The Massachusetts Review
@themassreview.bsky.social
A 200-page quarterly of fiction, poetry, essays, and visual art by emerging and established authors since 1959. Whiting Literary Magazine Prize winner. Read more at massreview.org!
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Volume 66, Issue 3 - The Massachusetts Review
IN 1964, A SHORT STORY titled “Mississippi Ham Rider” appeared in the summer issue of the Massachusetts Review. Authored by a young writer named Toni Cade, the story follows Inez Williams, a copywrite...
massreview.org
With work from Leila Chatti and Myronn Hardy and Yutong Li, plus translations including poems by Heeum (transl. by Jack Saebyok Jung) and art by Alex Callender, this collection pairs well with PSL's and apple-picking and political resistance: massreview.org/issue/volume...
Reposted by The Massachusetts Review
So excited to receive my contributor copies of the Fall 2025 issue of the Massachusetts Review (@themassreview.bsky.social)! It includes my story "Anna Kavan's Cats"—a love letter to British novelist Anna Kavan (and cats) and a parody of academic scholarship.
November 18, 2025 at 5:18 PM
So excited to receive my contributor copies of the Fall 2025 issue of the Massachusetts Review (@themassreview.bsky.social)! It includes my story "Anna Kavan's Cats"—a love letter to British novelist Anna Kavan (and cats) and a parody of academic scholarship.
One of our fiction readers Corinne Demas has just published a new novel: DAUGHTERS.
Join us at the launch party tomorrow, November 20th at 7pm, at Amherst Books (8 Main St, Amherst, MA) to celebrate!!
Join us at the launch party tomorrow, November 20th at 7pm, at Amherst Books (8 Main St, Amherst, MA) to celebrate!!
November 19, 2025 at 5:38 PM
One of our fiction readers Corinne Demas has just published a new novel: DAUGHTERS.
Join us at the launch party tomorrow, November 20th at 7pm, at Amherst Books (8 Main St, Amherst, MA) to celebrate!!
Join us at the launch party tomorrow, November 20th at 7pm, at Amherst Books (8 Main St, Amherst, MA) to celebrate!!
"I love the idea of America, as often described through my mother’s nostalgia-laden lens... Thus, all my life, I pined for that miraculous birthland of which I have no memory."
Jennifer Jang on her inspiration from imagined places, for #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/19/1...
Jennifer Jang on her inspiration from imagined places, for #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/19/1...
10 Questions for Jennifer Jang - The Massachusetts Review
MISS TANG was a plump woman in her thirties and our seventh-grade homeroom teacher. She had a kind, matronly smile but sprung into tantrums over trifles. Her punishment of choice was meditation. After...
massreview.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"I love the idea of America, as often described through my mother’s nostalgia-laden lens... Thus, all my life, I pined for that miraculous birthland of which I have no memory."
Jennifer Jang on her inspiration from imagined places, for #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/19/1...
Jennifer Jang on her inspiration from imagined places, for #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/19/1...
"Perhaps, by hemming her protagonist in so tightly, Volckmer invites the reader to experience, on some level, a taste of Vanilla Travels Ltd.’s exhausting monotony."
Christopher Santantasio, on CALLS MAY BE RECORDED, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/11/18/a...
Christopher Santantasio, on CALLS MAY BE RECORDED, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/11/18/a...
A Review of Katharina Volckmer's Calls May Be Recorded - The Massachusetts Review
Katharina Volckmer’s second novel, Calls May Be Recorded (Two Dollar Radio, 9/16/25) is a fierce workplace satire that is bold in its exacting focus on those pushed to the margins of this century’s ra...
massreview.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:43 PM
"Perhaps, by hemming her protagonist in so tightly, Volckmer invites the reader to experience, on some level, a taste of Vanilla Travels Ltd.’s exhausting monotony."
Christopher Santantasio, on CALLS MAY BE RECORDED, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/11/18/a...
Christopher Santantasio, on CALLS MAY BE RECORDED, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/11/18/a...
We're pleased to announce we will be hosting a virtual #reading with the guest editors of our forthcoming special issue, Incarceration & Families, along with contributors and their families on Dec. 10th at 7:30 pm est! Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/incarcerat...
