The Metaworker Literary Magazine
Where great stories are forged.
“Zana imagines an Afrofuturistic scenario set in 2048, where Nelson Mandela had died while imprisoned… and the entire continent finds itself in a racist apartheid.” #MetaworkerMonday
“Did you know I killed a dragon once? / A bully made of scales and fire” – excerpt from Princess and Dragon, poetry by Amy Forstadt #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Episode Description: In Part 2 of our Pushcart Prize Nomination podcast series, we review three pieces: one of poetry, one of creative nonfiction, and one …
“The customer ordered the fish and chips, and it all seemed normal until I delivered the fish and chips and he asked for vinegar.” – excerpt from Lunch At Café 86, fiction by Michael Smith #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Listen to the newest podcast episode! Elena, Mel, and Cerid discuss three of their nominees for the 2024 Pushcart Prize, plus readings and interviews with the authors. #TheMetaworker
“in this dream we’re all sharp objects and try, please, dance with me & ignore the burning roof.” – excerpt from Anatomy of a Memory, poetry by Anthony Ikeh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I let them into the library to steal the books. They say they’re going to digitize everything. In time, we can write our own.” – excerpt from Daylight under the Geofence, speculative fiction by Robin Wyatt Dunn #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
artwork by Julie Mota Kondi #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Your heart’s taken by another now and / so is mine” – excerpt from “We don’t send pigeons anymore”, poetry by Lou Second #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
https://themetaworker.com/2025/04/25/we-dont-send-pigeons-by-lou-second/
“I wish I knew why I didn’t bake Kat those brownies. I only made them once … and she would ask me at least once a year to make them again.” – excerpt from Brownie Points by Jennifer Peaslee #TheMetaworker
microfiction by by Anthony ILacqua #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“a / new / day / dawns / wolves are howling / far / across the moon” – excerpt from “Anathematikon, Part III” #poetry by Lukas Jackson #TheMetaworker
“Person 1: I’ve been thinking about Mom and the prognosis she’s received. Person 2: Yeah, me too. I’m kind of devastated here.” – excerpt from Exit Stage Left by Bob Gielow
“under nightshade we hold hands / kiss with foxgloved mouths” – excerpt from “I’m easier to manage in bite-size chunks” #poetry by Zoë Davis
“Life looked ahead long before it could remember. The better we could anticipate the future, the better our chances of survival.” – excerpt from “Triptych” by Tim Love.
[223 words] I gave you this, she says,hands too full of tension to gesture.She might have attempted to pirouette,but her joints remain fixed.This leaves room …
A book review of Parchman Unit 29, poems, drawings, and creative non-fiction pieces that constitute a powerful call for systemic reform and for compassion towards those less fortunate.
[76 words] Trucks Sometimes I think I too will die or merely come apart in mists,only to curl and re-cohere, as banks of automotive smog, …
[379 words] Hello readers! It’s Spring here in Los Angeles, and I’m writing to you with a couple updates. Since we’re closed to new submissions …
[1291 words] In my worry chamber birds fly east and west but never north and south, as some humans of the frailest forms would have …
“I used to believe / in water– / even when the world / told me blood / is thicker…” – excerpt from Dessication Daze, a #poem by Marla Dial Moore #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“We could have climbed into the moon. Instead / we biked in the metalshadows beneath Ohioan / hills everything hung still in the air” – excerpt from Field on Butternut, a #poem by Max Newman #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“I sit beside [my mother], pull out a bag of chips and open a word puzzle on my phone. She reaches over and places her hand atop mine. I freeze. It’s been years since she’s initiated a touch.” – excerpt from The Memory House, fiction by Maddison Scott #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Seeing the Eclipse at Sheetz / Is perfect for a working class / girl like me” – excerpt from Seeing the Eclipse at Sheetz, a #poem by Eleanor Levine and featuring artwork by Meghan Reynolds #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #writingcommunity #artists
Micro Poetry by David A. Goodrum #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Slush reader M.R. Lehman Wiens shares his writing journey, plus a poem by the slush reading team. #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
Announcement: We will be closing submissions early on Feb 14 at 11:59pm PT. We will reopen on April 1st.
