in parentheses

---

The Summer 2023 Edition of In Parentheses is now available on print and digital platforms! This issue is the final of Volume 7.

Click here to view the entire edition for free and compatible viewing at our MagCloud marketplace. You may choose to also purchase digital or print editions in various formats. In any case, we thank you for your support of In Parentheses!

To Submit your piece for future consideration, submit here.

---

In the Summer 2023 Edition, our 24th release to date, we have featured the following esteemed contributors.

(If you are a contributor please click here.)

Poetry

“Continuation of Another“ & “Scratch Made Helpless” — Thomas Osatchoff, together with family, is building a self-sustaining home near a waterfall. Recent work has appeared in The Decadent Review, Mercury Retrograde, mutiny! magazine, New Note Poetry, Letters Journal, Red Coyote, Red Weather, Thin Air, Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal, and a poetry collection is forthcoming from Nauset Press. — 9

“Release,” “The Urn,” “Complex Simplicity,” “Big Boy” & “Shepherd” — Daithí Kearney is an Irish poet and musician. From Co. Kerry, he now lives and lectures in Co. Louth on the east coast. His poetry is inspired by his surroundings and his young family. His poems have been recently published in Paddler Press, Patchwork Folklore Journal, Bubble Magazine, and Martello. — 9-10

“Determination for Transformation,” “Going Nuts for Donuts,” “Global Justice,” “Knowing a Subject,” & “Rely Ability” — Alex Andy Phuong earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from California State University—Los Angeles in 2015. He was a former Statement Magazine editor who currently writes passionately. He has written film reviews for MovieBoozer, and has contributed to Mindfray. He writes hoping to inspire the ones who dream. — 11-12

“Self Sabotage” — Devaki Devay is an Indian writer of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Find their other work at Barren Magazine and Peatsmoke Journal. Their debut chapbook, Looking in Light, is now out with Bottlecap Press. Follow them @DevakiDevay on Twitter. — 12

“Ice, Shattering” & “Meditations of Bee Watching” — Steve Gerson writes poetry and flash about life’s dissonance. He has published in CafeLit, Panoplyzine, Crack the Spine, Decadent Review Vermilion, In Parentheses, Wingless Dreamer, Big Bend Literary Magazine, Coffin Bell, and more, plus his chapbooks Once Planed Straight; Viral; and The 13th Floor: Step into Anxiety from Spartan Press. — 12-13

“The Orchard and the Ocean” & “Sister Sails Upon the Sea” — Walter Weinschenk is an attorney, writer and musician. Walter’s writing has appeared in a number of literary publications including The Carolina Quarterly, Lunch Ticket and others. He is the author of “The Death of Weinberg: Poems and Stories” (Kelsay Books, 2023). More of Walter’s work can be found at walterweinschenk.com. — 13-14

“I Follow in the Footsteps of Generations” — Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His poetry collections are Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge, The Madness Of Qwerty, A Foetal Heart and Bones Speaking With Hard Tongues. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/ website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com — 13

“Cliche,” “Chain Reaction,” & “Sensitivity” — Sarah Dent is a former management consultant turned freelance writer, artist, and photographer. Embracing creativity has been at the heart of her healing journey as she works to recover from burnout and better manage her chronic illnesses and disabilities. Sarah lives in Chicago with her husband and two black cats. — 14-15

“La Rue des Reves [Dream Street],” “Living through the Dying,” & “Prose-Poem: Jaundice” — Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, / @mae_westside / a four time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. Apprenticed to the Night [UniVerse Press, 2023] and Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide [Ukiyoto Publishing, 2023] are her latest poetry titles. — 15

“Scorched” — Emma Wells is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published with various literary journals and magazines. She enjoys writing flash fiction and short stories also. Emma won Wingless Dreamer’s Bird Poetry Contest of 2022 and her short story entitled “Virginia Creeper” was selected as a winning title
by WriteFluence Singles Contest in 2021. Her first novel is entitled Shelley’s Sisterhood which is due to be published in late 2023. — 16

“Moderation Equals,” “Florida,” “Welcome In,” & “Uncreased” — Sheila E. Murphy’s most recent books are Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023) and Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Her Wikipedia page can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy — 16-17

“We Could Have Been Beautiful” & “What We Told Shakespeare about Tupac” — Dana Kinsey / @wordsbydk @dana.kinsey / is an actor and teacher published in Fledgling Rag, Drunk Monkeys, ONE ART, On the Seawall, Sledgehammer Lit, West Trestle Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Champagne Room, Hive, SWWIM, Wild Roof Journal, Prometheus Dreaming, and Prose Online. Her chapbook, Mixtape Venus, is published by I. Giraffe Press. Visit wordsbyDK.com. — 18

