Gulf Stream Magazineby Amelia Badri The nineties were princess-tastic! From Lady Diana and Xena Warrior Princess to Princess Jasmine and Ariel. Even Princess Leia lived on through those of you rocking her iconic buns in anticipation of the newest Star Wars movie. Which iconic nineties princess is your ultimate hair match? Answer these simple questions to find […]
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 […]
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 […]
One my grandpa used to swim through on so many boozy evenings when the rockabilly band played. When Patsy Cline crooned for locals. When as a teenager Patsy stepped down from the stage to find my grandpa’s helping hand and in the back, alone, my grandma’s jealous gaze could split the whole place in […]
Visual art by Renée Cohen Hot pink and lonely amidst road grime and weeds—a child’s stuffed whale along the freeway, tossed one day as a lesson in regret and wonder. There now under sun and rain and wind and heightened by its candid placement, like a lone shoe in […]
Turns out, it wasn’t a ghost tapping I’m still here in Morse Code at the window the whole long morning you spent pretending the day ahead might deliver something to cleave the weight in your chest, even though nothing but a rapture would do. You’ve been tired for days. You’ve got lots of excuses […]
In morning darkness I pull over and watch the heavy equipment sleeping behind barbed wire. How yellow and massive they appear under globes of halogen night lights. How strong their names: Bulldozer. Excavator. Knuckleboom loader. Feller buncher. Backhoe. Row upon row, the peaceful dreams of machines. The eastern sky glows orange. Soon I will drive […]
Neon Tetras, Tiger Barbs, and Rainbow Sharks swim round and round through seaweed and ferns, over moss and ornaments nestled in the coral and lava rock of the aquarium Nancy Reagan has placed in her husband’s study. Deep in dementia, the President watches from an armchair and fixates on a miniature […]
From: Crystal Hatzi <Crystal.Hatzi@yahoo.com> To: William Rocky Cuevas <Billyrock4@gmail.com> Date: February 20, 2020 8:27 AM Subject: Exit The cats are in their carriers. Or they were, at least. It was a struggle, but I did it. I’m exhausted. Panting, practically. You’d think I’d have had it down after the fire drill we had last Thanksgiving […]
Visual art by John Timothy Robinson Jess has a way with guys. She talks in ways guys get. I never thought we’d chill. Never thought I was cool enough. Then one day I come out to the big log by the quarry and she’s smoking like she’s here every day. I stopped thinking […]
Visual art by Sara Sage I. “The bathrooms are the smallest room you have ever seen. The toilet is very low and the paper is very high. Unless you’re tall and skinny, hold it.” –Melanie S. In Fell’s Point, a tourist-trap neighborhood pulsing foot traffic through Baltimore, the major appeal of each […]
Along my worktable in the basement, over a clutter of tools and copper pipe fittings, the skin of a snake stretches several feet. Following the quick-handed twitch of instinct, I glide my fingers over it. There is no weight to it. More void than material, the hollow of its form offers an […]
Reviewed by Von Wise Visual art by Tom Jessen A week or so before most of the world shut down due to a global pandemic, I walked through San Antonio, a city I was visiting for a literary conference and that was at the time in a “state of disaster.” Those were the early […]
Jan Beatty‘s work has been published in Poetry, Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Best American Poetry, BuzzFeed, and Cherry Tree, with poems forthcoming in Pleiades and New England Review. My fifth book, Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press and won the 2018 Paterson Prize. She recently won the […]
Clayton, Idaho I scale up the wolf-bones of the hill where no one’s been, look out toward mine road, pick-ups, blue river. (I’m only saying what I see. Trying to be better.) I take my body through paces, then do it all backward. Go to town, shake down the man-poet for coins […]
Centennial is the perfect name for the mountains— a silver word, like the silver radar dome on the peak, little sentinel. The vintage Books of Mormon on the cabin’s shelf have seen no white winters, shuttered in the dark as they are— only heard the snow settle on the roof, the soft crush of footfalls […]
Guidelines: Gulf Stream accepts submissions of fiction (flash and short stories), non-fiction, poetry, artwork and graphic narratives. Visit our Submittable page for specific guidelines and format. Submissions must be previously unpublished. You may submit work in multiple genres, but use separate submissions for each genre and limit your submissions to one per genre. Please do […]
Online #15 Fiction “Figure Eights” by Jennifer Stern “People in Hell Just Want to Spin the Big Wheel” by Mike Salisbury “The Putin Resurrections” by Ree Davis Non-fiction “The Hackamore” by Vanya Erickson “Crimping the Edge” by Arielle Silver “A Sparrow in the Wind” by Christine Holmstrom Poetry “The Same Thing” by John Sibley Williams […]
Gulf Stream’s Editor-in-Chief, Miguel Pichardo, sat down to talk craft, conspiracy, and staying versatile with Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, creators of the delightfully strange and insanely popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast. Set in the surreal desert town of Night Vale, the podcast is a local radio show where a silky-voiced host keeps listeners […]
Upstairs, past midnight, when the pager quiets and the hallway lights are dimmed and the nurses’ stations take on the hush of night, Yael—my Yael—comes to visit. She’s in her scrubs, and tiny biceps protrude from her short sleeves. We’re up on the top floor of the hospital where the couches are arranged in pods […]
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