Welcome to Saturday, friends.

We're still dipping in and out of spring here, walking the dog with a warm coat on in the morning then sitting sleeveless on the sunny porch in the afternoon. The osprey returned to the nesting platforms along our street this week, and have been crossing back and forth by our house and circling over the saltmarsh as they get their nests ready for eggs and then chicks. Which is all just to say that with the week this has been and all the turmoil, it's nice to have some things happen in the ways I expect them to happen at this time of year. A small reassurance.

Here's what we've been up to this week:

On Monday we published Colm McKenna's review of Texas: The Great Theft by Carmen Boullosa and translated by Samantha Schnee for Deep Vellum. We're glad to have Colm reviewing for us a third time. And we were also thrilled to see him writing for the TLS recently, too.

This week's featured story was "Home" by Joseph V. Velaidum, in our pages for the first time and we're grateful to be sharing his work.

And in research notes, Beth Kephart wrote about her novel Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News, now available from Tursulowe Press.

Congratulations are due to contributor Roberta Beary, whose collection Crazy Bitches is now available. And to our own book reviews editor Diane Josefowicz, whose second novel, The Great Houses of Pill Hill, is coming in 2026 from Soho Press. Double congratulations, in fact, because Diane has also been named Senior Editor of Translation at The Adroit Journal.

Our fiction editor Lacey Dunham is also busy this month, "speed dating" with writers at Barrelhouse's annual Washington, DC conference "Conversations & Connections: Practical Advice on Writing" on April 12 and moderating the conference's editors panel as well. It's always a great day so if you're in the area, I recommend going.

Finally, submissions for our annual October spooky stories series open today and will remain open until May 5. Lacey writes,

For this call, we're looking for your best stories to scare us and unsettle us. We love the uncanny, the strange, the psychological. We love ghosts, monsters, possessions, and devils. We love haunted places, ruins, cemeteries, crypts, and tombs. Send us your best work and read past October stories to get a sense of our lit journal's style.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Steve Himmer