Into the Impossible

by Mona Mehas

Webb delivered unseen images

Such that careers and dreams are made of We science fiction fans fell in love

With magic, near-infrared footage.

Colors highlight billion-year-old dust

Webb delivered unseen images

Like snowflakes gathered as old sages

Their wisdom blatant; must combust.

Stars wave to earth, dark matter, heavy

We’re left searching distant messages

Webb delivered unseen images

Was this a trap, a hidden levy?

Sweep me in bent light, fill my urges

I’ll care for tomorrow at daybreak

No gravity holds me down to ache

Webb delivered unseen images.

C

O N T R I B U T O R S

Lauren Sarkissian

Lauren Sarkissian (she/her) is an irl plague doctor based in Seattle. She is a health communicator, infectious disease researcher, and full-time corgi mom. You can find more of her ramblings, art, and photography at @lrnsark on Instagram.

Astrid Egger

Astrid Egger lives in Daajing Giids, Haida Gwaii (Canada). She loves to watch the tide line and Great Blue Herons. Her stories have appeared in Understorey Magazine, Sleet Magazine, CultureCult’s anthology Haus, and Blink-ink (forthcoming). She is a longterm volunteer with the Haida Gwaii Arts Council.

Julieanna Blackwell

Julieanna Blackwell is a writer of short stories and essays, flash fiction editor for 805lit (emeritus), and conducts Elements&Arcs Writing Workshops. Find her on Twitter @JBlackwell981, or Post News @JBlackwell, or better yet at www.JulieannaBlackwell. com

Raisa Reina

Raisa Reina is a Guyanese born writer currently suffering through editing her first novel. Her work has been featured in or is forthcoming in Rejection Letters, Unstamatic, trash to treasure lit and Six Sentences. She can be reached on twitter @sreads

Mona Mehas

Mona Mehas (she/her) writes about growing up poor, accumulating grief, and climate change. A retired, disabled teacher in Indiana, USA, she spends most days at her laptop with two old cats as chaperones. Previously, Mona used the pseudonym Patience Young. She’s published multiple essays, stories and poetry in Sad Goose Coop, Heartbalm, other journals, anthologies and two museums. In 2020, Mona watched every Star Trek show and movie in chronological order. Follow on Twitter @Patienc77732097 and linktr.ee/monaiv

Sarah Freia

Sarah Freia (she/her) is a multilingual author and actor of North African and Irish descent. She has lived and studied in Paris, London, and Toronto. She recently graduated with an International B.A. in French and Hispanic literature and a French B.Ed (Sorbonne Université / Glendon Campus), and has continued to hone her craft by enrolling at Gotham Writers Workshop and The Second City Conservatory. Sarah is rarely seen without a coffee, or her miniature dachshund, Alphonse.

Julian Mithra

Julian Mithra hovers between genders and genres, border-mongering and -mongreling. Winner of the 2023 Alcove Chapbook Prize, Promiscuous Ruin (WTAW, forthcoming) twists through labyrinthine deer stalks in the imperiled wilderness of inhibited desire. An experimental archive, Unearthingly (KERNPUNKT, 2022) excavates forgotten spaces. Read recent work in Arriving at a Shoreline, warm milk, Punt Volat, The Museum of Americana, and newsinews.

Lore Andreassen

Lore, or as they are known to the avians and god-touched: The Raven Queen, exists in this realm (namely, this Cooperative for Malady Possessed Birds) solely to ask the burning question that burns in the heart of all winged beasts: Quorum?

Cecilia Kennedy

Cecilia Kennedy (she/her) is a writer who taught English and Spanish in Ohio for 20 years before moving to Washington state with her family. Since 2017, she has published stories in international literary magazines and anthologies. Her work has appeared in Hearth & Coffin Literary Magazine, Maudlin House, Tiny Molecules, Rejection Letters, Meadowlark Review, Vast Chasm Literary Magazine, Kandisha Press, Ghost Orchid Press, and others. She currently works full time as a copywriter and does freelance work as a proofreader for Flash Fiction Magazine and as a concept editor for Running Wild Press, LLC. You can follow her on Twitter (@ckennedyhola).

Eli S. Evans

Eli S. Evans is the author of Obscure & Irregular, a small book of small stories that can be purchased from Moon Rabbit Books & Ephemera (and also probably Amazon). A larger book of mostly even smaller stories is forthcoming this spring, hopefully just in time for National No Pants Day on May 1st.

Julie A. Dickson

Julie A. Dickson writes poetry as if her life depends on it, on scraps of paper, voice files and on her laptop. Companioned by two rescued feral cats, Dickson advocates for captive elephants. A Push Cart nominee and contributor to over 50 journals, her poems resonate with life experiences in Misfit, Sledgehammer, Open Door and MasticadoresUS, among others. She has been a guest editor for 3 journals and is a past poetry board member.

Leslie Cairns

Leslie Cairns holds an MA degree in English Rhetoric. She lives in Denver, Colorado. She is a Pushcart Prize Nomination for 2022 in the Short Story category (‘Owl, Lunar, Twig’). She was an honorable mention in Flash 405’s call in Exposition Review (2022). Leslie has upcoming flash, short stories, and poetry in various magazines (Full Mood Magazine, Final Girl Zine, Londemere Lit, and others). Twitter: starbucksgirly

Vanessa Rickertsen

Vanessa Rickertsen would rather die than write one more clever bio.

Noll Griffin

Noll Griffin is a digital illustrator and linoleum printmaker living in Berlin, Germany. His work takes inspiration out of everything adorably odd, nature and nostalgia. He is also an occasional singer-songwriter with a few bedroom-recorded albums to his name floating around.

Jona L. Pedersen

Jona L. Pedersen is a recent graduate from the University of North Dakota, with a B.A. in English and B.Sc. in Fisheries & Wildlife Biology. With one foot in the arts and one in the sciences, their interest in biology often seeps into their writing. Their work appears in North Dakota Quarterly, The Allegheny Review, Floodwall Literary Magazine, and others. Find them on Twitter (@JonaLPedersen) or their website (www.jonalpedersen. com).