POP!

Issue 38

(Spring 2026)

You got us wet for our last issue. Now, for Issue 38, you subverted our expectations. We asked you to burst our bubble, take us with you to the end of the world, and you brought us there. Think of pop culture, pop stars, iconography, bubblegum. Think of sharp points and rough edges. Think of popsicles. Think loud, obnoxious. Think of poetry that pops out of its form to shift into something messy and new. Stories that take us places we never thought of going, but we’re oh so happy to be. Work that doesn’t fit into any one bubble. Memoir that unravels in all directions until, pop, the words just splatter all over the page. Think of more sex. Think of sticky. Think about gum stuck to the bottom of your desk. Think about your fingers poking at that gum, mushing it around, digging in its center. Think of burst blood vessels and popping pimples. We asked for it and you delivered beyond our wildest expectations. We present to you Issue 38: POP!

– Michael Cuervo, Editor-in-Chief

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Editing Staff for Issue 38:

Faculty Advisor: Denise Duhamel

Editor-in-Chief: Michael Cuervo

Assistant Managing Editor: Kamila Izquierdo

Fiction Editor: Steven Osuna

Poetry Editor: Matthew Young

Creative Nonfiction Editor: Angelo Gonzalez

Hybrid Editor: Michael Cuervo

Flash Prose Contest Editor: Bryane Alfonso

Readers: Amelia Badri, Zabrina Barbian, Charlotte Kaplan, Joyce Englander Levy, Michael Louis, Katherine Shehadeh, and Ethan Torres

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Cover Artist Shane Allison was bit by the writing bug at the age of fourteen. He spent a majority of his high school life shying away in the library behind desk cubicles writing bad love poems about boys he had crushes on. He has since gone on to publish five collections of poetry with Turbulent being his most recent from (Hysterical Books), and his book length poem, Remembered Men (Ranger Press). Shane’s collage work has graced the pages of Noisy Rain, Shampoo, Unlikely Stories, Pnpplzine.com, Palavar Arts Magazine, the Southeast Review, Postscript and a plethora of others. Allison is at work on a new novel, new poetry and is always at work making a collages and painting.