The Sierra Nevada Review

@sierranevadareview.com

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Since 1990, SNR has been publishing daring new poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction from the shores of North Lake Tahoe. SNR is managed by the students in the low-res MFA program at UNR Tahoe. Read & submit at https://sierranevadareview.com

"I have barely touched my chorizo hash. My mother wants me to know that she’s noticed. She raises her eyebrows a millimeter every time I move my fork. My appetite is always the first thing to go when I’m feeling this way. It has been a lean week. I have not weighed myself, but I can tell I’ve lost several pounds since her arrival. I’m bound to lose a few more before she leaves." from "We Have Crayons at Home" by Dylan Gyles, vol. 36
meet the team Shawnee Shahroody Spitler fiction reader
"It is all so embarrassing. I mean how small a human body looks / against the sky. I mean the way milk always curdles in fruit tea & how // I always forget. To God we must look like sad miniatures. Toys. Like / the bravest mistakes." from "Sliding into Scale" by Emma Bolden, vol. 37
meet the team Elena German poetry reader
"Even after the transformation, something as much as love felt impossible, and the light contracted to a single point, a handful of pills, then dark. Dream beyond sense. Dark beyond dream." from "Charlie" Jayson Iwen, vol. 38
"After finishing 'Caveworld,' meeting all the fictionalized versions of real people from Adam's life, I was stopped in my tracks. Writing could be punk rock, you didn't have to be some elite from somewhere stupendous. Like music, you could just do it." Interview with Adam Gnade by m.e. gamlem
meet the team A.C. Spectre poetry reader
“What about Samba?” My mom asks no one. She sits on the bar stool in our kitchen, scrolling her phone, and complains that the places we often frequent don’t accommodate her latest diet. My dad stands next to her with his work bag sagging from his shoulder. He won’t put it down until the plan is set, as if his job isn’t over until this decision is made. My sister, meanwhile, is practicing her spelling or long division on our scratched-up kitchen table. She hates Friday nights too, but she never remembers until the end. from "Family Dinners at Samba" Katie Bockino, vol. 37
meet the team Jeffrey Slagle fiction reader
"[...] So on top of the goldfish grave, I scatter the colorless Gerbera dust, and then submerge the Gerbera in the tank. We need new prayers now. But nobody has got any." "Funeral Rites" Samodh Porawagamage, vol. 37
"As moms, it's assumed we will drop everything in service of the family. Do the dishes. find socks. Where are the keys? The ask almost always comes before the try. When Jodie says 'poetry is about reclaiming herself,' I can safely assume she's speaking to the reclamation of time for women--especially moms--to decide between doing everything, delaying, or delegating family-work." "Writing Reclamation" Blog post by Heather McCurdy
meet the team Sarah Bun nonfiction reader
"I was born at a time of hiding from the invisible hands of military dictators. I was born to hide. I hide from people. I hide from danger, and maybe too, I hide from good luck." "Alien" by Ìfẹ́olúwa Àyàndélé
meet the team Beau Noeske blog contributor
"I sipped my coffee. Did the thing where I made it seem like I was working. I watched a flat-bodied beetle crawl along the curtain that hung above my desk. That curtain did not even cover a real window because no one had a real window." "Global Debut" Michelle Kicherer, vol. 37
"The publishing industry is very centered on the coasts; NY, San Francisco, some in D.C. for nonfiction. It always felt to me that there were enough people who could write about these places, and I wanted to write about a place that was misunderstood. I wanted to bring something to the table that others couldn't, and to represent my home without the stereotype of being sandwiched by cornfields." Interview with Abby White by Beau Noeske
meet the team Jodie Sneller poetry reader
You stay small. Make yourself a pebble, smaller even. So small you could grind into dust, mix with the wind. So small you could float up up past the gray to the canopy of stars.
meet the team Bethany Hohenberger fiction reader
Poca liked the mailroom. The air of possibility about it. He liked the physicality of his evening ritual. His walk through the courtyard. The feel of envelopes in his hand after a day of clicks and pixels in the living room he’d made an office. He scraped his hand inside his mailbox as twilight sifted through the open blinds, but all he felt was the cold metal emptiness. And a flyer. "A Bachelor in Paradise, Nevada" by Bryce Taylor, vol. 39
"But in the dark family rooms of my teenage years, cuddled under covers with my best friends and Scully and Mulder, they gave me something I haven't been able to shake since I accidentally became an X-Files fan: a piece of my sexual identity." "About Time" and "Want Double book review by m.e. gamlem
meet the team May Freitas poetry reader
I am stranded in a moonless wet market. Rotten / eggs, days-old cucumbers stinking a pool // of rainwater (or blood-water). Salt / on granite. Fish gills flapping the cutting board. "留下街道 [Liuxia¹ Street]" by Yan Zhang, vol. 39
When D.J. isolates herself from her friends for weeks on end, spewing hurtful words and self-sabotaging, I am reminded of my own inclination to isolate myself and hurt those around me so they'll leave me alone. "D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T." Book review by Dani Kuntz
meet the team Corrinne Bollendorf fiction reader
"I never know for sure how anything will turn out around here, even when all the signs are plain to see." "Surprise Endings" by Mary Ann McGuigan, vol. 39
"As someone who is part of the generation that came of age in AOL chat rooms 'having cybersex' (yes I'm old) and watching late night 1-800-GOT-SEX commercials, I am not embarrassed to admit that I, too, have tried on my 'sexy' voice in an attempt to imagine what it might be like to spin erotic fantasies into the ears of desperate men for money." "Sexy Life, Hello" Book review by Corrinne Bollendorf
meet the team Macy Hurwitz senior nonfiction editor
"Don’t be surprised by how little your roommate works or how often she goes out or how much she complains on social media. She claims she is young and is exploring her options around campus. A group of international students you meet while updating your address on your I-20 form at the International Center warn you that Americans have no sense of responsibility or duty.” "How To Be a Good Muslim Roommate" by Samiha Matin, vol. 38
"Thank you for your position. After sincere application, the aforementioned interest in your vision has been qualified. In accordance with our needs, your consideration will no longer be forward." "regret. We sincerely" by Eben E. B. Bein, vol. 36
meet the team Dani Kuntz senior poetry editor
meet the team m.e. gamlem managing editor
Sierra Nevada Review vol. 41 submissions closing soon Submit your work before May 31
"From my numbed feet, I looked out at the gray water of the Salish Sea and imagined my despair aboard a vessel on the sea—like an old Viking ship for the deceased. Engulfed by flames, the pyre carries the physical bodies away forever. The higher the smoke, the closer to Valhalla. Later, after my daughter and I trudged up the large hill to return home and I had some time alone, I pictured that slow-moving ship and let myself cry. I howled at the starry sky like some nameless wolf." - Grief Whispering by Megan O'Laughlin, vol. 39
meet the team Jamey Baumgardt senior fiction editor + faculty advisor