Drawing on Tales to Explore Roles—and Whiteness
Holly Karapetkova seems to me a poet who understands the power of spells, of arranging words so that they get to a more primal level of meaning beyond whatever ordinary situation her words describe. The first poem in Dear Empire (Gunpowder Press, 2025) could almost be a blessing or spell for motherhood. The words hang in such a way that something slightly unreal—gift or curse—seems about to break through.
Waves and Threads
Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, is a writer, teacher, and adviser for Unbound, an award-winning Northern Virginia high school literary magazine (no relation to Washington Unbound). This first book shows the benefits a poet derives from many years of teaching and working with student writers.
The satirical, the earnest, and the politics of activism
Z. Hanna’s debut book, We’re Gonna Get Through This Together (Modern Artist Press, March 2025), is a smart, lyrical, and incisively witty short story collection about the murky waters we find ourselves in when we try to fight against injustice and search for a place to belong. At once satirical and earnest, this collection explores race, class, gender, sexuality, and the politics of activism.