#readwithtmr

  If you’re on our Instagram (follow us if you want to @/themissourireview ), you know this already, but we are halfway through a #NationalReadingMonth Challenge! Our editors, interns and myself have helped curate a list of throwbacks and recent work, and I decided to collect these all for you in one Master Post, sorted into some beautiful #fiction #essays and #poetry, with links of course. I’m so excited to hear your thoughts and have some lively literary conversations this semester while I’m here, and I’ll continue to share our latest choices for #NationalReadingMonth. 

  Without further ado!

#READWITHTMR Challenge

POEMS

1. “Off the Gulf” by Patricia Liu. This was a #poemoftheweek from this past December. Liu says, “This poem, in lieu of photographs, holds my memories of Sanibel: learning to swim after having forgotten, witnessing the beginnings of a thunderstorm, falling in love for the first and last time.” https://www.missourireview.com/off-the-gulf-by-patricia-liu/

2. “The Neighborhood Girls Catch Lordstown Syndrome” by Allison Pitinii Davis. The poem engages with place in evocative ways, likening the effects of when the factory moves out of a factory town to a contagion. https://www.missourireview.com/article/poems-allison-pitinii-davis/

3. “Self-Portrait at Divorce” by Tiana Clark. This poem uses concrete imagery to explore the way divorce can create liminal spaces. https://www.missourireview.com/article/4-poems-by-tiana-clark/

4. “On Grieving My Nexplanon After Its Removal” by Monica Prince. This poem was inspired by the period between when the poet had her IUD removed and underwent a tubal ligation—a time that served as a “chance to reevaluate [her] permanent decision.” https://www.missourireview.com/on-grieving-my-nexplanon-after-its-removal-monica-prince/

5. Carolina Hotchandani’s poem, “Possible Consolation of a Brain Scan’s Topography.” Described by the poet herself: “How can I capture the loneliness felt when a loved one is there but has forgotten the events and stories that comprise this loving relationship?” https://www.missourireview.com/possible-consolation-of-a-brain-scans-topography-carolina-hotchandani/

6. "Tea” by Leila Chatti. This is a poem many of our staff members return to often, much like the ritualistic tea drinking the poem’s speaker describes. https://www.missourireview.com/leila-chatti-tea/

7. "Indian Lake," a 2015 Poem of the Week by Luiza Flynn-Goodlett. Flynn-Goodlett said, "The seed of this poem was an incandescent memory of climbing out of a dark lake onto a dock lined in flares—the tension between the adult celebration and the child’s, to whom the holiday was about sparklers, berry-studded cakes, and deafening explosions. I’ve never thought of childhood as an idyll, but as a corral flanked by whispers; the adult darkness is forever seeping in, all the more menacing for being unspoken.” https://www.missourireview.com/luiza-flynn-goodlett-indian-lake/

ESSAYS

8. “Genesis” by Yael Hacohen. This nonfiction essay is a raw rendering of Hacohoen’s experiences as a woman soldier in the Israeli army. This essay enables the reader to fully inhabit the speaker, exposing the nuanced costs of challenging the “mechanisms of power.” https://www.missourireview.com/genesis-by-yael-hacohen/

9. “A Shapeless Thief" by Marin Sardy. Named a notable essay in Best American Essays 2015, here, Sardy explores how her mother’s schizophrenia influenced her life, characterizing the illness as a thief of normalcy. NPR called the memoir in which this essay appeared “beautifully prismatic.” We think that’s an apt description. https://www.missourireview.com/a-shapeless-thief-by-marin-sardy/

FICTION

10. “Triumph” by Sahar Mustafah. Set in a women’s clinic in contemporary Palestine, this short story explores issues of gender, power, and domestic violence. It appeared in TMR 43:2. https://www.missourireview.com/triumph-by-sahar-mustafa/

11. In “The Legend of Lonnie Lion,” a story from JM Holmes’ debut collection, How Are You Going to Save Yourself (2018), a son reflects on his fraught relationship with his father, a retired NFL defensive end. The story’s compelling voice and mythic quality really make it a standout piece. https://www.missourireview.com/jm-holmes-the-legend-of-lonnie-lion/

12. “Way Back, Well Before My Divorce.” Equally comedic and poignant, this story, the winner of our 2021 William Peden Prize in fiction, examines the many faces of naivete, from hopeful crowd members betting on a rigged shell game to a young man unknowingly crossing an invisible boundary with his girlfriend’s sister. https://www.missourireview.com/way-back-well-before-my-divorce/

13. “Intro to Nursing,” by Jessica Watson. In this BLAST piece (our series of short fictions online), Watson synthesizes reflection and confession to probe at the question of what it means to be a nurse. https://www.missourireview.com/intro-to-nursing-by-jessica-watson/

14. Tim Loc’s fiction piece, “If You’re so Smart.” “If You’re So Smart” serves as a reminder that homelessness “can’t be defined by any single narrative.” https://www.missourireview.com/if-youre-so-smart-by-tim-loc/