AGNI
@agnimagazine.bsky.social
Our avatar is the Vedic god of fire, our goal is literary combustion. A beacon for 50 years, shining brightly in print and online. bu.edu/agni
[Art for AGNI 101 by Malak Mattar]
[Art for AGNI 101 by Malak Mattar]
Monster rubbed her ribs against my ankle and meowed like a beggar under hot sun. Matilda blew smoke in the hall and turned away. I was certain that woman hated me.
~from "Left Foot in a Lonely Guitar"
by Stephen Christenson
AGNI 5/6
~from "Left Foot in a Lonely Guitar"
by Stephen Christenson
AGNI 5/6
Left Foot in a Lonely Guitar
I dreamt I threw a red onion at Sam Henderson’s head, but the creaking bed springs next door woke me before the cops had a chance to arrive. I heard Rose giggle and Little Huey pant. I wanted to…
buff.ly
November 19, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Monster rubbed her ribs against my ankle and meowed like a beggar under hot sun. Matilda blew smoke in the hall and turned away. I was certain that woman hated me.
~from "Left Foot in a Lonely Guitar"
by Stephen Christenson
AGNI 5/6
~from "Left Foot in a Lonely Guitar"
by Stephen Christenson
AGNI 5/6
July and August used to be the best month because that is when school would be out for the summer. Is real funny how they call it summer when Guyana is summer all year round, eh? But back then them thing didn’t matter.
~from "All That Hunger, All That Thirst"
by Subraj Singh
AGNI 98
~from "All That Hunger, All That Thirst"
by Subraj Singh
AGNI 98
All That Hunger, All That Thirst
July and August used to be the best month because that is when school would be out for the summer. Is real funny how they call it summer when Guyana is summer all year round, eh? But back then them…
buff.ly
November 15, 2025 at 8:01 PM
July and August used to be the best month because that is when school would be out for the summer. Is real funny how they call it summer when Guyana is summer all year round, eh? But back then them thing didn’t matter.
~from "All That Hunger, All That Thirst"
by Subraj Singh
AGNI 98
~from "All That Hunger, All That Thirst"
by Subraj Singh
AGNI 98
🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥
Poet @rosebudbenoni.bsky.social curated a scroll to mark the 130th anniversary of the discovery of the X-ray! "The X-Ray at 130" features writing by Rosebud, @diegobaez.bsky.social, Michael Brockley, and @dianacao.bsky.social. Read it here!👇
Poet @rosebudbenoni.bsky.social curated a scroll to mark the 130th anniversary of the discovery of the X-ray! "The X-Ray at 130" features writing by Rosebud, @diegobaez.bsky.social, Michael Brockley, and @dianacao.bsky.social. Read it here!👇
The X-Ray at 130
Four writers consider the X-ray on its 130th birthday.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥
Poet @rosebudbenoni.bsky.social curated a scroll to mark the 130th anniversary of the discovery of the X-ray! "The X-Ray at 130" features writing by Rosebud, @diegobaez.bsky.social, Michael Brockley, and @dianacao.bsky.social. Read it here!👇
Poet @rosebudbenoni.bsky.social curated a scroll to mark the 130th anniversary of the discovery of the X-ray! "The X-Ray at 130" features writing by Rosebud, @diegobaez.bsky.social, Michael Brockley, and @dianacao.bsky.social. Read it here!👇
Reposted by AGNI
My AGNI Issue 102 has finally made it across the Atlantic 🌐
And what a cover, by the multi-talented Lia Purpura!
Proud to have my story sitting among the fine works within.
@agnimagazine.bsky.social
And what a cover, by the multi-talented Lia Purpura!
Proud to have my story sitting among the fine works within.
@agnimagazine.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 1:39 PM
My AGNI Issue 102 has finally made it across the Atlantic 🌐
And what a cover, by the multi-talented Lia Purpura!
Proud to have my story sitting among the fine works within.
@agnimagazine.bsky.social
And what a cover, by the multi-talented Lia Purpura!
Proud to have my story sitting among the fine works within.
@agnimagazine.bsky.social
Life doles out these small pleasures:
A platter of raw oysters on ice,
A ripe lemon sliced in half,
And a glass of chilled white wine.
