by John Hazard In this stiff booth, how can I soothe my sobbing mother, who insisted we come here—cheesecake for her,beer-battered shrimp for me.We’ve earned it, she said, the day after the end of my father’s long dying. In his hospice room, she slept four months on a cot. On the phone yesterday she told a one-year widow friend, “Your Dan was […]
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by Jeffrey Wolf Probably, Great-uncle Morris had been around since I was a baby. Technically, he’d been around much longer. He was my great-uncle, after all. Yet in my memory, he appeared suddenly, a few months after my sixth birthday. This was at my grandparents’ house on Clifford Terrace in Skokie, a house I still […]
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The Magnificent Seven
by Vanessa Remmers Afterward, they ate gummy bears. They grabbed them from the bag, and pinched the spongy bodies. They did not eat them whole. Remember how we would not eat them whole? one says to another, twenty years later, over filet mignon at the Petroleum Club reunion dinner. Remember? How they ate them little […]
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Lesbian Barbie
by Dustin Brookshire –After Denise Duhamel Tossed in the toy box,plastic body to plastic bodywith all the other Barbies,she’s horrified, when her arm that was left reaching for the sky is now up Christmas Barbie’s ball gown.(She respects consent.) People think she’s goodwith power tools, could build a deck or add a room to the Barbie Dreamhouse,but she’s never held […]
by Richard B. Simon Content warning: This story contains graphic depictions of sexual violence. If you prefer not to read it, please return to Issue 27 to select another piece. To find out why we like this piece, read the Issue 27 editor’s note A Season in Isolation. Put it in your pocket don’t forget […]
by Ali Wood Ali Wood is a current MFA poetry candidate at North Carolina State University. In 2019, she was nominated for Best of the Net by Screen Door Review. Ali’s poems have also appeared in Bear Review, Plenitude Magazine, and others. Her poetry frequently centers around queer identity, mental illness, and family. Rebecca Pyle’s […]
by Anthony Immergluck * My guru says it’s cheatingto meditate drunk. * I let my thoughts passlike clouds in the breezeand when I open my eyes,I can’t remember any Spanish. * Sometimes toads explode.Look it up. * All things are cyclical. I will live to see the daywhen socks and sandals come into fashion. * I had […]
by Anne Hampford • • • Anne Hampford is a writer, traveler, yogi, and lover of nature. Currently, she is working on a series of poems inspired by travel in South America and Antarctica. She is based in Connecticut but is spending the year on the coast of Ecuador, enjoying life in another language. Nicholas […]
by Ben Powell The magician might be drunk. Kelsey catches him pissing behind the shed between acts. It’s a long pee; she’s able to wave me over before the guy finishes. “This is a kids party,” Kelsey says to him. Ozlo the Omnipotent just shrugs. He pulls black velvet gloves back onto his hands. Steam […]
by Ashley Sojin Kim Bodies strewn across rocky soillike freshly-pulled radishes, white and lifeless, now buried undernine-hole courses and honeymoon suites with marble floors. Sparklingknives stole through Bukchon fifty years ago. Jeju is knownfor folk culture, citrus, trees stunted by sea winds,and free-diving haenyeo scouring dark underworldsfor abalone, a dying tradition of old women who […]
by Jordan Hill Susanna Fogel wrote the epistolary novel Nuclear Family, cowrote the coming of age film Booksmart, and will direct the upcoming biopic Winner. This fall, Gulf Stream staff member Jordan Hill had an opportunity to talk with her. Here’s an edited transcript of their chat. Jordan Hill: I read that before you were […]
by Rita Ciresi The other mothers tell me I’m lucky. Their sons are screamers, biters, head bangers. My boy is soft and silent as a bunny. Sometimes he’ll use the sign language he’s been taught at school: a hand to the throat for thirsty, a finger to the mouth for hungry. But his voice—or rather, […]
by Natalie Satakovski With each new issue of Gulf Stream Magazine, you’ll find a fresh palate of literary tastes represented in our pages. This fall, fourteen readers and editors—all writers from FIU’s MFA program—considered submissions, contended for their picks, and helped pull Issue 27 together. Named for our unusual social season, this issue is a […]
by Brianne Griffith Creative Nonfiction Editor Brianne Griffith spoke with author (and 2020 Summer Contest poetry judge) Ashley M. Jones at the 2019 Miami Book Fair to discuss her latest book dark / / thing, craft, and how it feels to have her former professors teach her books. I saw you read at The Betsy […]
