“My parent’s bedroom was museum and mausoleum.”
From “Case Study: Blood,” new BOTE by Rachel Morgan.
theoffingmag.com/backoftheenv...
“My parent’s bedroom was museum and mausoleum.”
From “Case Study: Blood,” new BOTE by Rachel Morgan.
theoffingmag.com/backoftheenv...
“even though I think it should be clear that I am in the milieu, that I am waiting for something, a man and a woman in their sixties, both white, step in front of me.”
From “At the Gift Shop in Los Alamos,” a short story by Claire Stanford.”
theoffingmag.com/fiction/at-t...
“But as it turns out, even the universe will go dark in a trillion years. Forgive me.”
From “The truth according to mycelia,” a poem by S.A. Leger.
theoffingmag.com/poetry/the-t...
Call for Submissions —The Offing’s Back of the Envelope submissions are now open ! Submit at the link below.
theoffingmag.submittable.com/submit
“Like: to get to the other side. Or: because I said so.”
From “There are no stupid questions,” a Micro poem by Elena Zhang.
theoffingmag.com/micro/there-...
“Somewhere, there is a version of me that isn’t neck- deep in her invented filth.”
From “I Guess By Now I Thought I’d Be Done With Shame and "The Ocean Offers Femmes Some Unsolicited Advice,” poems by Franny Choi, originally published on June 21, 2017.
theoffingmag.com/poetry/archi...
hi divas, there’s just three days left to send to the Micro department @theoffingmag.bsky.social before this reading period closes! we pay $25USD per micro. would love to see more Micro prose, but send send send! I would love to see your work in the queue, & please share with your friends! 🌊✨🌙
26.02.2026 01:23 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
“Maybe you didn’t know that this is the Bronze Age and the Stone Age is officially over. I can understand that—it’s not like anybody announced it—but the real reason is probably that you are not smart.”
From “A Metal I Can’t Help Admiring,” Wit Tea by Barry Foy.
theoffingmag.com/wit-tea/a-me...
“is there another way to describe a smile undergirded by violence?”
From “I worried about the stars, too: A Smile Split By the Stars Experiments with nourbeSe philip’s Revolutionary Intention,” an Art essay by Lucy Sternbach.
theoffingmag.com/art/i-worrie...
“I smell you in my skin even if you’re not there beside me love is you”
From “The Time Is Some Hour Late at Night” and other poems, a selection of poems by Bashdar Sami, translated from Kurdish by Shene Mohammed.
theoffingmag.com/translation/...
A picture of yellow desert sand.
We gotta close ACCOMPLISHMENT SUNDAY with a poem 😊 Poetry reader @csandell.bsky.social's poem MEMENTO VIVERE was published in @theoffingmag.bsky.social ✨ Read it here and we'll see you tomorrow: buff.ly/3ZK0IEq
23.02.2026 00:32 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
“The voice from our body, after all, is just a cover for the voice inside our head.”
From “Solving for R,” an Insight essay, by Syrah Linsley.
theoffingmag.com/insight/solv...
“I am aware of the situation at hand.”
From “Yes, Our Friend Laura Has Been Possessed By The Devil, But I Still Need A Headcount For My Six Flags Birthday Party,” Wit Tea from the archives by Libby Marshall.
theoffingmag.com/wit-tea/arch...
“I miss that valley heat, the scent of manure and semi-truck diesel, of chlorine and my mother’s pool-wet cheek.”
From “Memento Vivere,” a poem, by Carson Sandell (@csandell.bsky.social).
theoffingmag.com/poetry/memen...
The title of the poem "Memento Vivere". Below the title is Carson Sandell and the date 18 Feb 2026. Below that is a photo of Yucca with blue skies and clouds in the background. The picture is attributed to Michael Yantis on Unsplash.
I’m most alive those time-stretched mornings where mayflies drop in death and the dried swarm smells of wharf-wood, where clouds are hand-raked and copper hedgerows mirror the limpness of Mojave sand, a small brown owl crawls back in the cool burrow, full stomached, from its beak a two-note coo gusts through yucca spine, juniper bark, longhorn beetles eat elderberry leaves in the valley. I miss that valley heat, the scent of manure and semi-truck diesel, of chlorine and my mother’s pool-wet cheek. my neighbor with a shovel scrapes a possum off the road, iron skips across asphalt, black eyes like stigmatas, gray-brown fur left in the street, a ratking of fingers reach out its stomach and like this underbelly of young death, we long for our mothers to breathe again, strong as bird lime.
