The Memory of Water: a Review of Gbenga Adesina’s Death Does Not End at the Sea — EPOCH The images evoke a profound sense of displacement that unmistakably recalls the Middle Passage—the forced transatlantic crossing that carried millions of enslaved Africans into the Americas. That hist...

We've just added Timi Sanni's lovely review of Gbenga Adesina's collection Death Does Not End at the Sea. Timi: "For the speaker of Adesina’s poems, there is a silence in the language of the dead that must ring out in the song of the living."

Interview: Askold Melnyczuk — EPOCH “When I was about nine I contracted an illness—eventually diagnosed as pericarditis (water around the heart) which kept me from attending school for over two years. […] This unstructured time gave me ...

New on the blog: Lara Stecewycz's interview with Askold Melnyczuk:

"A poem must carry the nourishment in every line—even if the morsel of meaning can't itself be contained by a single line or stanza. The whole must feel somehow inevitable."

Volume 73, Number 1 — EPOCH Volume 73, Number 1. D.M. Aderibigbe, Hussain Ahmed, Miriam Åkervall, Amir Ahmadi Arian, Jill Barrie, Alexandra Bernhardt, Shlagha Borah, TR Brady, Hedgie Choi, Brock Clarke, Kami Enzie, Ana Emilia Fe...

Our apologies, we aren't tabling at AWP this year due to a bureaucratic snafu. But the new issue is up for sale, PDF or print! And if you see one of our editors wandering tableless around the hall, give 'em a high five

"Danger Music", a poem by Aldo Amparán
https://poems.com/poem/danger-music/
via @epochliterary.com and @poetrydaily.bsky.social

Writing this unhinged and personal body horror story healed a little something in me. Very grateful to @epochliterary.com and especially @jrobertlennon.com for embracing the weirdness and editing with such kindness. Print and online copies now available at epochliterary.com.

Subs open for 73.2 on January 1!

Subs open for 73.2 on January 1!

The cover of EPOCH 73.1, an arboreal triptych by Maxim Peter Griffin

Volume 73, Number 1. D.M. Aderibigbe, Hussain Ahmed, Miriam Åkervall, Amir Ahmadi Arian, Jill Barrie, Alexandra Bernhardt, Shlagha Borah, TR Brady, Hedgie Choi, Brock Clarke, Kami Enzie, Ana Emilia Felker, David Ehmcke, Rigoberto González, Kimberly Grey, Maxim Peter Griffin, Angela Hui, Kaley Hutter, Dabin Jeong, Jack Saebyok Jung, Rebecca Lilly, Marie Lundquist, Tom McAllister, Moon Boyoung, Carl Moon, Robert Morgan, Aidan O’Brien, Adam O’Fallon Price, Oscar Oswald, Derek Otsuji, Daniel Peña, Claire Polders, Josh Russell, Tiago Sousa, Leora Thornton, Stacie Turner, Hannah V. Warren, Stella Wong, Yu Hongjun, Christian Yeo Xuan, Teodozia Zarivna, Tanya Žilinskas.

Our Spring 2026 issue will be out in February! It's absolutely packed, and has a special section of translated poetry, prose poetry, and fiction.

Interview: Ishion Hutchinson — EPOCH “I think that the writer’s failure drawer must be deeper than the success’s. Because you have to go through it. Whatever it is that comes upon the writer to bring it out, maybe it’s just duty because ...

...and assistant fiction editor Sijing Yang interviews poet and essayist Ishion Hutchinson. "There’s probably one corner of heaven where there's no distinction between writers and poets and dramatists and painters."

Interview: Richie Hofmann — EPOCH “I think there's a reader who might read my work and think oh my gosh, this is shocking and very naked! And you might have another reader read the same poems and say these are so prudish and buttoned-...

Today we have TWO new interviews with poets up on the blog. First, assistant poetry editor Gerardo Azpiri Iglesias interviews Richie Hofmann. "As a poet I am creating an aesthetic world."

🧐

The answer to shit like this, no matter how politely/sensitively put, should always be a resounding Fuck You

If any editor out there is considering this deal with the devil, be sure to get express consent from every single one of your contributors, and be prepared to pay them every cent of whatever pittance you receive, because this work doesn't belong to us, it belongs to them.