November 17, 2025 at 4:18 PM
We're pleased to announce we will be hosting a virtual #reading with the guest editors of our forthcoming special issue, Incarceration & Families, along with contributors and their families on Dec. 10th at 7:30 pm est! Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/incarcerat...
"I’m hoping and trusting that, as I turn toward that prose, poems will sneak in. They are always invited."
Elizabeth Bradfield for our #10Questions, out now: massreview.org/2025/11/17/1...
Elizabeth Bradfield for our #10Questions, out now: massreview.org/2025/11/17/1...
10 Questions for Elizabeth Bradfield - The Massachusetts Review
I have touched those cold seedswaiting to sprout, to reach toward whatis sun. North & South did taste different. But I don’t trust my memory. —from Elizabeth Bradfield’s “#73” (Volume 66 Issue 3) What...
massreview.org
November 17, 2025 at 3:31 PM
"I’m hoping and trusting that, as I turn toward that prose, poems will sneak in. They are always invited."
Elizabeth Bradfield for our #10Questions, out now: massreview.org/2025/11/17/1...
Elizabeth Bradfield for our #10Questions, out now: massreview.org/2025/11/17/1...
Join us for an evening of Palestinian music and storytelling with award-winning novelist, Sahar Mustafah, 📚and a performance by Layaali Arabic Music Ensemble 🎶. Refreshments and light snacks will be served. Free and open to the public!
Date: Friday, Dec 5, 7:00pm
Location: UMass, Amherst
Date: Friday, Dec 5, 7:00pm
Location: UMass, Amherst
November 13, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Join us for an evening of Palestinian music and storytelling with award-winning novelist, Sahar Mustafah, 📚and a performance by Layaali Arabic Music Ensemble 🎶. Refreshments and light snacks will be served. Free and open to the public!
Date: Friday, Dec 5, 7:00pm
Location: UMass, Amherst
Date: Friday, Dec 5, 7:00pm
Location: UMass, Amherst
"I don’t remember wanting to 'be.' I wanted to know."
Jan Clausen for our #10Questions. Read the full interview here: massreview.org/2025/11/12/1...
Jan Clausen for our #10Questions. Read the full interview here: massreview.org/2025/11/12/1...
10 Questions for Jan Clausen - The Massachusetts Review
HE IS A MAN of stories, and of music. He would scoff to hear me say he has an artistic bent; his verdict on himself is that he lacks imagination. In other matters, too, he has the habit of self-efface...
massreview.org
November 12, 2025 at 4:02 PM
"I don’t remember wanting to 'be.' I wanted to know."
Jan Clausen for our #10Questions. Read the full interview here: massreview.org/2025/11/12/1...
Jan Clausen for our #10Questions. Read the full interview here: massreview.org/2025/11/12/1...
Wishing a restful #VeteransDay to those who served, and those who continue to "revere the end of the greatest carnage powerful elites had ever visited upon ordinary human beings."
"That people should honor and revere the end of the greatest carnage powerful elites had ever visited upon ordinary human beings was a great idea. It still is."
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
Armistice Day vs. Veterans Day - The Massachusetts Review
I’ve never paid much attention to Veterans Day. None at all, really. The day I’ve always noted, at least in passing, is November 10th, which is the birthday of the US Marine Corps. I have a very curio...
massreview.org
November 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Wishing a restful #VeteransDay to those who served, and those who continue to "revere the end of the greatest carnage powerful elites had ever visited upon ordinary human beings."
"I am a big believer in maintaining corners of hope and joy in difficult times. Otherwise, what’s the point of living in this beautiful and chaotic world?"
Meg Favreau for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/10/1...
Meg Favreau for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/10/1...
10 Questions for Meg Favreau - The Massachusetts Review
Photo credit: Rebekkah Drake “Help!” I yell, because I am clearly not qualified to deal with an unresponsive Tony Robbins. I am qualified to bring in hummus and in a couple, maybe three, years to teac...
massreview.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM
"I am a big believer in maintaining corners of hope and joy in difficult times. Otherwise, what’s the point of living in this beautiful and chaotic world?"
Meg Favreau for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/10/1...