My poem "Memento Vivere" is published in @theoffingmag.bsky.social I'm forever grateful to the editors and readers who advocated and accepted this piece.
18.02.2026 16:46 — 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
“Everyone before me traded dreams for survival.”
From “Praise Kink,” a Micro poem, by Katerina Ivanov Prado.
theoffingmag.com/micro/praise...
“The psychic’s message repeated itself inside my head. ‘I must improve my parenting; I must improve my parenting.’ Sad and embarrassed, I stewed over the conversation and then walked home.”
From “As the Hammer Fell,” an essay by Sara Schiff.
theoffingmag.com/essay/as-the...
AWP Peeps:
I will be there with @theoffingmag.bsky.social and would love to see you if you're there! DM me! Drop links to your talks and readings! Tell me where the queers will be!
“To confront a Toor then is to reckon with the nature of art history itself.”
From the Archives: Read “The Miraculous Vivacity of Salman Toor,” an Art essay by Katie Alafdal.
theoffingmag.com/art/archive-...
“There is not a single piece of meat that doesn’t remind me of you. Even the imitation protein with names that evoke the afterlife remind me that I will meat you in the great Beyond”
From “Every Married Person Knows,” a Wit Tea humor piece by Luisa Muradyan.
theoffingmag.com/wit-tea/ever...
“First, find uncolonized land. If that is not available to you, soil that is mostly left untreated—preferably even abandoned—will suffice.”
“To My Great-Granddaughter, Who Will Find This Letter When I Am Dead,” an excerpt from “Patchwork Dolls” by Ysabelle Cheung
theoffingmag.com/fiction/exce...
“If grief has a half-life, then Isla’s is nuclear and will live beyond her, beyond language.”
From “This Place is a Message,” a BOTE essay by Lydia Waites.
theoffingmag.com/backoftheenv...
“Can one put one’s arm around another without persuasion, expectation? Where does it stop? Where should it stop?”
From the Archives: “Romance, Betrayal, and Fucking,” an essay, by Paul Lisicky originally published on January 12th, 2016.
theoffingmag.com/essay/17318/
“I have survived what I was told would be possible
for me to survive.”
From “CONFESSION,” a poem by Ameen Animashaun.
theoffingmag.com/poetry/confe...
“Applause for the serenity of a quick exit”
From “Ode to back-in parking,” a Micro poem by Rhienna Renée Guedry.
theoffingmag.com/micro/ode-to...
“No one asked me why, only how. ‘How could you, how did you.’ I answered with my amygdala cracked open like a beach almond on their altar stone.“
From “Oxytocin,” a BOTE essay by Ashwini Bhasi originally published on November 10th, 2020.
theoffingmag.com/backoftheenv...
Black text on a journal page next to orange flowers: call for submissions The Offing’s Poetry department is seeking new works! Submissions open Thursday January 29th!
The Offing’s Poetry department is open for submissions today! ✨
theoffingmag.submittable.com/submit
“Okay, so yeah, it’s bad… Like, really, really bad. But my therapist’s taste in home décor isn’t the only reason why I’m leaving her.”
From the Archives: “My Therapist’s Taste in Home Décor Isn’t the Only Reason Why I’m Leaving Her,” Wit Tea by Stephen Wack.
theoffingmag.com/wit-tea/arch...
“No one cares to make an unremarkable
Gown of their suffering.”
From the Archives: “Touch,” a Micro poem, by Sam Sax.
This Micro poem was originally published on January 23rd, 2019.
theoffingmag.com/micro/archiv...
“I, reader, have spent all day in my underwear
In bed
Crying about the fact that rent is due”
From “The Poem You’ve Been Waiting For,” new Wit Tea by Jay Délise @jaydelise.bsky.social
theoffingmag.com/wit-tea/the-...