“Dad was on his way, said, Trust me, Elise. Said stop your bellyaching, said For crying out loud I’m on my way.” – excerpt from Dadless, a poem by Elise Glassman #TheMetaworker #literarymagazines #poetrycommunity
“The typeface begins to rise from the aged paper. …They stretch and coalesce into an undulating vortex, spiraling around my outstretched finger like a tiny tornado.” – excerpt from Unbound, fiction by Maudie Bryant @maudiemichelle #TheMetaworker #literarymagazines
“Mother would stand barefoot in the living room and amuse six million lonely souls from around the world.” – excerpt from “Dancing Like Mother”, fiction by Nadim Silverman #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #literarymagazines
Micro Poetry by Mykyta Ryzhykh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #literarymagazine #writingcommunity
“the sky no more cerulean blue – soused in black ink, with it its moon and stars too. It is forever pit dark.” – excerpt from poem “that slow DRAGGED END.” by Devayani Anvekar #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The first set of numerals fell silently. They fell slowly and gently, tumbling like autumn leaves.” excerpt from “2575”, short fiction by Tess Hart #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Artwork by Gregg Williard, from “Scared Boy with Theory and Mask” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I raise the cup to her and grittily, proudly, intelligently say: ‘this right here is the metaphor for our marriage’.” – excerpt from Fugal Variations of a Marital Theme by Utkarsh Adhrit #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Elena, Mel, and Cerid discuss Mel’s launch of River and Stone and Cerid’s updates for Artificial Sweetener, as well as the thought and care that goes into book design and illustration. #TheMetaworker @SpecFicNZ
“The tantal was there before we were. … It was probably always there, waiting in the sand.” – excerpt from Captive Monsters Sleeping by @BradyMichelleR
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Announcing our 2024 #PushcartPrize nominees! #TheMetaworker
“Your gaze was fixed on something in the front, not on any person or any seat or fixture in the bus, but probably on a ghost that only you could see.” – excerpt from December Rain by Subarna Mohanty #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
7th Grade Sleepover, a poem by Caitlin O’Halloran @selfcaremaven #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“It is this exact reasoning, and its endpoint, that caused Giles to flee the city for this lonely meadow. Escape other people while there is still time.” – excerpt from Other People by Marco Etheridge #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Announcement: Submissions will close Nov. 30, new schedule for the new year, and open call for slush reader applications. #TheMetaworker
“When I was ten my mother fell in love with someone who was not my father.” – excerpt from Amoral Familism by Sophia Carroll @torpor_chamber
“At 4 months, a baby in the womb is 6 and a half to 7 inches long. A medium cantaloupe measures 15 to 25 centimeters. If an ovarian cyst is over 6 centimeters, it should be removed.” – excerpt from Numbers by Kathryn D. Temple #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“There are places in the earth that call to you when you’re that age, and you just have to stick your hands into the mud and bring up whatever you can catch.” – excerpt from The Last Tree by Victoria Meyer #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The truth is, after twenty-four years of marriage, six kids and two extramarital affairs, Marilyn had had enough. She decided… she’d run away.” – excerpt from Be Prepared To Modify Your Plan. by Brenda Kilianski #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I’d gone to Pinkerton since I was born, but I never noticed the trees until that spring day, when my mind finally cleared of distractions to notice nature’s beauty.” – excerpt from Walking the Parks by Seth Wright #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Elena, Mel, and Cerid discuss publishing software, fostering communities, marketing plans, and their hopes for their publications. #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
Art Dept (Watercolour, acrylic, pencil and ink on canvas) by Sean Bw Parker @seanbwparker #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
In this podcast episode, Elena talks with Mel and Cerid about their upcoming anthology projects outside of The Metaworker. They discuss how the projects got started, how they chose pieces to publish, and the process of editing those pieces into a book. #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“I used to think that love was a kind of violence… Because tonight I’m hooked on you like a knife caught in my throat.” – excerpt from Suckers by Campbell Brown @p0cketwatch3s #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Mabel brewed the raspberry leaves and you marvelled at how the tea drove away the ache. She smiled and winked before sending you back to bed with a hug and a promise.” – excerpt from by Julia S. Maron @juliasjmaron #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“When you ask me to sleep on the couch, / you wince. You know I know / you’ve banished others” – excerpt from Sharh on Sunan an-Nasa’i 736 by Reyzl Grace @reyzlgrace #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“Last year, on an ordinary day in July, at exactly 3:43pm, Dr Antonia Franklin made the worst decision of her life.” – excerpt from “Violet’s Breasts” by Charlie Fish #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“I will always return the