~from "Past the Cemetery"
by Charles Simic
AGNI 71
buff.ly/yGsoNNw
A platter of raw oysters on ice,
A ripe lemon sliced in half,
And a glass of chilled white wine.
~from "Past the Cemetery"
by Charles Simic
AGNI 71
buff.ly/yGsoNNw
Past the Cemetery
It’s nice here on the shady side of the street. Our small, outdoor table Faces a building Golden with late afternoon sunlight Under a cloudless summer sky. Together with daily horrors, Life doles out…
agnionline.bu.edu
November 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Life doles out these small pleasures:
A platter of raw oysters on ice,
A ripe lemon sliced in half,
And a glass of chilled white wine.
~from "Past the Cemetery"
by Charles Simic
AGNI 71
buff.ly/yGsoNNw
A platter of raw oysters on ice,
A ripe lemon sliced in half,
And a glass of chilled white wine.
~from "Past the Cemetery"
by Charles Simic
AGNI 71
buff.ly/yGsoNNw
Go out back, to the patch of your garden that never grows well, no matter what you do. It’s clay. Dig it up, all of it. Pile it around you, under your nails, in your hair; paint your face with it; mound it between your palms. Hide.
~from "Breakup Tips"
by Amanda Niehaus
AGNI Online
~from "Breakup Tips"
by Amanda Niehaus
AGNI Online
Breakup Tips
1. Avoid social media Step into the shower. Scald away the slick of who you were, who he was on you—your bacteria, his. You are your own now. Find a pen. When you think of him, draw along your arms.…
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Go out back, to the patch of your garden that never grows well, no matter what you do. It’s clay. Dig it up, all of it. Pile it around you, under your nails, in your hair; paint your face with it; mound it between your palms. Hide.
~from "Breakup Tips"
by Amanda Niehaus
AGNI Online
~from "Breakup Tips"
by Amanda Niehaus
AGNI Online
Better that the clamor of the birds
should exhaust itself, be swallowed
into the blue hole overhead;
then one can hear the private
whisper of branch to branch
while the air hardly moves
~from "The Lemons"
by Eugenio Montale (trans. from the Italian by Millicent Bell)
AGNI 51
buff.ly/InDonoU
should exhaust itself, be swallowed
into the blue hole overhead;
then one can hear the private
whisper of branch to branch
while the air hardly moves
~from "The Lemons"
by Eugenio Montale (trans. from the Italian by Millicent Bell)
AGNI 51
buff.ly/InDonoU
The Lemons
But listen—those famous poets everyone studied in school—they got stirred up among plants we don’t know here: box privet or acanthus. As for me, I love the roads that shrivel into parched,…
agnionline.bu.edu
November 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Better that the clamor of the birds
should exhaust itself, be swallowed
into the blue hole overhead;
then one can hear the private
whisper of branch to branch
while the air hardly moves
~from "The Lemons"
by Eugenio Montale (trans. from the Italian by Millicent Bell)
AGNI 51
buff.ly/InDonoU
should exhaust itself, be swallowed
into the blue hole overhead;
then one can hear the private
whisper of branch to branch
while the air hardly moves
~from "The Lemons"
by Eugenio Montale (trans. from the Italian by Millicent Bell)
AGNI 51
buff.ly/InDonoU
TONIGHT!!! We can't wait to launch AGNI 102 with the help of contributors Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen—and we'll have live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye 🔥 See you soon!
The Launch of AGNI 102
Readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen. Live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye.
buff.ly
November 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
TONIGHT!!! We can't wait to launch AGNI 102 with the help of contributors Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen—and we'll have live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye 🔥 See you soon!
📣 Calling our Boston-area friends! 📣 We hope you'll join us TOMORROW for the launch of AGNI 102! We've got a stellar lineup: readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen, and live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye. More info👇
The Launch of AGNI 102
Readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen. Live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye.
buff.ly
November 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
📣 Calling our Boston-area friends! 📣 We hope you'll join us TOMORROW for the launch of AGNI 102! We've got a stellar lineup: readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen, and live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye. More info👇
There is a rift, in our troubled century, between imaginative writing and the various mainstream U.S. cultures. . .Can fiction, poetry, and essays be a meaningful force for truth?
