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Winner of the 2023 Tobias Wolff Award It was the eighties and we didn’t know better. We microwaved leftovers in plastic containers, pressing our faces against the radiating glass door, watching our meal spin glamorous circles beneath a warm amber glow. We ate hot dogs cold, straight from the package. We sprayed cheese from a …

from “وطن Vatan,” Parissa Rad Dear Readers, Thank you so much for being here to read this new issue of Bellingham Review. This has required so much hard work and dedication from the team, but it’s also been a blast to help put together this incredible issue full of top-tier stories, essays, art, and poems. …

“وطن Vatan” Medium: Paintings are gouache on paper; the teapot is stoneware, glaze, gold luster, hung with fishing line. “Vatan” translates to “homeland.” Artist Statement: Nostalgic memories of growing up Iranian and both the utilitarian and decorative artforms that originate from Iran inspire me deeply. The rich detail and color palettes of Persian Miniature art, …

Bellingham Review is so excited to share with you a folio of poetry that emerged from the 50th Association for Ethnic Studies Conference at California State University, Los Angeles, in 2022. This poetry folio on home, nourishment, and community features the creative work of Shayda Kafai, María I. Morales-Sánchez, Nicole Leopardo, and Pau Abustan. Poetry …

You can read/view Michelle Peñaloza’s poems and collages in BR’s Issue 86 here. I. I started making collages at the start of this year, the day after I learned the pregnancy, we’d been trying to make happen for two years, was not viable. The day I waited for a way to help my body—what is …

“Falling In Love on the Pow Wow Grounds” Medium: Digital This piece was created to celebrate indigenous femmes, joy, and love. I also created this piece for me, as a way to celebrate my own later in life coming out. Savannah LeCornu is an Indigenous artist and theatre maker originally from Ketchikan, Alaska who now …

Side Notes from the Archivist by Anastacia-Renée (HarperCollins, 2023) This most recent collection of poetry from Anastacia-Reneé, Side Notes from the Archivist, is rich with beauty and nostalgia, a vivid plumage of detail and unflinching intimacy. The author invites us to experience an archive through the voice of the archivist and their side notes. In …

“Void,” neon, wood, paint, 10’x7’x3’, 2022. Photo credit: Mollie McKinley Void distorts a viewer’s perception of space by creating the illusion that the hole in the wall is a 2D object.  Neon light is cast onto a concave form inside the void, creating a smooth, unchanging surface where our eyes cannot see depth, creating the …

Taneum Bambrick’s Intimacies, Received is a stunning second collection. Bambrick explores sexual and gender-based violence, illness, and queer sexuality through the speaker’s experiences as a survivor of sexual assault. With images of meat carving, quiet moments of physical closeness, and forms like ekphrasis and a lyric essay, Bambrick illustrates how violence haunts each intimate encounter. …

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), …