Meg Favreau for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/11/10/1...
"That people should honor and revere the end of the greatest carnage powerful elites had ever visited upon ordinary human beings was a great idea. It still is."
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
Armistice Day vs. Veterans Day - The Massachusetts Review
I’ve never paid much attention to Veterans Day. None at all, really. The day I’ve always noted, at least in passing, is November 10th, which is the birthday of the US Marine Corps. I have a very curio...
massreview.org
November 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM
"That people should honor and revere the end of the greatest carnage powerful elites had ever visited upon ordinary human beings was a great idea. It still is."
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
Ex-Marine W. D. Ehrhart writes on Armistice (and Veterans) Day: massreview.org/2025/11/07/a...
"When I was young, I didn’t know that one could “be” a writer in the sense of a career. I wrote and read because I needed to, and because it kept me alive in very difficult circumstances."
Translator Margaree Little for our #10Questions : massreview.org/2025/11/05/1...
Translator Margaree Little for our #10Questions : massreview.org/2025/11/05/1...
10 Questions for Margaree Little - The Massachusetts Review
***My goldfinch, I’ll throw back my head—let’s look at the world together:A winter’s day, prickly as chaff,isn’t it hard on your eyes? —from The Voronezh Notebooks by Osip Mandelstam, translated by Ma...
massreview.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:02 PM
"When I was young, I didn’t know that one could “be” a writer in the sense of a career. I wrote and read because I needed to, and because it kept me alive in very difficult circumstances."
Translator Margaree Little for our #10Questions : massreview.org/2025/11/05/1...
Translator Margaree Little for our #10Questions : massreview.org/2025/11/05/1...
#WesternMass friends! The Massachusetts Review published Sarah Ihmoud and Devin Atallah's searing A World Without Palestinians in February 2024. Sarah Ihmoud is giving a talk at Smith College on Tuesday November 11th titled "Hunger and the Palestinian Womb"
November 4, 2025 at 4:53 PM
#WesternMass friends! The Massachusetts Review published Sarah Ihmoud and Devin Atallah's searing A World Without Palestinians in February 2024. Sarah Ihmoud is giving a talk at Smith College on Tuesday November 11th titled "Hunger and the Palestinian Womb"
#WesternMass friends! Come hear MR contributors Christian G. Appy, Amy Dryansky, Uzma Aslam Khan, and @htreseler.bsky.social at @MassBook's 25 year anniversary celebration. RSVP here: www.eventbrite.com/e/a-night-of...
A Night of Readings Celebrating 25 Years of the Massachusetts Book Awards
Join us for a lively evening of readings as we honor 25 years of the Massachusetts Book Awards
www.eventbrite.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
#WesternMass friends! Come hear MR contributors Christian G. Appy, Amy Dryansky, Uzma Aslam Khan, and @htreseler.bsky.social at @MassBook's 25 year anniversary celebration. RSVP here: www.eventbrite.com/e/a-night-of...
"My kids periodically ask me if I became what I wanted to be, which always makes me laugh so hard I cry and can’t breathe."
Brian Russell talks Route 66, acrostic poems, and time management as a father for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/29/1...
Brian Russell talks Route 66, acrostic poems, and time management as a father for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/29/1...
10 Questions for Brian Russell - The Massachusetts Review
some dusks I linger long enoughto watch bats stream from the eaves of my neighbor’s houselike blood starved ofoxygen I could cut my ownumbilical cord to the world to watch theindigo sky leak out and b...
massreview.org
October 29, 2025 at 2:32 PM
"My kids periodically ask me if I became what I wanted to be, which always makes me laugh so hard I cry and can’t breathe."
Brian Russell talks Route 66, acrostic poems, and time management as a father for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/29/1...
Brian Russell talks Route 66, acrostic poems, and time management as a father for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/29/1...
"This section defines REASONS AND FEELINGS itself quite brilliantly: it’s a book working to avail itself of a different style of the “guide to writing” genre to attempt to know the world differently."
Jon Hoel on Sarah Mesle, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/10/28/w...
Jon Hoel on Sarah Mesle, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/10/28/w...
