A contoured villanelle using “For Her Villain” by Grace Bauer Unused lines. Failed drafts. Writing can be hell— like a heartbeat shivered to a stop in winter cold— until I see the sweet repetition in a successful villanelle. Tidy tercets twist over and under each other, and all is well, building to the end with […]
Dustin Brookshire and Kerry Trautman
Dustin Brookshire (he/him) is the author of five chapbooks, including the forthcoming Contoured (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2027). He edited the Lambda Literary Award finalist anthology When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton (Harbor Editions, 2024) and co-edited Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023). His work has appeared in Five Points, South Carolina Review, Pleiades, Cherry Tree, Diode, and other publications. Curator of the Zoom-based Wild & Precious Life Series, find Dustin online at dustinbrookshire.com
Ohio born and raised, Kerry Trautman’s poetry and fiction have appeared previously in Thimble, as well as in numerous other journals and anthologies. Her books are Things That Come in Boxes (King Craft Press 2012,) To Have Hoped (Finishing Line Press 2015,) Artifacts (NightBallet Press 2017,) To be Nonchalantly Alive (Kelsay Books 2020,) Marilyn: Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas (Gutter Snob Books 2022,) Unknowable Things (Roadside Press 2022,) Irregulars (Stanchion Books 2023,) Things to Say When You Have Nothing to Say (Roadside Press 2026,) and Days of Bees (Dancing Girl Press, 2026.)