by Zebulon Huset The poem below won 1st prize in our 2020 Summer Contest in poetry. Here’s a statement from judge Ashley M. Jones. This is a poem that took me by the most spectacular surprise—I’m a poet who loves to play with form, and I think this form illuminates the content beautifully. How can […]
by Kristin Gallagher Dawn Davies is an author, mother, and founder of the Whistle Tree Writers program. While the pandemic made an in-person meeting impossible this summer, Dawn and our Assistant Managing Editor Kristin Gallagher connected over email. You earned your MFA from FIU. When you started the program, what ideas did you have about […]
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Wonga Beach
by Katie O’Donnell Wonga Beach 1. Night “The thing is,” says Jan. She pauses, sucking on the joint. It’s their last one. Cath waits, but there is no thing. No joint-passing either. The silence slides down to the waves whispering on the shoreline of the mangrove-fringed beach they have found at the edge of the […]
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Dark Summer
by Natalie Satakovski This summer, news of the death of George Floyd reverberated from speakers all around the world, while COVID-19 took its toll around us. Here in Miami, protestors chorused “Black lives matter,” “No justice, no peace,” and “Defund the police.” These events formed the backdrop of our 2020 Summer Contest, the winners and finalists […]
by Alaina Bainbridge I try to keep my eyes open. I watch sunlight rippleover blue-gold water. Light shadows jump, make menauseous. A few years ago, all the Tumblr girls were obsessed with Ophelia.They’d lie down on muddy banks, flower crownsglowing against dark, green marsh, stare blankly into the camera, glossed lips parted sensuously,eyes absent as […]
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Waiting
by Patrick Pawlowski “You write about your parents a lot.” –Helaina I have an idea for a fiction piece—everyone is disabled. Or maybe just everyone in America. Maybe they aren’t disabled; maybe it’s a weakened arm or leg. I imagine the hindering that disables them, a fog that slows in—it doesn’t kill anyone, unless they […]
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I’ve Been Waiting for Hate to Die (In memory of John Lewis) the way deciduous trees let go their leaveswhen the air becomes chilled, leaving trunkand bough and branches naked in winter. I thought somehow hate would have its springand summer but give way with time.Now, I see that hate is an heirloom pressed in […]
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Sex-O-Rama, 1993
by Jenny Robertson This story won 1st prize in our 2020 Summer Contest in fiction, judged by Alex Segura. Cher Bebe was supposed to be a dentist. Or a minister. His parents couldn’t agree, so they kept both possibilities in mind as he grew older and taller, his body flowering far above them, his mouth […]
by Natalie Beisner This essay won 1st prize in our 2020 Summer Contest in creative nonfiction. Here’s what judge Dawn Davies had to say about it. This essay is a switchblade. You first look at it and think it is a cell phone, or a comb. Or maybe a candy bar or coupon booklet, but […]
by Albert Leftwich shuck/SHək/ (in French, écailler) Noun. 1. An outer covering, such as the shell of an oyster (French: coquille d’une huitre). 2. A person or thing regarded as useless, worthless or contemptible, something of little value—usually used in plural, as in Ain’t worth shucks or They don’t care shucks about us. Verb. 3. […]
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A Lamentation of Swans
by Marlene Olin A lock and a key. A nut and a bolt. A child and its mother. Alone they’re nothing, their bearings unmoored, their future adrift. It was Nettie’s greatest fear that they’d be separated. And once the pandemic hit, her fears came true. She and Henry were fixtures in their South Miami neighborhood, […]
The wait is finally over! Here’s who took the top prizes in this year’s contest. To read these winning entries, stay tuned for the Issue 26 release next week. A big thank you to the judges Ashley M Jones (poetry), Dawn Davies (CNF) and Alex Segura (fiction) for selecting these great pieces. Poetry Winner [START […]
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2020 Summer Contest Shortlist
Thank you so much to everyone who sent something in & congratulations to those who made the list. We loved reading your work & would love if you sent more in 2021. This year we had a total of 160 poetry entries, 117 fiction entries, & 64 creative nonfiction entries. We’ll be announcing the winners & […]
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