Articles

The summer I first remember the salps arriving, I was eleven.  The sea grew thick with them. Overnight, illuminated by ripples of phosphorescence, the tide had pulled and spread the clear bodies along the Long Island coast. Jelly sacks the size of dimes, the waves piled them on the shore. I found them the next …

Dear Readers, I’m so happy you’re here. Creating the first fully online issue of Bellingham Review has been such a pleasure, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I’m in awe of our lineup of writers featured. This issue showcases a plethora of stunning poems, five deeply moving works of prose, innovative and energetic …

Winner of the 2022 “49th Parallel Award” for Poetry What ails the nation’s lies unseats the sustenant. At least, it tilts halos, allies loss, attunes statues to skeletal white noon, an oilskin title, a tesselate ease I salute. I, the tithe, I the hesitant (no) saint (no) unholy. I, in the nuns’ salon. Thus, they …

(CW: sexual harassment) putting away parcels of sugary cereal, Mountain Dew, cold cuts of turkey and ham from the deli wrapped in cellophane, all of this from cart to trunk, slamming metal closed tight, getting in their cars or out of them and into the sterile lights of the store, while somewhere a little girl …

I like giants Especially girl giants ‘Cause all girls feel too big sometimes Regardless of their size -Kimya Dawson, “I Like Giants” Today, you are the size of half the classroom even with your legs tucked against your chest, even with your neck craned at an angle and your cheek pressed so tightly against the …

Togetherness by Wo Chan (Nightboat Books, 2022) Wo Chan’s debut book, Togetherness, is a tender recognition of self and a snapshot of one Chinese immigrant life in the United States. Threaded throughout this collection are stories of life as a restaurant baby, gender(ed) identity, the fight against deportation, kinship (with its many forms and complications), …

“Rebuilding Self,” 12×16 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2021 Nikita Ares was born and raised in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, a beautiful city in the Northern region of Mindanao. In 2018, she graduated cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. She immigrated with her family from the …

This used to be a garden, before the strangers came with strange beliefs. They claimed to be cursed with something they called original sin, but blessed with something else, called dominion over the whole living earth. They tore apart the garden, insisted that the savage wilds be conquered and subdued to be improved. We are …

We barrel through backroads past pink plastic chairs, a puddle of bottle caps, titos squatting flat-footed under the greasy sun. Sweat rags swung around their necks, their tank tops rolled halfway up themselves, stomachs glistening. I cling to my torn leather seat, basketball shorts yanked in the wind, the smell of gas swatting my nose. …

The establishment poet writes poems with subtle rhymes and gentle wit that has no bite and beautiful, reassuring lines about how you are loved and the world is kind— lines you might find printed on coffee mugs or stitched on throw pillows in department stores, lines that might make a cheugy gal sigh, “Well isn’t …