The Winter 2024 (#20) edition markes our tenth anniver­sary and con­tin­ues a legacy of dis­cov­er­ing and encour­ag­ing new and diverse voices. Forty con­trib­u­tors came togeth­er to make this one of our most pow­er­ful issues yet. Find Stonecoast Review Issue 20 at local inde­pen­dent book­seller Kelly’s Books…

Poetry By Liam Strong your first time was beneath cherry blos­soms queen anne’s lace & purple thistle freshly mown xmas lights burnt & heavy with July your b‑day a harvest lil eye balls dis­tend­ed from their sockets your red wheel barrow flush with pancake & syrup trea­cles of dew risen from nowhere…

FICTION By William McDon­ald So, a child is like an invest­ment, you see? First you estab­lish a part­ner­ship with your other (spouse, mate, lover, etc.), and then you start saving. And you save and you save until you feel like your part­ner­ship has estab­lished a…

GENRE FICTION By Sage Tyrtle The actors they’ve hired to play the Thomp­sons are all wrong. I can see them from my bedroom window, the living room lit up, the cur­tains open the way they never were when Angie and her family lived there. The…

POETRY By Helena Steel We’re on the phone      both of us peel       ing apples cut       ting out the bruises and rot        ten bits. She’s making a pie        and me, a cake. A coincident …

DRAMATIC WORK by Ayvaunn Penn CHARACTER NAME, BRIEF DESCRIPTION, AGE, GENDER   PROF. BLACK: A Black uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 35+ Any   PROF. WHITE: A White uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 40+ Any   PROF. BENTON: A Latinx uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor 40+ Any   PROF. HALLOW: A uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tor. Any Race. 40+ Any …

FICTION By Steven Lang She was short and thick, with dry, blood­shot eyes and skin as white as the belly of a fish. Even when she was crying—which was often—tears rarely came. She’d rub the backs of her hands into her eyes until they reddened,…

CREATIVE NONFICTION By Kerry Neville “Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is some­thing to think of, and it gives her a sort of dis­tinc­tion among her com­pan­ions. When is your turn to come?…

POETRY By Yael Valen­cia Aldana Alien, you are the best person I have met/not the strongest but the best/The worst thing you ever did I made you do/Drunk off our asses atop a ten-story apart­ment roof in Brooklyn/ I command you to climb down the…

FICTION By Mike Guerin She had been off in Aus­tralia, and quare places after that, for about twenty years. She only came home for her parents’ funeral. Carbon monox­ide poi­son­ing, like the canary in the ad. There was no carbon monox­ide poi­son­ing long ‘go ‘cos…