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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Spending the evening watching Some Like it Hot and responding to emails with love and care 💕🐝🚢

Re: Decline from Flight Literary
Tushar,
Our apologies! We didn't realize you had selected the feedback option. Although we love a good sonnet, we telt these poems relied so heavily on rhyme that some of the lines felt strained. The images in "The Hive" also got a little muddled as the poem progressed, and "The Tired Boat" felt like it was stuck on the poem's singular image.
Honestly, the email you sent us is more concise and passionate than the poems you submitted.
We hope you keep working on your craft. As the old, cliche writing aphorism goes: "you'll know your work is ready when you feel so confident in it that you no longer rage-respond to rejection emails."
All the best, Frances and Will

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

It's Best of the Net Season! The Flight Crew is psyched to nominate two essays:

A white background with a flight of beers in front. The text says, "Best of the Net nominations, CNF: Claudia Monpere when I knew nothing, Adam Shaw memorial day

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

It's Best of the Net Season! The Flight Crew nominated two amazing stories:

A white background that says best of the net noms, fiction: emily rinkema Tiny Little Babies, sean ennis Its Powerful Parking Lot

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

It's Best of the Net season! The Flight Crew nominated five killer poets:

A white background with a flight of beers in the foreground, which says "best of the noms poetry" Matthew E Henry, Jack Bedell, Alex Carrigan, Natalie Marino, sterling-elizabeth arcadia.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

We can't resist an opportunity to shout out our authors! The wigleaf top 50 and longlist were STACKED with Flight contributors wigleaf.com

A graphic with cheersing champagne flutes that says cheers wigleaf 2026 and lists the names Jack bedell michael czyzniejewski, claudia monpere, emily rinkema sumitra singam, donna vorreyer will musgrove

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Specifically she is mad about Frances’s costume being identified in the masthead section as grapes instead of blueberries, “which should have been OBVIOUS”

A picture of Frances and Will as children before a parade. Will is dressed in a ninja turtle costume sitting on a bike, approx age 4. Frances is approx age 2, sitting in a wagon with purple balloons around her back

“Frances Klein Founding editor, Frances Klein (the confused grapes) is an Alaskan poet and teacher”

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Last day of AWP! Editors Frances and Will are at the convention center going to panels and wandering the book fair—if you see one of them say hi! @fklein907.bsky.social @ketchiklein.bsky.social

Two white people with dark hair who look very similar. The man is taller

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Our editors are en route to AWP! If you see us around the convention, say hi!

Will, a white man with a dark beard in front of a blue car

Frances, a white person with dark hair and glasses smiling in front of an airport

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Our final departure as a new year opens comes from @beansbaker5.bsky.social and his Flight 2 essay, “I Need a Sign” flight-literary.ghost.io/ben-shahon-c...

Departures 8
Ben Shahon's essay, "I Need a Sign" is about what it means to love a baseball
team even when it's unrewarding.
Write a story or poem about games we
play even when they don't seem worth it, and what keeps us at the table.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

The new year is a perfect time for magic! Departure 7 invites you to weave a spell with @carmalynnpark.bsky.social and “recipe for a spell” from Flight 2 flight-literary.ghost.io/carma-lynn-p...

Departures 7
"Recipe for a spell: to heal a migraine"
by Carma Lynn Park is a fun, playful
piece of writing that gives ingredients
and instructions for curing your migraine
with mirrors, honey, and serpent eggs.
Write a spell that cures the mundane
with magic by revealing the unexpected
side of daily life.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Departures 6 comes from @jackbedell.bsky.social and his poem “sillage” in Flight 2 as the year departs flight-literary.ghost.io/jack-bedell-...

Departures 6
"Sillage" by Jack Bedell, closes with the speaker observing "cars stacked on topleach other, oblivious to it all,"
Bedells poem is about a place that goes
unacknowledged. Write a poem or story
about something that isn't known, isn't observed. It could be a place, a thought,
or a feeling.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Departures 5 takes us to the *almost* end of the world with the @mczyzniejewski.bsky.social story “Polecatz,” from Flight 2: flight-literary.ghost.io/michael-czyz...

Departures 5

"Randy and Gino were arguing about the

best place to hold up in an apocalypse,"

Michael Czyzniejewskis "Polecate" opens.

The characters debate if theyd prefer a

hardware store, sporting goods store, or

strip club. Write a story or a poem about

a familiar location in an unfamiliar

situation. What does it reveal about this
place?

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Departures 4 is based on the Brewer’s Choice selection for Flight 1, @ritamookerjee.bsky.social piece “Wherein the Kardashian Sisters” flight-literary.ghost.io/rita-mookerj...

