Variant Literature
@variantlit.bsky.social
Variant Literature is a small press and magazine. http://variantlit.com Summer 2026 issue out now!
Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 19 at 9:00 AM PT! Lemon Grove Writers will host a live Author Talk with Brenda Miller followed by a co-writing sprint. Her latest book, LOVE YOU, BYE, is a moving collection of poems and essays about the loss of her parents.
Soooooooooooo looking forward to this! Sign up today.
Nicole Tallman@natallman.bsky.social · 4w agoFriends, please join me & @jacklegpress.bsky.social on August 6, at 7 p.m., for A Very Gay Literary Happy Hour, featuring @chenchenwrites.bsky.social, @benkline.bsky.social & Richie Hofmann followed by an open mic. 🥂 www.eventbrite.com/e/a-very-gay...
I'm grateful to @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social for reprinting my review of @toddedillard.bsky.social's RAGNARÖK AT THE FATHER-DAUGHTER DANCE (2024: @variantlit.bsky.social), first published in @phillychapbook.bsky.social. Here is an excerpt:
Thanks for the shoutout on the shortlist!
Variant Literature@variantlit.bsky.social · 3w agoThe 2026 Variant Lit Poetry Prize shortlist is here! The shortlisted poems will now move on to the final round of judging. The three prize-winning poems will be published this September. Thank you for sharing your poetry with us and congratulations to this year's shortlisted poets:
Enjoying an evening of poetry and jazz with @benkline.bsky.social reading from his Lamda Award winning poetry book, "It Was Never Supposed To Be" at Juniper's in Covington
Enjoy the whole of @toddedillard.bsky.social 's masterful, What The Husband Keeps from Issue 20 of Stanchion Magazine. "All this time, I kept it safe. This is how I love you."
I write (and submit) so slowly anymore, that I often feel left behind or out of the general poetry scene. Things like this are a nice reminder that I am good at this and belong here :)
Variant Literature@variantlit.bsky.social · 3w agoThe 2026 Variant Lit Poetry Prize shortlist is here! The shortlisted poems will now move on to the final round of judging. The three prize-winning poems will be published this September. Thank you for sharing your poetry with us and congratulations to this year's shortlisted poets:
The 2026 Variant Lit Poetry Prize shortlist is here! The shortlisted poems will now move on to the final round of judging. The three prize-winning poems will be published this September. Thank you for sharing your poetry with us and congratulations to this year's shortlisted poets:
They haven’t announced it on here yet but it’s up on Instagram—I made the shortlist for @variantlit.bsky.social ‘s poetry prize :)
I’m stoked to have a poem shortlisted for The 2026 @variantlit.bsky.social Poetry Prize! Congrats to my fellow shortlisted peeps!! #poetrysky #poetrynews #poets #poetry
Friends, please join me & @jacklegpress.bsky.social on August 6, at 7 p.m., for A Very Gay Literary Happy Hour, featuring @chenchenwrites.bsky.social, @benkline.bsky.social & Richie Hofmann followed by an open mic. 🥂 www.eventbrite.com/e/a-very-gay...
The final paragraph of my latest review, "The Hologram and the Hunted: on FOLLOW THIS BLOOD TO FIND A DEAD THING by Charles K. Carter" (Ferbwood Press: 2026), published by @variantlit.bsky.social
Variant Literature@variantlit.bsky.social · 4w agoNew review up on the site from @lowermelody.bsky.social "Tension between comfortable illusion and disquieting reality animates Charles K. Carter’s Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (2026: Fernwood Press)." variantlit.com/book-review-...
New review up on the site from @lowermelody.bsky.social "Tension between comfortable illusion and disquieting reality animates Charles K. Carter’s Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (2026: Fernwood Press)." variantlit.com/book-review-...
The Hologram and the Hunted: on Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter
Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter (Fernwood Press: 2026) reviewed D.W. Baker for Variant Lit.
variantlit.com
Reminder -- I'm taking part in a reading with three other writers on Thursday! Now's your chance to register. Hope to see you there! :-)
A Hundred Pitchers of Honey Reading Series@hphseries.bsky.social · last mo.I'm home from traveling and THIS READING IS NOW LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY! Looking forward to hosting @mrdecember.bsky.social @bernadettegeyer.bsky.social @ignatius2u.bsky.social and David Sullivan on July 9, 6:30 Central. Register here! us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Don’t explain it, visit the link in bio 🌺 “Without Explanation”: Megan Nichols Reviews Susan L. Leary’s Poetry Collection More Flowers @triohousepress.org #babyeatbooks heavyfeatherreview.org/2026/07/06/m...
“Without Explanation”: Megan Nichols Reviews Susan L. Leary’s Poetry Collection More Flowers
In More Flowers, Susan L. Leary doesn’t have to explain herself. Instead, she creates a psychological landscape in which the speaker careens between questioning and asserting, between the concrete …
heavyfeatherreview.org
Very excited for this free online author talk + writing sprint! Happening July 18th!
been thinking about enjambment and how you can add velocity to a poem by using an enjambment on a verb which helps readers anticipate the direct object at the start of the following line and this micro control of anticipation is so much more interesting to think about re: line breaks than “breath”
Holy cow, what a wonderful read!
Variant Literature@variantlit.bsky.social · last mo."It wasn’t until the ant had settled on one of the veiny spikes of the peony’s leaves that it finally spoke: I know your troubles. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl." Read "The Peony Ant" by @noramaynard.bsky.social from issue 23 variantlit.com/the-peony-ant/
"It wasn’t until the ant had settled on one of the veiny spikes of the peony’s leaves that it finally spoke: I know your troubles. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl." Read "The Peony Ant" by @noramaynard.bsky.social from issue 23 variantlit.com/the-peony-ant/
The Peony Ant
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
"As a kid I walked backwards from the glass until a thumb could cover every shark in Camden." Check out "Octopus Years" by Jason Zhang variantlit.com/octopus-years/
Octopus Years
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
Check out an excerpt from "Out of Gas" by Spencer Brownstein, then read the story at the link! variantlit.com/out-of-gas/
June workshop recap with weird fiction reading recommendations, craft resources, and a writing prompt from Brandon! open.substack.com/pub/variantl...
Weird Reading (and Writing) Recommendations
Variant Lit's June Workshop Recap
open.substack.com
"there is nothing to understand from the center of an ocean. just confusion. just endlessness. just distant horizons and skylines." from "ocean nocturne" by Chimezie Umeoka variantlit.com/ocean-noctur...
ocean nocturne
Visit the post for more.
variantlit.com
"Swim for the island of your dreams, kids! Don’t look back! You’re invincible in your mid-twenties. He could’ve swum to Philadelphia." Read "Something" by @nickdmytrow.bsky.social from issue 23! variantlit.com/something/
Tomorrow! Free workshop led by prose editor @thebrandonhaff.bsky.social! Sign up here: variantlit.com/fiction-work...
Find out more about our recent prize winners in poetry - @shovda.bsky.social & J.D. Isip, and read a sample poem by each on our Substack! open.substack.com/pub/triohous...
Tomorrow evening! I'll be reading a handful of poems from "It's Easy to Lose Your Breath"! And there'll still be some light outside because sunset's at 9pm in mid-June in CLE :-)
Tom Snarsky@tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 2mo agohappy June everyone!! I am so excited for this reading coming up in less than a week’s time, featuring Kevin A. Risner @mrdecember.bsky.social, Zuleyha Ozturk, Nora Rawn, & Z.H. Gill @burialmagazine.bsky.social! sign up below for this unmissable event, I look forward to seeing you there~