Read "Mattering," the Editor’s Note from 🔥AGNI 102🔥 by William Pierce👇
Read "Mattering," the Editor’s Note from 🔥AGNI 102🔥 by William Pierce👇
Mattering
There is a rift, in our troubled century, between imaginative writing and the various mainstream U.S. cultures. I get the sense from conversations, articles, and shifts in educational curricula that…
buff.ly
November 5, 2025 at 8:01 PM
There is a rift, in our troubled century, between imaginative writing and the various mainstream U.S. cultures. . .Can fiction, poetry, and essays be a meaningful force for truth?
Read "Mattering," the Editor’s Note from 🔥AGNI 102🔥 by William Pierce👇
Read "Mattering," the Editor’s Note from 🔥AGNI 102🔥 by William Pierce👇
"For the most part the students just treat it as recess: the younger ones throw things and bark at each other, the older ones scroll on their phones. But once in a while, he tells her, a class catches on."
~🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥 "Poetry Lesson" by Katie Shireen Assef
~🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥 "Poetry Lesson" by Katie Shireen Assef
Poetry Lesson
The streets are empty, the shops have closed, the air still smells of last night’s rain. The sky above is fresh, pure, unbroken blue: it’s the blue of the skies in someone else’s childhood, in the…
buff.ly
November 3, 2025 at 8:01 PM
"For the most part the students just treat it as recess: the younger ones throw things and bark at each other, the older ones scroll on their phones. But once in a while, he tells her, a class catches on."
~🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥 "Poetry Lesson" by Katie Shireen Assef
~🔥NEW at AGNI Online🔥 "Poetry Lesson" by Katie Shireen Assef
Reposted by AGNI
The treat I got on Halloween--the new issue of @agnimagazine.bsky.social with my translations of Christine Guinard's poems. She's a French poet whose family fled to France during La Retirada, when half a million Spaniards escaped Franco's army. Her family's stories echo through her voice.
November 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
The treat I got on Halloween--the new issue of @agnimagazine.bsky.social with my translations of Christine Guinard's poems. She's a French poet whose family fled to France during La Retirada, when half a million Spaniards escaped Franco's army. Her family's stories echo through her voice.
We converge in the auditorium. Circle on the scarred stage. It smells of paint and its slippery cousin turpentine, also, of forgotten oranges and pancake make-up.
~from "Drama Kids"
by Katie Williams
AGNI Online
~from "Drama Kids"
by Katie Williams
AGNI Online
Drama Kids
We converge in the auditorium. Circle on the scarred stage. It smells of paint and its slippery cousin turpentine, also, of forgotten oranges and pancake make-up. Mostly it smells of dust trapped in…
buff.ly
November 1, 2025 at 7:02 PM
We converge in the auditorium. Circle on the scarred stage. It smells of paint and its slippery cousin turpentine, also, of forgotten oranges and pancake make-up.
~from "Drama Kids"
by Katie Williams
AGNI Online
~from "Drama Kids"
by Katie Williams
AGNI Online
📣 Calling our Boston-area friends! 📣 We hope you'll join us ONE WEEK FROM TONIGHT for the launch of AGNI 102! We've got a stellar lineup: readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen, and live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye. More info👇
The Launch of AGNI 102
Readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen. Live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye.
buff.ly
October 31, 2025 at 7:03 PM
📣 Calling our Boston-area friends! 📣 We hope you'll join us ONE WEEK FROM TONIGHT for the launch of AGNI 102! We've got a stellar lineup: readings by Mary Cappello, Askold Melnyczuk, Hera Naguib, and Gish Jen, and live music by Javier Jeffer y su Conjunto Obaye. More info👇
Say it is a geranium in a black pot
or a warbler on the shoulder
that make the difference in how we do
what we do when we do it.
As if the clouds never existed,
as if rain hadn’t come.
~from "How It Is"
by Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno
AGNI 47
or a warbler on the shoulder
that make the difference in how we do
what we do when we do it.