Departures 4
In "Wherein the Kardashian Sisters Marvel at
their Bounty, Reach Enlightenment," Rita Mookerjee uses the Kardashians' own words to
show us a more enlightened side of fame.
Write about a celebrity of your choice (reality
TV or otherwise) at the moment they reach the afterlife.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Departures 3 comes from the incredible essay “When I Knew Nothing” by @claudiamonpere.bsky.social published in Flight 1: flight-literary.ghost.io/claudia-monp...

Departures 3
Claudia Monpere's essay, "When I Knew Nothing" spins on its axis around Meg, a former
coworker of Claudia's who was both intimate
and strange in equal measure.
Write about someone--real or imagined--who
turns every head when they enter a room. To
make this exercise more challenging, avoid
physical description to focus on other aspects of
character.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Departures 2 is inspired by @mehpoeting.bsky.social and his poem “it is not the stones/but the child’s mound” in flight 1: flight-literary.ghost.io/matthew-e-he...

Departures 2
Matthew E. Henry's poem, "it is not the stones/but the child's mound" uses the
golden shovel format created by Terrance
Hayes
Write a golden shovel (or golden prose)
with a line from Henry's poem as a
jumping off point.

Some lines we love...
"I hold their hands and... cry out to a
brass sky--a heaven deafened to one who has never known the magic words"
"how"a" tragedy is not the same as
"the" tragedy"
"is their collapse based on a foundation he has failed to build?"

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Departure 1 is inspired by the @seanennis.bsky.social story "Its Powerful Parking Lot," published in Flight 1 flight-literary.ghost.io/sean-ennis-f...

a graphic designed to look like a sheet of lined paper. The text says "Departures 1- in "Its Powerful Parking Lot" Sean Ennis writes, "there are places...where you can best tune into the wavelength of human sadness and sorrow." Write about one such place, real or imaged. Focus on building mood and setting over character.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Christmas is over, and New Years is coming. Here at Flight, we know how hazy time can get in that endless week between. To fight that ennui, we're bringing you Departures, a series of 8 writing prompts. We'll drop one prompt each day from now until January 2nd Mark the time by writing with us!

A closeup of a calendar page. The 26th is maroon, and says "departures" in white script with stars and hearts around it

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Pushcart nominations thread! This year we are psyched to nominate three prose pieces from Flights 1-2:

A graphic showing a flight of four colorful drinks at the bottom of the graphic. The text says Congratulations to our Pushcart-nominated writers!
Prose:
Michael Czyzniejewski- "Polecatz"
Sean Ennis- "Its Powerful Parking Lot"
Claudia Monpere- "When I Knew Nothing"

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

In line at the post office with our first ever round of Pushcart Nominations!

The front of an envelope with the address for pushcart press

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Congratulations to @seanennis.bsky.social You can read his killer story here: flight-literary.ghost.io/sean-ennis-f...

A light green and gray graphic that reads "Congratulations Nominated for Best Microfiction 2026: Sean Ennis: Its Powerful Parking Lot" Published in Flight One

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

You heard it here! Duotrope says we’re speedy!

A screenshot of a duotrope listing that says Statistics Synopsis—Faster
Flight's overall average response time is faster than most magazines.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Bartleby the Scrivener ass response to our submission questions:

A google form where the response to the question "Pronouns" is I/Me and the response to "Cover Letter" is I'd rather not.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Happy Saturday! Send us writing that feels like a kitten in a hotdog costume! Guidelines here: flight-literary.ghost.io/submission-g...

A picture of a black kitten wearing a hotdog costume. The kitten does not look amused

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Every editorial conversation devolves quickly into small town gossip

Received text: You joke, but it just reminds me of another complaint I have: The hunky guy is a conspiracy theorist, but this in no way impacts his character or personality. It's like he collects stamps.

Sent text: Counterpoint: I work with one of the Bigfoot brothers and he is a very normal person otherwise

Received text: Who are the bigfoot brothers?

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Saturday writing prompt! 1. Go to your bookshelf and pull the first red book you see 2. Turn to page 140 3. Choose a line of dialogue from the page and use it as the first line of a flash piece

A bookshelf, with the Louise Erdrich book LaRose Pulled out

A section of page 140 of LaRose, with the ljne “could a Saint kill for love” highlighted

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

We're on chillsubs! You can track your submissions to Flight, share our info with your writer friends, and see when we're open!

A chillsubs website listing for Flight: A Literary Sampler

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

We spy 👀 Flight: a Literary Sampler on duotrope! We’re open for submissions, and can’t wait to read your work! Read our guidelines: flight-literary.ghost.io/submission-g...