World Building - The Massachusetts Review
A Review of Reasons and Feelings by Sarah Mesle (University of Chicago Press) Sarah Mesle’s Reasons and Feelings: Writing for the Humanities Now is a new contribution to the University of Chicago Pres...
massreview.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"This section defines REASONS AND FEELINGS itself quite brilliantly: it’s a book working to avail itself of a different style of the “guide to writing” genre to attempt to know the world differently."
Jon Hoel on Sarah Mesle, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/10/28/w...
Jon Hoel on Sarah Mesle, for #MassReviews: massreview.org/2025/10/28/w...
Check out MemoryWorks' Writing into Silence Workshop!
This five-week remote workshop is for writers, story-tellers, and truth-tellers trying to trace elusive family histories within and across the Pacific.
Registration closes November 1: www.qmzhang.com/writing-into...
This five-week remote workshop is for writers, story-tellers, and truth-tellers trying to trace elusive family histories within and across the Pacific.
Registration closes November 1: www.qmzhang.com/writing-into...
Writing into Silence: A MemoryWorks Workshop for Asian Pacific Diasporic Writers — Q.M. Zhang | MemoryWorks
November 7, 14, 21 & December 5, 12, 2025 4:00-7:00 PM EST This five-week remote workshop is for writers, story-tellers, and truth-tellers who are trying to trace elusive family histories with...
www.qmzhang.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Check out MemoryWorks' Writing into Silence Workshop!
This five-week remote workshop is for writers, story-tellers, and truth-tellers trying to trace elusive family histories within and across the Pacific.
Registration closes November 1: www.qmzhang.com/writing-into...
This five-week remote workshop is for writers, story-tellers, and truth-tellers trying to trace elusive family histories within and across the Pacific.
Registration closes November 1: www.qmzhang.com/writing-into...
Reposted by The Massachusetts Review
Author Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and translator Robin Myers discuss WE ARE GREEN AND TREMBLING @ndbooks.bsky.social , shortlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Read here:
The National Book Award Interviews: Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and Robin Myers - Words Without Borders
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and Robin Myers on "We Are Green and Trembling," shortlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature.
wordswithoutborders.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Author Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and translator Robin Myers discuss WE ARE GREEN AND TREMBLING @ndbooks.bsky.social , shortlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Read here:
"Our family was torn apart not only in life but even in death. Some graves are in the north, others in the south. And we do not know if the graves in the north still exist, or if they were bulldozed by the occupation."
Sarah Mahmoud, from northern Gaza: massreview.org/2025/10/24/s...
Sarah Mahmoud, from northern Gaza: massreview.org/2025/10/24/s...
Scattered Graves - The Massachusetts Review
My name is Sarah Mahmoud. I was born twenty-eight years ago in Jabalia, northern Gaza. My father was a teacher, and my mother a devoted homemaker, who held our family together with love and patience. ...
massreview.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
"Our family was torn apart not only in life but even in death. Some graves are in the north, others in the south. And we do not know if the graves in the north still exist, or if they were bulldozed by the occupation."
Sarah Mahmoud, from northern Gaza: massreview.org/2025/10/24/s...
Sarah Mahmoud, from northern Gaza: massreview.org/2025/10/24/s...
"All the poets in SIGN & BREATH create entanglements in which voices can be made more fully heard, visible, animated, complicated, and thus more grieveable... the very thing that makes us addressable."
Melissa Parrish, reviewing SIGN & BREATH: massreview.org/2025/10/23/p...
#MassReviews
Melissa Parrish, reviewing SIGN & BREATH: massreview.org/2025/10/23/p...
#MassReviews
Pages That Sing - The Massachusetts Review
What is poetry? What is voice? These are the questions that editors Philip Brady and Shanta Lee ask in Sign and Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition, a wide-ranging new poetic anthology published ...
massreview.org
October 23, 2025 at 2:09 PM
"All the poets in SIGN & BREATH create entanglements in which voices can be made more fully heard, visible, animated, complicated, and thus more grieveable... the very thing that makes us addressable."
Melissa Parrish, reviewing SIGN & BREATH: massreview.org/2025/10/23/p...
#MassReviews
Melissa Parrish, reviewing SIGN & BREATH: massreview.org/2025/10/23/p...