As if the clouds never existed,
as if rain hadn’t come.
~from "How It Is"
by Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno
AGNI 47
How It Is
Say it is a geranium in a black pot or a warbler on the shoulder that make the difference in how we do what we do when we do it. As if the clouds never existed, as if rain hadn’t come. Your fur-lined…
buff.ly
October 30, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Say it is a geranium in a black pot
or a warbler on the shoulder
that make the difference in how we do
what we do when we do it.
As if the clouds never existed,
as if rain hadn’t come.
~from "How It Is"
by Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno
AGNI 47
or a warbler on the shoulder
that make the difference in how we do
what we do when we do it.
As if the clouds never existed,
as if rain hadn’t come.
~from "How It Is"
by Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno
AGNI 47
My work is what you might call whatever—
“Whatever sells the pies,” my boss says.
Turns out I’m a natural. A Midwestern smile
proves to be a mighty whatever. The pies fly.
~from "In Ordinary Time"
by Anthony Carelli
AGNI Online
“Whatever sells the pies,” my boss says.
Turns out I’m a natural. A Midwestern smile
proves to be a mighty whatever. The pies fly.
~from "In Ordinary Time"
by Anthony Carelli
AGNI Online
In Ordinary Time
Nothing came up, and the money ran out, so I found a job in the neighborhood— food service, a new joint called The Pie Shop. My work is what you might call whatever— “Whatever sells the pies,” my…
buff.ly
October 28, 2025 at 7:05 PM
My work is what you might call whatever—
“Whatever sells the pies,” my boss says.
Turns out I’m a natural. A Midwestern smile
proves to be a mighty whatever. The pies fly.
~from "In Ordinary Time"
by Anthony Carelli
AGNI Online
“Whatever sells the pies,” my boss says.
Turns out I’m a natural. A Midwestern smile
proves to be a mighty whatever. The pies fly.
~from "In Ordinary Time"
by Anthony Carelli
AGNI Online
Reposted by AGNI
I love @agnimagazine.bsky.social so it’s a dream to be in here! Available at most bookstores, like a lit journal should be. My gratitude to the editors 🧿
October 27, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I love @agnimagazine.bsky.social so it’s a dream to be in here! Available at most bookstores, like a lit journal should be. My gratitude to the editors 🧿
Reposted by AGNI
A new poem in the new issue of Agni @agnimagazine.bsky.social 🫨
October 28, 2025 at 1:44 PM
A new poem in the new issue of Agni @agnimagazine.bsky.social 🫨
ICYMI: AGNI 102 is here! The threaded objects of Lia Purpura front an issue intent on noticing, holding, and putting forward 🔥
AGNI 102
A literary magazine named after the Vedic fire-god. Transformative. The writer in witness, the imagination in combustion.
buff.ly
October 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
ICYMI: AGNI 102 is here! The threaded objects of Lia Purpura front an issue intent on noticing, holding, and putting forward 🔥
Forty-two to forty-two and the big blond chick kept mumbling “Eskimo.” She’d bump Heather’s hip and say, “Eskimo.” She’d drop her shoulder and push off and say, “Eskimo.”
~from "The Black Bear Month"
by David Crouse
AGNI 91
~from "The Black Bear Month"
by David Crouse
AGNI 91
The Black Bear Month
Forty-two to forty-two and the big blond chick kept mumbling “Eskimo.” She’d bump Heather’s hip and say, “Eskimo.” She’d drop her shoulder and push off and say, “Eskimo.” She’d give a secret shove…
buff.ly
October 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Forty-two to forty-two and the big blond chick kept mumbling “Eskimo.” She’d bump Heather’s hip and say, “Eskimo.” She’d drop her shoulder and push off and say, “Eskimo.”
~from "The Black Bear Month"
by David Crouse
AGNI 91
~from "The Black Bear Month"
by David Crouse
AGNI 91
Reposted by AGNI
💫 Excited AGNI @agnimagazine.bsky.social published The Sundial Pilgrimage online!
This story also features in their upcoming magazine, AGNI Issue 102. Thanks to the editors, especially Mary O'Donoghue & Bill Pierce
Click if you like stories about feral architects
agnionline.bu.edu/fiction/the-...
