Imagine: Summer II

Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson

Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner

Assistant Editors: Karris Rae, Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods

Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight

Sheila Squillante, Sun Shower, Acrylic ink and pen.

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Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson

A Goodbye Letter from the Managing Editor by Abbie Skinner

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Prose

“Report: Skinny Monkeys Live Longer” by Steve Almond

“Bald Eagle Taxes” by Tim Bass

“The Specter in the Tadpole Room” by Brigid Cawley

“Crestview Way, October 1985″ by Victoria Lancelotta

“Four Walls” by Michael Martone

“Ma never talks about the day my twin sister died—” by Tara Isabel Zambrano

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Poetry

“tricky honey” and “A man of winter” by Kate Carsella

“Capitalist Necktie” by Jeffrey H. MacLachlan

“Ancestral Bed” by William Miller

“Last Night, I Prayed for Peace“ by Jeric Olay

“Confessions” by Travis Park

“A World Is a World Is a World” & “Guernica, and then some” by Sam Rasnake

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McNeese MFA Alumni Spotlight

“Last Rites” by Neil Connelly

“Sundown[ing]” by Jillee Sexton

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Cover artist: Sheila Squillante’s mixed media abstract paintings have been featured in numerous literary journals, including Brevity and A-Minor, as the cover art for Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, and is forthcoming as cover art for Mid-American Review. Her work has appeared in the group shows, “Down on Paper,” at Vestige Concept Gallery in Pittsburgh, and in “color(less)” at the Ely Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, CT. Her first solo show, “Serendipitous Gestures: Watercolor and Ink Paintings” is currently showing at the Cooper-Siegel Library in Fox Chapel, PA, and she will show her collection, “Be Bold, Girl,” through the Hoyt Art Center in New Castle, PA in 2025. She is a member of the Confluence Women’s Art Collective in Pittsburgh. Squillante is also a poet and essayist and author of eight books, including, most recently, All Things Edible, Random and Odd: Essays on Grief, Love and Food (Clash Books, 2023). The Brightest Days: New and Selected Poems will be published by Braddock Avenue Books in 2025. She teaches in and directs the MFA program at Chatham University where she also serves as editor-in-chief of The Fourth River literary journal. She is an editor-at-large for Barrelhouse.

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To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program, please visit Submissions for details.