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Split Lip Magazine is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. We publish online monthly and in print. Poetry, fiction, memoir, flash, reviews, interviews, art.

Please do check out all of the September issue—there’s art by Joe Karlovec, fiction by Sarah Chin, a flash piece by Alice Markham-Cantor, nonfiction by Lisa K. Harris, & an interview with leena aboutaleb by Jood AlThukair. splitlipthemag.com

splitlipthemag.com

Split Lip Magazine

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This poem is in my forthcoming book with @boa-editions.bsky.social, Quintessential Earthly Activities. My thanks to @maureenlangloss.bsky.social, @ritamookerjee.bsky.social, CD Eskilson, @wendyoleson.bsky.social, & everyone at Split Lip for giving this poem such a beautiful first home.

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I’ve got a new poem in the September issue of @splitlipthemag.bsky.social. It’s about the daughter my mother always wanted and the sister I dreamt of having.

IN THE FOREST OF MY OWN TEARS I SUDDENLY REMEMBER WANDA

It's the name my mother would've given her daughter if she ever had one instead of yet another son. Wanda.
I used to dream of climbing trees together & playing wizard of the forest together, though not in the forest of my tears.
This was always in the forest of my laughter. Always, despite how sad I got at times that my mother didn't get to have you.
Back then I climbed trees every day. These days I'm lost in the thickets of my phone. The other week I kept missing calls, turns out I forgot to turn off "do not disturb." Eventually I remembered, but couldn't remember how to actually do it, to say, Yes, I want to be disturbed again-by my phone, & by the world, I guess.
Then I googled it, instead of just asking Jeff (I think you would like Jeff), because I didn't want it to be a whole production again, a customer service situation, except between lovers, & I am the worst

customer & the worst lover when trying to figure out my own phone. True, I'm a bit (Jeff would say a lot) of a Luddite. Well, a Luddite who's a screen fiend, & isn't that the perfect storm, wait, is that the right proverb, is it an idiom, I think you would know, Wanda. & now I'm remembering French class, how I adored learning new idiomatic expressions— lifit's Idiomatic Expressions Time! That's what happened in my head. How often I wished, Wanda, that you were at school with me. Say, only a year above me, but wise & capable of forming really cool sentences in French, & you'd never tease me in any language, or just a little, for what went on in my head. & after school we'd race from the bus to our favorite tree, though already we were a tad old to be playing like that, we'd play, we'd climb, we'd take turns being wizard of the forest, & laugh, we'd laugh so vast. At some point in our tree, you'd tell me which boy you liked, if any. Then I'd chime in with which one, or ones I liked. & though I could guess, & now know, thanks to my best friend Sam (you'd like him too), that having sisters can be very complicated, including or especially big sisters,

back then I believed, needed to think that I could tell you every big thing. I could tell my sister, & then it was okay for a while that I couldn't tell anyone else in the family, it was alright because I had you. You, Wanda, & maybe that's sort of what she was thinking, believing, too, in her own forest early mornings or late at night, up in her own magical oak, when my mother was dreaming so hard about you.

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an everything bagel egg sandwich really is everything

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Maureen Langloss @maureenlangloss.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

i have a different depression for each season

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Reposted by Chen Chen

Ahhhhhhhh, a new issue at last! I've missed pub days during our summer break! Everything in this new issue is 🔥🔥🔥, but I draw your attention to @chenchenwrites.bsky.social's gorgeous poem first. It gets me teary-eyed every time, as I have always wished for a sister myself.❤️

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Reposted by Chen Chen

Split Lip Magazine @splitlipthemag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🍂 Let's fall into the cozy season with our new SEPTEMBER ISSUE 🍂 buff.ly/JmXKHQ1 All the love to our Contributors⬇️ WORDS: Sarah Chin, Alice Markham-Cantor, Chen Chen, & Lisa K. Harris ART: Joe Karlovec PLUS: Jood AlThukair interviews leena aboutaleb

Cover art for Split Lip Magazine's September 2026 issue by Joe Karlovec featuring a section of his “Eviction Notice.” Jacquard textile, 5-part installation, 78″ x 104″, 2020.

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

In case you don't have a copy, it's always nice to support an indie publisher: boaeditions.org/book/your-em... (Audiobook with me reading this collection also available at that link)

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Reposted by Chen Chen

Jedi M @jedibyknight.com · 13/09/2026

One of my favorite books of poetry EVER 🥰🥰 So glad it exists in the world 💙📚

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Anyway, thanks to everyone who’s read, taught, reviewed, posted, recommended, and otherwise supported this work, including inviting me to do readings. And my thanks again to @boa-editions.bsky.social.

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It’s 80 degrees today in Rochester, but I’ve been longing to wear a sweater, so my compromise is wearing shorts on the bottom~

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Today marks 4 years of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency. Happy bday, my unapologetically gay and *thick* second book.

I’m standing in front of a garden with some small trees & many pink flowers. I’m wearing a pale pink hat, dark blue glasses, a floral sweater, & pale pink shorts. I’m holding a copy of my second book.

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

there’s still time to sign up for my upcoming generative workshop on zoom with charlotte lit! ye olde link: charlottelit.configio.com/pd/716/origi...

ORIGIN STORIES
Poems of Self-Discovery

A Master Class with
CHEN CHEN

Tuesday, September 29 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Virtual via Zoom
Register: charlottelit.org/programming

CHARLOTTELIT

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all i wanna do is hang out with gay people

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

this is from CAConrad’s book Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return (what a wonderful book title btw)

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

obsessed with this poem by CAConrad. the empire will tax your soul! I prefer the forests making blankets from themselves!!

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I'm a poet not a motivational speaker I keep trying to tell you —CAConrad

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Reposted by Chen Chen

wee boss @weeboss.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

yes yes yes PRIORITIZE PLAY

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more time to "just" goof off is always the goal, the treat, the gift, the treasure. i put "just" in quotes because i keep realizing that that time is so precious it's not "just" anything

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literacy is such a beautiful word; reading comprehension, a gorgeous phrase...

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whenever i get tired of prose (reading or writing it) it's such a delicious relief to return to poetry

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i saw someone post something like, japan is for the japanese, why can't germany be for germans... and i just can't. and i mean, THESE 2 NATIONS SPECIFICALLY? is WWII not a thing anymore? who counted as german enough? japanese enough? also, ethnonationalist supremacy and imperialism go hand in hand

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right wing westerners love to point to east asian countries as examples of strong homogenous societies, not realizing that they've bought into those countries' nationalist narratives. china in its current nation state form didn't exist till the 50s! chineseness is an ongoing, contested construct

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sameness is a fantasy. who can say that within even their own family there's the "same culture"? culture changes, language changes, people change. difference is the reality. diversity is constant. ethnonationalism demands denying actual living culture in favor of impossible sameness and heroic myths

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i do not understand the desire for preserving/increasing homogeneity, which is always a dangerous fantasy anyway. the nation state is such a recent invention that depends on a flattening of regional differences (like languages/dialects), an enforcing of national sameness, a sanitizing of histories

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