Issue 09

Content and trigger warnings for Issue 09 include depictions of or allusions to child sexual abuse, rape, police violence, child-parent separation, PTSD, sex, racism, oppression, fetishism, divorce, suicidal ideation, and suicide.

Violence begets violence more often than not.
We see the cycle play out at the world-ending level of nation states. We feel it, keenly, in day-to-day lives. Yet we are not without choice. We can fight it at the root before bloody branches ever have the chance to spread. It begins with confronting it head on and choosing not to close your eyes.

Explore the unavoidable reality of violence—through action, suppression, or oppression—and how these contributors seek to unravel it through the words and images of Issue 09 of Reservoir Road Literary Review.

In order by written work with featured photography accompaniments:

  1. "The New Narcissus" by Jared Povanda, featuring “Hydrangea Petticoat” by Melissa Lomax

  2. "Slow Motion" by Christine Barkley, featuring “Icelandic Dream” by Maya Kachra

  3. "No more blue eyes" by Marisca Pichette, featuring “Lantern Light” by Melissa Lomax

  4. "Implications of Ghosts" by Kimberly Ramos, featuring “Who Wields the Feather” by Chanlee Luu

  5. "The Dispossessed" by Bruce Robinson, featuring “Turf Houses, Iceland” by Francois Bereaud

  6. "NOCTURNE" by Russel Swenson, featuring “In your eyes. In the distance.” by Chris Vallejo

  7. "A Real Night in the Real World" by Lisa Piazza, featuring "Drangey Island, Iceland" by Francois Bereaud

  8. "How Does an Orca Pray" by Dallon Robinson, featuring "Dressed stone windows, Caernarfon Castle" by Morning-meadow Jones

  9. "Brenda" by Richard-Yves Sitoski, featuring “Fluorescent” by Marcus Fields (cover image)

  10. "Five" by Kozbi Simmons, featuring “Solitude” by Ansh Tripathi

  11. "Such an Irish Word, Weeping" by Kristian O’Hare, featuring “Yangmingshan (陽明山)” by L. Acadia

  12. "I am thinking about violence." by Christy Tending, featuring "Pebbles, surf, and wooden groyne, East Beach, Criccieth" by Morning-meadow Jones