December’s Fall/Winter 2020 Issue

december’s Fall/Winter 2020 issue (Vol. 31.2) is in production and we can’t wait to share the contents with the Boston Book Festival! The new issue will be out in early November — you can pre-order now or save money with a subscription! Here are a few of the highlights, with order details afterward:

Interview with Marvin Bell
Veteran journalist/emerging poet Robert Lowes interviews Bell, author of more than two dozen volumes of poetry and essays. Referring to Bell as a mash-up of Walt Whitman, comedian Larry David, and your favorite uncle telling dinnertime yarns, this interview provides details of Bell’s philosophies of poetry and life.

Curt Johnson Prose Award Winners

Don’t miss the winning stories and essays from the 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, judged by Dorothy Allison (fiction) and Brittney Cooper (nonfiction).

New Fiction

Alverdia lived with her mother at the end of Buck Run Road.

Alverdia would bring her mother a paper towel-lined Tupperware of fried turtle. When

Alverdia lifted the turtle out of the plastic, she could see through the yellowed paper towel

because of all the oil.

If her mother hadn’t smoked in two days, she’d eat the turtle with her thin hands. She’d

ask what Alverdia learned in school, and Alverdia would tell her mother that it was summer and she wasn’t in school.

• From “For Fear of Thin” by award-winning writer Noah Davis

New Poetry

Run your blade along the lines

that keep the head intact, then down

                         the back,

like slicing a watermelon—

• From “To Kill a Chicken” by emerging Indonesian poet Jeddie Sophronius

This

evening we will sleep 

flush against the soft summer

ground with the scattering of 

helium globes so far above us.

­— From “Abecedarian at Summer Camp” by emerging poet Emma Harrington

Visit us at https://decembermag.org to buy single issues, subscriptions, or some of our great merchandise! We can’t wait to meet you — virtually for now, in-person soon!