In the Current with Jill Mceldowney Issue 21
Dear Reader,
In Spring 2024, we published Issue 21, an issue steeped in dreamscapes, moon’s reflections on the lake, solstice, summer fruit and the sounds of the season’s inevitable change. The poems included in Issue 21 are gorgeous, swimming in color, stirring a seemingly dead world back to waking.
As we look to the coming Spring, we take a moment to look back on our Issue 21 contributors and acknowledge their continuing achievements:
Madeline Allen published poems in Poetry.onl.
Isabella Piedad Escamilla published poems in The Adroit Journal and the Midway Journal.
Lexi Pelle published her debut collection, Let Go With the Lights On, from Write Bloody Books, as well as poems in Ninth Letter.
Anne Barngrover recently published poems with 32 Poems (print) and was featured on the poetry podcast The Slowdown.
Lara Egger published her collection Flop Era as part of the Pitt Poetry Series.
Sarah Anne Stinnett published poems in Barely South Review.
Laura Donnelly was interviewed for WPBS’s Series: Inside Stories.
Kelli Russell Agodon’s newest collection, Accidental Devotions, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in May 2026 and she recently published poems with the Academy of American Poets.
Sofia Fall published poems in Tupelo Quarterly and Public School Poetry and was interviewed by The Forge Literary Magazine.
Martha Silano’s newest collection, Terminal Surreal, was published by Acre Books in September 2025.
Mary Simmons published her debut collection Mother, Daughter, Augur with June Road Press in Fall 2025 and published poems with The Baltimore Review.
Erin Redfern recently published poems in Safe Passage and New Ohio Review.
Brooke Sahni’s most recent collection, In This Distance, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards and was published in 2025 by Texas Review Press. Her chapbook Letters, Dreams, is forthcoming with Moontide Press.
Emma Murf recently published poems in Same Faces Collective and poemma.
Nain Christopherson published poems in Voicemail Poems.
Whitney Waters published poems in One Art and The Cincinnati Review.
Kelly Gray won the 2025 May Day Chapbook prize for her chapbook Our Sodden Bond and her newest chapbook, Dilapitatia, was recently published with Moon Tide Press.
Christian Ward recently published poems in the Galway Review and won the London Independent Story Prize for Poetry.
David Cazden published poems in Heavy Feather Review and The New Republic.
Caylee Gardner published poems in The Whale Road Review.
Anthony Borruso won Trio House Press’ Louise Bogan Award in 2024 for his collection Splice and published poems in Puerto Del Sol (print) and The Colorado Review (print).
Christine Barkley was named a 2025 Oregon Literary Fellow in Poetry, a 2024 finalist for the Missouri Review’s Perkoff Prize, and published poems in The Yale Review.
Lizzy Ke Polishan won the tiny journal’s summer contest and published poems in The New Orleans Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and Black Warrior (print).
Katherine Smith published poems in the Cumberland River Review.
BEE LB published poems in BELT Magazine and Ballast Journal.
Eric Cline published a full-length collection, The Spun Quern, with Alien Buddha Press and a chapbook entitled The Temporary with Glass Lyre Press.
Michael Mark published poems in The New Ohio Review and won the 2024 New Delta Review Matt Clark Prize.
Christine E Hamm published poems in The Lincoln Review.
Leona Sevick published her full-length collection, The Bamboo Wife, with Trio House Press.
Sarah Elkins recently published poems in Bicoastal Review and CALYX Journal.
Brendan Byrne published poems with the Hyacinth Review and published a collection of short stories, Another World Isn’t Possible, with Wanton Sun.
Lauren Swift published poems in Pinch.
Robert Fillman published poems in The Loch Raven Review, Gargoyle and other publications.
Donna Vorreyer published poems in South Florida Poetry Journal, SWWIM and Shō Poetry Journal (print).
Cristi Donoso published poems in Waxwing, Pleiades and was named the 2025-2028 Poet Laureate of Alexandria, Virginia.
Lawrence Bridges published poems in The 2River View, The Wrath-Bearing Tree and Kelp Journal.
Jeannine Hall Gailey published poems in Barrelhouse, The Normal School and Shenandoah.
Aaron Poochigian recently published his book Four Walks in Central Park in 2025 and won the 2025 Anahid Literary Prize offered by Columbia University’s Armenian Center.
Ronda Piszk Broatch was a finalist for the 2024 Surrealist Prize from Willow Springs Magazine and recently published poems in MoonPath Press.
Julia Kooi Talen continues to publish her visual art and has also published poems in Corporeal Lit Magazine.
Congratulations to all of our contributors on their accomplishments!
All Best,
Jill Mceldowney