daley, Kaya Wheatley and Chloë Hill, and to our editing and production team: Ryan Joyce, Tierell Chillious, Mathews Frank and Soma Mei Sheng Frazier.

jerveytervalon_edited.jpg
_edited.jpg
Headshot.jpg

WATCH

THE CANDLEMAKER
by ADRIENNE LICATA

When the candlemaker offers you a deal, will you take it?

ABOUT THE CREATOR

Adrienne Licata's The Candlemaker won the Creative Writing Program's top award in digital storytelling at SUNY Oswego, where she is presently a Creative Writing Major.

"THIS. I became overwhelmed with emotion as I followed the journey of the candlemaker. The music was brilliantly composed, animations were clean, and the writing was simply beautiful. Highly recommend submitting this to wider competition. I look forward to seeing more of this storyteller's work."

— Aunnoy Badruzzaman

Senior Digital Content Producer and artist

featured in Billboard, Pitchfork and SPIN 

bottom of page