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

We spy 👀 Flight: a Literary Sampler on duotrope! We’re open for submissions, and can’t wait to read your work! Read our guidelines: flight-literary.ghost.io/submission-g...

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Up early reading submissions with my favorite assistant editor—Flight 2 is open for submissions in all genres!

A picture of a laptop open to submission guidelines, in front of it is a black kitten with yellow eyes

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Day 30 of the #sealeychallenge August 30th- Book of Extraction, Adrian Dallas Frandle This collection from @kithbooks.bsky.social by @adrianf.bsky.social covers a lot of ground while also being tightly focused—an impressive feat to say the least

The cover of book of extraction by Adrian Dallas frandle

Lingual Liturgy
Tongue, what's your role in the middle of all this wetness?
You're all muscle, should you not provide some defenses, or are these enemies so sneaky they secreted past your probing?
Do you trust them amidst this jagged decay, among all the treasonousness? You've got to work with me to be more careful about who and what we let in. I've long suspected the body of marshaling hidden forces to work against us (that's you and me, Tongue). The philosopher-fool of this loose kingdom. The Royal Exchequer, that brainiac upstairs, absolutely zero assistance. Organ of speech, you whose buds are never blooming, how can you compete for territory with kings? How your singing offends them.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Only 12 hours until Flight 1 lands and submissions open!

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Day 29 of the #sealeychallenge August 29th- Ragnarok at the Father-Daughter Dance, Todd Dillard Not only is this @variantlit.bsky.social collection beautiful, but the poems inside have humor and heft in a way that many poets strive for but don’t quite reach @toddedillard.bsky.social

The cover of the Todd Dillard book Ragnarok at the father daughter dance

I Scrubbed Blood from the Walls
and unscrewed cell bars from ceilings at my new job as a haunted house cleaner that November after you died.
Where lightning pummeled breath into corpse lungs, I detongued exam tables of their leather straps, I broke down plasma lamps, broomed away clouds of spider webs.
No more screams, just the roar of vacuums and carpet shampooers lowing as claw mark stickers curled like leeches in their bucket.
Fresh paint, new furniture, Clorox wipes where witches once dragged fingers and of course I thought:
"We could build a life here.
We could live together again
like this," me on the couch reading the same books, you trying on every shade of daylight and asking which suits you best.
Noon, I would've said. Because you're gone and it's so bright.
Because sometimes when I break for lunch, light striking my head like a poltergeist, I admire the shadows under my feet pooling like a hole I have just crawled out of, one I will fall into again.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Assistant Editor Tiny Elvis is here to warn you about the dangers of reading near the bath…sometimes you fall in

A picture of a small, all black kitten wrapped in a towel after falling, in a very undignified manner, into a full bathtub

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Day 28 of the #sealeychallenge August 28th- I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, Taylor Byas We always love an excuse to revisit this collection by @taylorbyas.bsky.social , but did you know her new book came out this week? Obviously you need both

The cover of the Taylor Byas book I done clicked my heels three times

When the Air-Conditioning Breaks
We discover home-grown auto-tune and yawp our Vaselined lips mere inches from the box fan's lattice—the flowered blades compute and swap our breaths for robot, monotone. When our friends
sardine the porch and ask, Y'all coming out? we let the screen door boomerang back to chop the wooden frame, our dizzy laughter cutting out our grandmother's kitchen edict-Close that door and stop
letting my air out this house. All bark, no bite.
When we return, our shadows race the sunset back to the earth. Inside, we doff our white tank tops and blue jean shorts, our naked silhouettes
like trophies welded in summer's afterburn, hot metal cooling to things for her to love—to spurn.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Day 27 of the #sealeychallenge August 27th- Works and Days, Dean Rader This book of poems by @deanrader.bsky.social was so influential to me when I first started writing—the work he does with form and erasure blew me away

The cover of the dean rader book works and days

Talking Points [Love Poem)
• And the way the light crawls up the side of the sky at dawn;
• the room the sky] when you open the curtains after a long morning in bed;
• the sun splashing on the sheets [a bowl of lightning;];
• a flame: your face: the palms of Jesus in an El Greco painting;
• and the way the stars in their wool coats shine inward;
• the time I drew back your blouse [&] [kissed the light of your skin);
• the light crashing down your spine;
• the light curving [off) the curve of your hip;
• the light from the
, the light in your mouth;
• the light on your body that says (this way];