“Unrequited” & “Persistence,” — Sheila Black / @sheilafionablack @sheilafionab / is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Radium Dream (Salmon Poetry, 2022). She is a co-editor of Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (Cinco Puntos, 2011). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The New York Times and other places. She is a co-founder of Zoeglossia, a non-profit to build community for poets with disabilities. — 18-19

“Radiation x30” & “My Mother is Not A Metaphor for Anything” — Amy Meckler’s poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Rattapallax, Margie, Lyric, Alyss, and Cider Press Review, among other publications. Her first collection, What All the Sleeping Is For, won the 2002 Defined Providence Press Poetry Book Award. She received her MFA from Hunter College and lives in New York City. — 20

“I Feel Sorry for the Boy” — Al Amin Al Hassan / @iam_alhassanalamin / interrogates existential themes of identity, social justice, history as well as larger human narratives in his poems. His poems have been published on Odd Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, Sword & Kettle Press and The Road to Nowhere. — 20

“Eco Dysphagia,” & “Row, Row, Row Your Exquisite Boat” — Rikki Santer’s poetry has received many honors including several Pushcart, Ohioana and Ohio Poet book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her twelfth poetry collection, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me, is a sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington and was recently published by the arts press, Cereal Box Studio. Please contact her through her website, https://rikkisanter.com. — 21

“Cool Girl Does,” “Cool Girl Actually,” “It’s Not Cool Girl,” & “Cool Girl’s Finale” — Summer Smith lives and attends school in Salisbury, MD. They currently study creative writing with a focus on poetry and nonfiction at Salisbury University as a junior undergrad. Smith has also contributed to Salisbury University’s newspaper The Flyer as Opinion editor. Smith is originally from Baltimore and studied literary arts at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts. — 21-22

“Someone On A Train” & “Well Read” — Kenneth Pobo (he/him) / @kenpobo / is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press), Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books), and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press). — 23

“On Reading Biography” — Benjamin Goluboff is the author of Ho Chi MInh: A Speculative Life in Verse and Biking Englewood: An Essay on the White Gaze, both from Urban Farmhouse Press. Goluboff teaches at Lake Forest College. Some of his work can be read at https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/goluboff — 23

“Sheila’s Mother” & “Words” — John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review and Rathalla Review. Latest books, Covert, Memory Outside The Head and Guest Of Myself are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review and Open Ceilings. — 24

“I’d Feel The Same” — Stephen Grant is a Toronto poet and writer, the latter on art. His poetry reflects his search for meaning through love and loss. Like traffic lights in Quebec, he assumes that 50 words is merely a suggestion although this pithy note is exactly 50 words, at least more or less. — 25

“The Whole World” — Adam Jon Miller lives on the Gulf of Mexico with his wife, Tracy, and two lovely human sparks, Solomon and Vera. Adam is in real estate and can dish out more synonyms for “beach house” than an online thesaurus. Adam recently had poetry included in the William & Mary Review. — 25

“Wintry June” & “An Abyss of Blue” — Yuu Ikeda (she/they) is a Japan based poet, writer. She writes poetry on her website. https://poetryandcoffeedays.wordpress.com/ And her latest poetry chapbook Phantasmal Flowers in The Eden Where Only I Know will be published by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press in July. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram: @yuunnnn77 — 25

“Ode to the Freckles on Your Back” & “The Heart is Last to Go” — Madeira Miller is a writer and poet seeking a creative writing degree at Missouri State University. Her work appears in Dreamstones of Summer and Praised by December by WinglessDreamer, Every Day Fiction online magazine, F3LL digital magazine, The Gateway Review Literary Magazine, and The Bookends Review Creative Arts Journal. — 26

“ID Please” & “Of Wisteria A Wall” — Heikki Huotari attended a one-room school and spent summers on a forest-fire lookout tower. Since retiring from academia/mathematics he has published poems in numerous journals and in five poetry collections. His manuscript, To Justify The Butterfly, was a prize winner in the 2022 James Tate Chapbook Competition. — 27

“A Nightmare” & “December 2021” — Best of the Net nominee, Rich Glinnen, has had his poetry featured on Rich Vos’s and Bonnie McFarlane’s podcast My Wife Hates Me, and is a mainstay at the Nuyorican Poets Café. His work can be read in various print and online journals, as well as on his Tumblr and Instagram pages. He currently has two cats, two kids, and one wife. — 27-28

“Where There’s Fire” — Dan Raphael’s most recent books are In the Wordshed (Last Word Press, ’22), Maps Menus Emanations (cyberwit, ’21) and Moving with Every (Flowstone, ’20.) Newer poems appear in Fresh Words, Otoliths, Egophobia, Strix and eratio. Most Wednesdays day writes and records a current events poem for The KBOO Evening News. — 28

