By Nadja Maril, a founding member of the Old Scratch Press It’s October, the month of the harvest when the leaves turn vivid shades of red, orange and yellow before falling to the ground. Scores of literary publications have call-outs for scary stories to mark the Halloween season. The celebration, from which Our Halloween evolved, is the Gaelic holiday Samhain. During Samhain, the curtain between the living and the dead was lifted for one night.

It’s #LitMagWeek, a celebration of the independent literary magazines that give writers a place to take chances, find readers, and get their work out into the world. Start with our own Instant Noodles Literary Magazine, sponsored by Current Words Publishing and curated by the Old Scratch Press Collective. Then go exploring! Check out some of our fellow literary magazines celebrating this week: F(r)ictionMom Egg ReviewThe Dolomite ReviewMidnight Mind Magazine Read a lit mag. Discover a writer. Find something wonderful and weird. Happy #LitMagWeek!

Wendell Berry was a beloved farmer and conversationalist, English professor, forest lover, and writer from the hills of Kentucky. He wrote about land and how mankind must strive to use it ethically. Berry came from a long line of tobacco farmers. His father was famous for cofounding a farming co-op that matched supply and demand. The co-op served the people it was meant to serve: small, hardworking farmers.

by Robert Fleming Best of the Net 2026 Nominees Visual Art selections by Robert Fleming and Alan Bern Andy Gordon, car side views mirrors Joseph Barbella, horse power Robert Fleming, frozen sanctuary Creative Non-Fiction selections by Nadja Maril Tamara-Lee Brereton-Karabetsos, from cage to street Patty Perreault Bennett, our Christmas surprise story / flash fiction selections by Anthony Doyle and David Fulcher…

If you’ve never written a poem in any voice but your own, you might want to try writing a persona poem—it may lead you down unexplored paths of creativity! The Academy of American Poets defines a persona poem thus: “A persona poem is a poem in which the poet speaks through an assumed voice….Also known as a dramatic monologue, this poetic form shares many characteristics with a theatrical monologue: an audience is implied; there is no dialogue; and the poet takes on the voice of a character, a fictional identity, or a…

Often in the late spring or early fall parents on tours around the college campus would pass me as I went from class to class. The tour guides, some of whom had been my students, would say, "We never use adjuncts or part-time teachers here. All of our faculty are full-time." Huh, really? That's what we're saying now? I would think to myself.

Our own Dianne Pearce (me) has a new post up at Authors Electric, and it begins with an important literary question: Which author, living or dead, would you most want to get with? (A topic that deserves serious, serious daydreaming.) The weirdo answer from Dianne (again, me) is Tom Robbins. Not because of what he looked like, but because of what his writing revealed about the strange, funny mind behind it.

adjective: of or related to the space between what was and what comes next.... What comes next for you?

By Nadja Maril, a founding member of Old Scratch Press Poetry and Short Form Collective Before humans had pen and paper, or stone and chisel, they had their voices. The oral tradition of storytelling goes back to the days preceding recorded history. Repetition and rhyme aid memory. In many cultures, the story becomes a poem or a song. I was thinking about this as I mourned the death of Dolly Parton.

Charles Bukowski wrote about the gamblers, the rejects, factory workers, his job at the post office, those who had lost their way, his cats, his typewriter, a radio he threw on the roof repeatedly. He drank too much, gambled too much, treated women poorly, treated his wife poorly. He threw away tradition in poetry and aimed straight for the gut with unflinching honesty.

Some flowers spread their fragrance in spring, some tease us until late summer: just when we think they’re dried up, spent, they surprise us with an explosion of blooms! I’ve always had a soft spot for the late bloomers of literature. (Maybe because I myself identify as a late bloomer!) As thrilling as it is to read about young prodigies like S.E.

verb: to be piled up in heaps. What would it be like to be piled up in heaps?

Read It Out Loud A lot of poets would rather wrestle an octopus than read one of their poems aloud. I am particularly creeped out by octopi, and I would take the octopus over the live event. When I was a young writer, twenties and thirties, I could not wait to perform my work. I always got good responses, as well, to my live readings, so I was so excited to do them.

beguile, verb, as in to fascinate. to attract or delight as if by magic... What have you been beguiled by?

Your Poem Isn't Dead When It's Published Sometimes a writer submits a poem to Instant Noodles Literary Magazine, it gets published, and we never hear from that writer again. It's almost as though the poem completed its mission in life and quietly retired to a folder on a laptop. I've always found that a little surprising. We work for weeks, sometimes months, on a poem.

By Nadja Maril A founding member of Old Scratch Press A few years ago a short creative nonfiction essay of mine, titled "Lipstick" was published in Hare's Paw Literary Journal. It took many attempts to find a home for this particular essay. On reflection, part of the difficulty was in deciding on an appropriate title. In contemplating "writer's notes" about this particular piece of writing, I remember thinking about how titles set up certain epectations.

noun: the place or point of entering or beginning. Have you ever written about a threshold?

PATH 5: Take That First Step One Collection Leads to Another Many poets spend years submitting individual poems to journals, attending readings, participating in workshops, and building relationships within the literary community. These activities are valuable and often necessary. Yet at some point, many poets begin asking a different question: "When is it time to put a collection together?" For some writers, the answer arrives naturally.

I’ve been on a lucky kick lately finding great books to read. I have a group of friends and relatives who love to read as much as I do, and we share book ideas almost every week. I’m not content when I don’t have a good book going. Often, when I am busy running errands, ticking off my list of appointments and other life tasks, in the back of my mind I am thinking: When I am done with all of this, I can go home and read my book!

PATH 4: The Long Game Workshops, Community, and the Long Game of Poetry Many poets begin writing in solitude. A notebook, a keyboard, a quiet room, and a handful of ideas are often all that's required to start. Yet while poetry is frequently written alone, few poets build a lasting writing life entirely by themselves. One of the most valuable resources available to poets is community.

If it was, great! Over the next few weeks we'll be putting the issue together and sending out our group notifications on the issue. If it wasn't, or, heaven forbid! You didn't know we were soliciting, there's still time to get into the final issue of 2026! Read Instant Noodles or Submit!

“What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet.” ~ Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 Today I am writing about a subject dear to my heart—choosing titles for poems. The opportunity to name something you created should not be wasted. You'd think people would give this more attention than they actually do.

One of the remarkable things about poetry is its ability to preserve moments that might otherwise slip away. A porch light at dusk. The smell of a summer garden. A conversation remembered years later. The people who shape us, even after they're gone. Gabby Gilliam's debut collection, No Ocean Spit Me Out, is filled with those moments. Across thirty poems, Gilliam explores family, memory, faith, grief, and the gradual process of becoming ourselves.

ARC available!