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Day 26 of the #sealeychallenge August 26th- Magdalene, Marie Howe This is a great example of a poetry collection that has an organizing theme or principle, but doesn’t always strictly adhere to it, inviting reader engagement

The cover of the Marie Howe book Magdalene

How the Story Started
3
"N
I was driven toward desire by desire.
inte
Mag of N
embe a cor raisir radic
past
tor o
her s deat spiri
a wo
own
in th
believing that the fulfillment of that desire was an end.
There was no end.
Others might have looked into the future and seen
a shape inside the coming years -
a house, a child, a man who might be a help.
I saw his back bent over what he was working on,
the back of his neck, how he stood in his sneakers,
and wanted to eat him.
How could I see another person, I mean who he was —apart from me-apart from that

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

You can learn more about Rita and her work here: www.ritamookerjee.com/about-rita And read a recent poem from Poetry Northwest here:

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Day 25 of the #sealeychallenge August 25th- You Better Be Lightning, Andrea Gibson One thing that I don't think is talked about enough in the well-deserved accolades of Gibson's work is their mastery of both the very long and the very short poem. @buttonpoetry.bsky.social

The cover of the Andrea Gibson book You Better Be Lightning

No Such Thing as the Innocent Bystander- Silence rides shotgun wherever hate goes.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Day 24 of the #sealeychallenge August 24th- War of the Foxes, Richard Siken I have re-read the second collection by Richard Siken a few times now, and each time I come away impressed by his clear and consistent poetic voice

The cover of the Richard siken book war of the foxes

STILL LIFE WITH SKULLS AND BACON
A thing and a thing and a thing held still you have to hold something still to find the other things. This is speculation. You will die in your sleep and leave everything unfinished. This is also speculation. I had obligations: hope, but hope negates the experience. I owe myself nothing.
I cut off my head and threw it on the ground.
I walked away. This is how we measure, walking away. We carve up the world into feet and minutes, to know how far from home, how many hogs in the yard. My head just sat there. Fair enough.
A map without landmarks is useless. Science dreams its dreams of knowledge-names it, pokes it with equations. The crucial thing is not fifty times whatever but how we got these notions: how much, how many, how far, how long. It's good to give explicit answers, showing all the steps, necessary and sufficient. Finding the dots, connecting the dots. An interrogation of the dots.
A pip, a point, a seed, a stone. This is philosophy.
These are suppositions. If one has no apples, one has zero apples. There is, you see, no shortage of open problems. We carve up the world and crown it with numbers-lumens, ounces, decibels. All these things and what to do with them.
We carve up the world all the time.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Day 23 of the #sealeychallenge August 23rd- How to Play, Katie Manning This chapbook by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social from features poems inspired by games of childhood, a perfect nostalgia for the end of summer

The cover of the Katie manning book how to play, poems inspired by games

YOU ALWAYS LET ME WIN AT CANDYLAND
I never knew you were cheating, but Mom said you were going to make me a bad sport. If you could speak now, what would you say? I just loved to see you happy. No, you'd still say love— present-cigarettes and coffee on your breath. And you'd play love so I would be the one to find it, like
our favorite card-the layered ice cream bar that never melts.

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Flight: A Literary Sampler @flightlit.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Day 22 of the #sealeychallenge August 22nd- Shared Blood, Luke Wortley This collection of prose poems from @lukewortley.bsky.social and @gnashing-teeth.bsky.social feels surreal and magical and true all at once

The cover of the Luke Wortley book Shared Blood

Monster
My son and I are on a hike. I'm tying my son's shoes when a monster crawls out of the woods and devours us whole. We barely avoid the teeth on the way down its gullet, slipping painfully into the cavernous stomach. We wander around for hours until we hear a rumbling above. Throughout the next few days, the monster swallows another father and son followed by still more pairs of fathers and sons. Until we populate the bottom of the stomach and whisper greetings to each other, decide that, yes, this is our life now, and we'd better make the most of it. So, we build a city in the stomach and listen for the soft rumbling here and there that means our population has grown. On my way to the grocery store, I befriend another father named Marcus, who affectionately changes my name every time I see him in the weeks to come. I never correct him. We share beer and watch our sons play together in the park. It suddenly occurs to us that we haven't heard the rumbling since we met. We awkwardly part ways after a few looks upward toward the mammoth throat. The city goes quiet, all the traffic stops, and the slow silence sets in. Nobody talks for weeks after that, and everyone stays in their spacious, modern apartments, not venturing out except to go to the store, and even then, everything is done quietly, the only blips of sound ringing out of the cash registers.
The quiet drags on, and eventually we all forget each other's names. One day, we hear the rumbling above and cheer wildly.

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