“Dreams…” — John M. Davis currently lives in Visalia, California. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Comstock Review, Descant (Canada), Gyroscope Review, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Constellations, The West Trade Review and Reunion: The Dallas Review. The Mojave, a chapbook, was published by the Dallas Community Poets. — 28

“kdpb xw cqn yxalq” — August Reynold’s work has appeared in a variety of journals such as Blue Unicorn,
Red Cedar Review, Full House Literary, and more. He authored a collection with Atmosphere Press titled The Freedom of Lavenders and won the 2023 Free Verse Poetry Award in Bacopa Literary Review, was long-listed for erbacce-prize 2023. — 29

“Water and Wave” — Eugene Datta’s recent poetry and fiction have appeared (or are due out) in The Dalhousie Review, Main Street Rag, Red Noise Collective, Rise Up Review, The Bombay Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. Born and raised in India, he lives in Aachen, Germany, where he works as an editor of scientific writing. — 30- 31

“Spring Under the Walt Whitman Bridge” — Rebecca Green is a medical editor and former associate editor
at Glassworks magazine. She teaches in Rowan University’s First-Year Writing program. She is a Denise Gess Literary Award recipient for poetry. When she’s not writing, she enjoys gardening, drinking a hot cup of tea on the porch, and watching classic cinema. — 31

“At the School of Swarming Bees” — Mark Strohschein is a Washington state poet who has authored a full-length book of poems, Walking a Country Mile, and recent chapbooks, Deep Roots, Heavy Crowns and Reflections from Clear, Ancient Ponds. His poems have appeared in Flint Hills Review, Lips Poetry Magazine, Quibble and a poetry anthology, Dulce Poetica. — 31

“I May Be a Proven Fool, But I’ve Made a Liar Out of Time“ — Sarah Sorensen, MA, MLIS is a queer writer based in the Metro Detroit area. She has been published over fifty times in small presses and is now working on a novel. Sarah spends her very best days covered in rescue animals. Her work is forthcoming in Allegheny, so stay tuned! — 31

“Sparkling Song,” “Man in the Echosphere,” & “Basket Case [1]” — Phillipe Martin Châtelain is the Managing Editor of In Parentheses. He is a poet from New York City with a Masters Degree in Poetry from The New School. He writes as someone in the tradition of the urban troubadour or the flaneur–wandering, taking notes. He believes that poetry of our generation has taken on a much more digital definition. Furthermore, it is important for New Modernist writers like those exhibited in In Parentheses Literary Magazine to assume the forms of media available in order to carry on the history of Sublime Art. His series taking shots alone was self-published in 2012-2015. The self-published collection FACETS (2019) is now available. @philo.den — 32-33

---

Long Form & Prose

“Quarfberry Vodka” — Gavin Boyter / @gavin.boyter / is a Scottish writer and filmmaker living by the beach
in Margate, Kent. He has published two travel memoirs about running ludicrously long distances, Downhill from Here and Running the Orient. The latter book charts his 2300-mile run from Paris to Istanbul, following the 1883 route of the Orient Express. Gavin’s stories have been published in Constellations, Blueing the Blade, DIAGRAM, Riptide, The Closed Eye Open, Bright Flash, La Piccioletta Barca, Freshwater Review and many more. He is the writer-director of the 2015 independent film Sparks and Embers. Elena in Exile, self-published in 2023 is his first crime novel. — 36-37

“The Trajectory of Taboos” & “American Boys” — Elizabeth Wadsworth Ellis’ work is published in Antonym, Barzakh, Bluntly, Coffin Bell, Denver, Drunk Monkey, Enizigam, Haute Dish, Helen Lit, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, In Parentheses, Indie Blue, Meat for tea, Obra/Artifact, Denver Quarterly, Open Arts Forum, Oregon State’s 45th Parallel, Poached Hare, Poets Choice, Underwood, Wingless Dreamer. — 38-39

“The Winged” — Joshua Sabatini was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In October 2002, he moved to San Francisco, California. He’s currently on retreat in Katama, Massachusetts. His 2023 published writings include “Pagodians” in Still Point Arts Quarterly, “In the Pine” in The Closed Eye Open, “The Crocus” in Daffodil Cosmic Journal, and “Ivy Anne” in Die Leere Mitte. The author can be contacted at JoshuaSabatini@gmail.com. — 40

“March 2023” — Aarron Sholar’s / @aarron_sholar / works have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He is a transsexual writer who has pieces published in The McNeese Review, The Under Review, Sunspot Lit, Broadkill Review, and others. He holds an MFA from MSU, Mankato and a BA from Salisbury University. He serves at the Prose Editor for Beaver Magazine. — 41