This story also features in their upcoming magazine, AGNI Issue 102. Thanks to the editors, especially Mary O'Donoghue & Bill Pierce
Click if you like stories about feral architects
agnionline.bu.edu/fiction/the-...
The Sundial Pilgrimage
It’s morning. I’m off again to my tree, my bundle of tricks slung over my shoulder, the summer solstice having played out a few weeks ago.
Every year since the event, when summer is beginning to clos...
agnionline.bu.edu
October 15, 2025 at 12:24 PM
💫 Excited AGNI @agnimagazine.bsky.social published The Sundial Pilgrimage online!
This story also features in their upcoming magazine, AGNI Issue 102. Thanks to the editors, especially Mary O'Donoghue & Bill Pierce
Click if you like stories about feral architects
agnionline.bu.edu/fiction/the-...
This story also features in their upcoming magazine, AGNI Issue 102. Thanks to the editors, especially Mary O'Donoghue & Bill Pierce
Click if you like stories about feral architects
agnionline.bu.edu/fiction/the-...
Reposted by AGNI
Over at @agnimagazine.bsky.social, my buddy @donaldquist.bsky.social just published one of *the* great essays on MLK's legacy re: young Black men living in his shadow. Take and read:
agnionline.bu.edu/essay/stone-...
agnionline.bu.edu/essay/stone-...
Stone of Hope
In elementary school I was cast as MLK for a short play on his life. I didn’t want the role, the pressure of being a focal point. I would’ve rather been a nondescript townsperson or even a tree. But t...
agnionline.bu.edu
October 20, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Over at @agnimagazine.bsky.social, my buddy @donaldquist.bsky.social just published one of *the* great essays on MLK's legacy re: young Black men living in his shadow. Take and read:
agnionline.bu.edu/essay/stone-...
agnionline.bu.edu/essay/stone-...
A section of The Times, a shallow tub,
A chamois cloth, a sickle slip of pumice,
Green oil from the least expensive jug,
A dry wreath’s worth of eucalyptus
~from "A Homecoming"
by Daniel Bosch
AGNI Online
A chamois cloth, a sickle slip of pumice,
Green oil from the least expensive jug,
A dry wreath’s worth of eucalyptus
~from "A Homecoming"
by Daniel Bosch
AGNI Online
A Homecoming
A section of The Times, a shallow tub, A chamois cloth, a sickle slip of pumice, Green oil from the least expensive jug, A dry wreath’s worth of eucalyptus, Scented lotion samples torn from Vogue,…
buff.ly
October 23, 2025 at 7:05 PM
A section of The Times, a shallow tub,
A chamois cloth, a sickle slip of pumice,
Green oil from the least expensive jug,
A dry wreath’s worth of eucalyptus
~from "A Homecoming"
by Daniel Bosch
AGNI Online
A chamois cloth, a sickle slip of pumice,
Green oil from the least expensive jug,
A dry wreath’s worth of eucalyptus
~from "A Homecoming"
by Daniel Bosch
AGNI Online
I’m not a star-fucker. I’m a girl who makes him pay attention. I’m white and large-thighed. I’m new passion. I’m cougar-eyed just like him. I’m desperate for peace. I’m a lover, not a warrior. I’m courageous. I’m rain.
~from "A Friday Desdemona"
by Margo Berdeshevsky
AGNI Online
~from "A Friday Desdemona"
by Margo Berdeshevsky
AGNI Online
A Friday Desdemona
Othello is holding a dime-store mirror up over their heads, so she can see herself as he plunges. —Look, dear. Sweeting. Look. It is full-length. He holds it up with one arm, the other under and…
buff.ly
October 21, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I’m not a star-fucker. I’m a girl who makes him pay attention. I’m white and large-thighed. I’m new passion. I’m cougar-eyed just like him. I’m desperate for peace. I’m a lover, not a warrior. I’m courageous. I’m rain.
~from "A Friday Desdemona"
by Margo Berdeshevsky
AGNI Online
~from "A Friday Desdemona"
by Margo Berdeshevsky
AGNI Online