Hi John, I hope you're doing well. I’m reaching out with a timely opportunity to engage with the growing field of generative AI in a secure and profitable way. As part of our existing license agreement, your journal content is included in EBSCO’s research databases. We’ve recently been approached by several GenAI companies seeking high-quality, licensed content to train their large language models (LLMs)—creating a new revenue stream for publishers without compromising control or risking misuse. EBSCO has developed a program that ensures responsible use of your content and offers guaranteed income should your titles be chosen. For each title selected by the LLM, we’re offering: $0.0004 per word for non-Open Access journals $0.0001 per word for Open Access journals This initiative reflects over a year of thoughtful planning. Many of our Publisher Partners have shared that budget pressures are driving the need for new revenue sources, and we’ve designed this program to meet that need while protecting the integrity of your content. Please let me know if you’d be interested in discussing further. Warm regards,

Not to pick on EBSCO, who we enjoy working with, because I'm sure all distributors of print and digital media will be doing the same thing. But this is appalling and everyone should say no. For one thing, we don't have the rights to this work after we publish...it reverts to the writers!

Today on the blog, a new review of Domenica Martinello's poetry collection GOOD WANT, from assistant poetry editor Bridget Huh: poetry "that knows just the right things to ask and not ask, that has the immense and unknowable power to forgive." www.epochliterary.com/blog/review-...

hey now

Thank you to the editors @epochliterary.com not only for giving this story a home but continuing to share it with others!

oh hey

Thrilled and honored! @epochliterary.com

I'm so grateful to @epochliterary.com for publishing my essay "The Spider's Share" a few months ago, and now for this Pushcart nomination. And in such good company, too.

EPOCH 2025 Pushcart nominations Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador "All of his knives," poetry, issue 72.1 Steve Himmer "The Spider's Share," essay, issue 72.1 Tom McAllister "1993, 2017, and 2022," essay, issue 72.1 Pegah Ouji "Untouchables," fiction, issue 72.2 FM Stringer "Secular Prayer at the End of Daylight Saving Time," poetry, issue 72.2 Justin Taylor "Wild Silence," fiction, issue 72.2

Here are our @pushcartprize.bsky.social noms for 2025! Thanks and congrats to Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador, @fmstringer.bsky.social, @justintaylor.bsky.social, @shimmer.bsky.social, @pegahouji.bsky.social, and @tmcallister.bsky.social for this great work.

Very happy to have a poem in the gorgeous new issue of @epochliterary.com. Many thanks to the editors 💚

Remembering Our Editor Michael Koch, 1947-2022 — EPOCH Michael Claude Koch, an editor and lecturer at Cornell University noted for having returned the Cornell literary journal, EPOCH, to national prominence, died at home on May 27, 2022, after a brief ill...

The Koch editors are named after Michael Koch, our longest-serving editor, who died in 2022.

The 2025-26 Koch Memorial Editors: Emma Catherine Perry and Daniel Peña — EPOCH Read about the 2025-26 Koch Memorial Editors, Emma Catherine Perry and Daniel Peña.

Our 2025-26 Koch Memorial Editors are Emma Catherine Perry (poetry) and Daniel Peña (fiction). Click through to read about them!

Proud to include @theonion.com alongside other distinguished literary publications in our office

Create, Flee, Forget: a Review of The Future Was Color by Patrick Nathan — EPOCH What gets forgotten, why, and who gets to decide are some of Nathan’s central concerns. His vivid prose imbues these questions with multiple strains of pain: the pain of losing parents and lovers, the...

Here's a review of Patrick Nathan's novel THE FUTURE WAS COLOR, out now in paperback from Counterpoint Press, by assistant editor Miklos Mattyasovszky. "[A] tender triumph of a novel, which had wrapped me in its anxious arms from the very first line."

It is a new semester and we have acquired this beautiful vault boy mug for our lego bouquet

That empty black splash image represents the unknowable void to which we are all doomed, and which is the great mystery at the heart of all artistic endeavor, ofc

EPOCH Magazine Submission Manager We are open for electronic submissions only during the months of August and January. Each submission costs $3, and a portion of each fee, after processing costs, is donated to the Cornell Prison Educa...

Also, electronic subs are open for one more week!

With No Story to Save Me from Myself: A Conversation with Matthew Nienow — EPOCH “Though there is a place for poetry-writing-as-personal-therapy, it has always been important to me to make work that rises beyond my own small life toward something universal, regardless of whether t...

We've got a new interview today from outgoing poetry editor Michael Prior, who talks with poet Michael Nienow about his new collection, IF NOTHING, from @alicejamesbooks.bsky.social. "As the past cannot be changed, I find the resistance of neat endings hopeful."