“Devotion” — Rachel Racette, born 1999, in Balcarres, Saskatchewan. Interested in creating her own world and characters and loves writing science-fiction and fantasy. She has always loved books of fantasy and science fiction as well as comics. Lives with her supportive family and cat, Cheshire. Lives vicariously in fantasy settings of her own making. Website: http://www.racheldotsdot.wordpress.com — 41

“A Letter to the Television Mother Smashed with a Rock” — Marie-Louise McGuinness / @mlmcguinness /comes from a wonderfully neurodiverse household in rural Northern Ireland. She has work published in numerous literary magazines including Splonk, Bending Genres, Intrepidus Ink, The Metaworker, JAKE, Roi Faineant Press, Flash Fiction Magazine, Cerasus Magazine and The Airgonaut amongst others. She enjoys writing from a sensory perspective. — 41

“Angel Oak” — Babak Movahed / @movahedbabak / received both a Bachelor and Master’s degree in
American Literature. He defined the type of writer he wanted to become by examining the prose of writers like Hemingway, Faulkner, and Baldwin. Additionally, he received his first publication credit after an original short story was published by his university’s literary magazine. Babak still writes creatively in his free time. His recent works have been published in the The Hungry Chimera, The Blue Mountain Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Allium, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Blue as an Orange, and Table/FEAST — 42

“The Last Men on Earth” — Jan Karlo Lopez / @StoryByJanKarlo / is a pathological liar turned writer. His self- published short-story anthologies, No Happy Endings, Kick Door Galore, Tales From The Cliff, False Profit$, and most recently Noxious Norms have generated over a thousand dollars of revenue on GumRoad. All the profits have been donated to a foundation that buys shoes for underprivileged kids in the Oak Cliff community and to purchase items for teachers based in Oak Cliff schools. Needless to say, Jan Karlo is Oak Cliff born, raised, and a resident. He has been published in Open: Journal of Arts & Letters. — 42-43

“The Porcelain Room” — Olivia Fishwick (they/them) is a freelance writer in Tennessee. They used to live in Arizona, but the desert was weird enough without getting them involved. They are currently writing a book about the Internet called The World Record. They enjoy reading metafiction, playing video games, and the smell of petrichor. — 44

“Servience“ — A full-time professional entertainer and musician, Cora Tate has written five novels, three novellas (two published), six novelettes (two published), and a hundred short stories, of which seventy have appeared
in eighty literary journals in ten countries. Her short story “While The Iron Is Hot” won the Fair Australia Prize. — 45

“Diorama” — Leigh Fairchild-Coppoletti is a writer and history teacher based in Massachusetts. Her work can be found in Into the Void Magazine, The Bangalore Review, Flying South Literary Magazine 2021 and elsewhere. — 46

---

Editorial

“Critical Response to Tracy J. Smith’s ‘My God, It’s Full of Stars’” — Alexander Burdette is a multimedia artist with a driving interest in liminality, visibility, kindness, and the mundane. E studies theatre and creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, where eir textual analysis skills aid em in eir written and performance work. Eir audiovisual and performance art has recently been shown at the Tephra Institute for Contemporary Art, the Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theatre, the Anderson, and the Kennedy Center. Eir written work has recently been published by Poet’s Choice, Alan Squire Publishing, and Red Noise Collective. E likes the colors on plants, cloudy days, scansion analysis, and goat cheese on eir pizza. — 47

“Class Conscious Comics: ‘Charity I, II, III’” — Donald Patten / @donaldLpatten1 @donald.patten / is an artist from Belfast, Maine. He is currently a senior in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Maine. As an artist, he produces oil paintings and graphic novels. Artworks of his have been exhibited in galleries across the Mid-Coast region of Maine. — 48

---

Multimedia

“Cacti Circles” & “Descending” — KJ Hannah Greenberg uses her trusty point-and-shoot camera to capture the order of G-d’s universe and Paint 3D to capture the chaos of her universe. Sometimes, it remains insufficient for her to sate herself by applying verbal whimsy to pastures where gelatinous wildebeests roam or fey hedgehogs play. — 1, 52

“Dancing Shadows” — Josie Smart / @Art_from_smart / is a visual portrait artist residing in Queens, NY. Their approach to portraiture attempts to probe into what it is to be human and often explores gender expression, expectation, and self censorship. Outside of their artistic practice, they can be found with their nose in a book, holding a hot cup of coffee, or going on long walks in their neighborhood. Please feel free to reach out with any commissions, art collab suggestions, or even just to talk about latest readings! “Dancing Shadows” is a Charcoal drawing on 24” x 18” paper. This piece is a self portrait of sorts that relays the artist’s experience of a particularly dark and lonely winter. It is about finding a new perspective in the bleakest of settings and celebrating the ever changing beauty of dancing in dim light, creating from all of the shadows that dance in a harmonious unity. — 34-35

---