#MassReviews
Reposted by The Massachusetts Review
Shocked and humbled for this essay to be listed as notable in the 2025 Best American Essays. Thank you, again, @themassreview.bsky.social for publishing this piece, and for your editors on the back-and-forth to make this essay the best possible version of itself.
I’m honored to have my first published lyric essay in The Massachusetts Review. I’m so glad this piece finally found a home. Check it out with the rest of this stunning issue!
October 22, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Shocked and humbled for this essay to be listed as notable in the 2025 Best American Essays. Thank you, again, @themassreview.bsky.social for publishing this piece, and for your editors on the back-and-forth to make this essay the best possible version of itself.
"All sorts of ideas and contents come up of their own accord, in the shower, kitchen, train, on my bike. Outdoors is the best, where it’s not even ‘work’ at all."
Arno Bohlmeijer shares insights (and two new poems!) for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/22/1...
Arno Bohlmeijer shares insights (and two new poems!) for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/22/1...
10 Questions for Arno Bohlmeijer - The Massachusetts Review
and know: the clouds don’t know about the rain,and the water doesn’t know about the leavesfrom which it beats the music, rhythms, language —from Arno Bohlmeijer’s translation of “Become,” by Esther Ja...
massreview.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:48 PM
"All sorts of ideas and contents come up of their own accord, in the shower, kitchen, train, on my bike. Outdoors is the best, where it’s not even ‘work’ at all."
Arno Bohlmeijer shares insights (and two new poems!) for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/22/1...
Arno Bohlmeijer shares insights (and two new poems!) for our #10Questions: massreview.org/2025/10/22/1...
"As we turn from the warmth to the cool-/ness of autumnal days, from our Köl-/sches and pilsners and light/IPAs, try this flight/Of white Belgians."
Marsha Bryant shares some Oktoberfest #BrewReviews on the MR blog: massreview.org/2025/10/21/b...
Marsha Bryant shares some Oktoberfest #BrewReviews on the MR blog: massreview.org/2025/10/21/b...
Belgian White Delights - The Massachusetts Review
Where it’s fall not winter spring not summer cool not cold –Chris Thile As we turn from the warmth to the cool-ness of autumnal days, from our Köl-sches and pilsners and lightIPAs, try this flightOf w...
massreview.org
October 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
"As we turn from the warmth to the cool-/ness of autumnal days, from our Köl-/sches and pilsners and light/IPAs, try this flight/Of white Belgians."
Marsha Bryant shares some Oktoberfest #BrewReviews on the MR blog: massreview.org/2025/10/21/b...
Marsha Bryant shares some Oktoberfest #BrewReviews on the MR blog: massreview.org/2025/10/21/b...
#Amherst friends! The brilliant Jericho Brown will be reading at Amherst College next wednesday the 29th. Be sure to mark your calendars: www.amherst.edu/news/events/...
Annual Rhonda Cobham-Sander Lecture: Jericho Brown | Events & Calendars | Annual Rhonda Cobham-Sander Lecture: Jericho Brown
www.amherst.edu
October 21, 2025 at 2:26 PM
#Amherst friends! The brilliant Jericho Brown will be reading at Amherst College next wednesday the 29th. Be sure to mark your calendars: www.amherst.edu/news/events/...
"My stories don’t take place in our exact reality, but rather in skewed-mirror worlds. Especially so, when it comes to writing about places that I love but where I am still very much a visitor."
J. Nevada, for our #10Questions:
massreview.org/2025/10/20/1...
J. Nevada, for our #10Questions:
massreview.org/2025/10/20/1...
10 Questions for J. Nevada - The Massachusetts Review
Gimena recognized two things. One: her neighbors meant no real harm, that they were merely bored, and an element of drama, no matter how false, was too juicy to deny; and two: she would turn into an u...
massreview.org
October 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
"My stories don’t take place in our exact reality, but rather in skewed-mirror worlds. Especially so, when it comes to writing about places that I love but where I am still very much a visitor."
J. Nevada, for our #10Questions:
massreview.org/2025/10/20/1...
J. Nevada, for our #10Questions:
massreview.org/2025/10/20/1...