books you lend me because I know they are important.” – excerpt from Unknown Author, fiction by Paul Rabinowitz #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“The smell of trash dripping days in the sun / stains the air with its yellow gunk.” – excerpt from Parteada por el Fuego / Twice Born by E. N. Díaz #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“I met him at a gas station. He was pumping air into the tires on his Pontiac Sunfire and I was vacuuming the inside of my old Ford van.” – excerpt from Giant Steps, fiction by Neil Jefferies #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“Our neighbors are here, as real as the promise that hair grows. I am as shy as my long bangs will allow, but at Village Cuts, we see one another.” – excerpt from It Takes a Village Cuts, non-fiction by Angela Townsend #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Erik Satie and Me”, poetry by Ken Been #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“I trace your name in morning shadows.” – excerpt from “Your Scent”, micro fiction by Erin Jamieson @erin_simmer #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Planning took a few days. Meanwhile, Emily hadn’t called back. The longer Helen went without hearing from Emily, the more she wanted to call her mother.” – excerpt from Shallow Water, fiction by Susan Laurencot #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“The jars near the window
Sometimes I mistake them for busts” – excerpt from Busts by Jennifer Klein @JenniferKleinReal #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“You want the memory to serve you somehow, to mean something that you can make sense of…” excerpt from Closer to the Sky by Carolyn R. Russell #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“Grey Autumn”, underwater photography by Katie Hughbanks @katiehughbankspics #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I love the little pink soap in its shiny white wrapper that I place on the gleaming porcelain sink of Room 118.” – excerpt from Motel Soap by Bonnie Brewer-Kraus #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“As you stroll along cliffs that grace the tops of Appalachia’s rolling canopy, you’ll notice that the plot of the book becomes more cohesive.” – excerpt from Recipe for an Unfinished Book by M. R. Lehman Wiens #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“She couldn’t believe it. She looked down at her hands, examining them, turning them back to front and back again.” – excerpt from Bananas by Jared Cole #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“this cereal is stale”, acrylic on wooden panel. Artwork by Marie Magnetic #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“He on one end, she on the other, they march with purpose to the orchid show. The children between them are bundled so tightly, they waddle like penguins in the winter glow.” – excerpt from The Bronx Botanical Gardens Orchid Show by Jacqueline S. McCauley #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“Like the Man, she appeared oblivious to the absence of walls. Standing in my usual spot observing the house, I kept willing [the Woman] to look my way.” – excerpt from The Season of Solitude by Jenn Haase Vetter #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
Micro Poetry by Mykyta Ryzhykh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“We chanced upon him on our honeymoon. His gallery was empty / but well-lit” – excerpt from A Secret Knowledge of How to Love by Kit Willett #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“You carried it kinda heavy though, old Johnny / confided on my last day of a 3 year gig” – excerpt from Heavy by Shaun Anthony McMichael @samcmichael #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The woods are dark. The are so very dark and full of sounds.” – excerpt from After Dark, Memorial Park by Neil Ellis Orts @neowrites #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
Micro Poems by Chris Bullard #TheMetaworker MetaworkerMonday
Announcement: We will publish twice a week on Mondays and Fridays at noon PT during July and August! #TheMetaworker #ForgeFridays
“There was no such thing as afternoon here; it was always nighttime. Every day it became murkier. Every day Kivotos-4 moved further from the sun.” – excerpt from Memories of Earth by Felix Anker @bananentupper @schundundsyntax #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“some chasms are wider than others / this city is large and so are the windows” excerpt from spring cleaning by @laurenkellls
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
A mixed media collage by GJ Gillespie #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I’m cursed to know the whereabouts of every small lost thing, even the things I never touch, like your toothbrush.” excerpt from Only a Witch by Steven Hage #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Not Done Yet”, a poem by Nancy Noelke #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“It was a kind of transformation we could witness like astral projection but of our entire being. We spoke broken English, which she was proud of.” – Excerpt from “My English Teacher” by Bharti Bansal @useless_thought25 #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“After years in the sanitarium, / the grasshopper looks up and sees / his therapist is the ant.” excerpt from Grasshopper Looks Up At His Therapist by Jocko Benoit #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
In this two-part series, we celebrate our Pushcart Prize nominees. This episode features @coopd88, @FrankNjugi, and Linda Lacey. #TheMetaworker #PushcartPrize
Creative Non-Fiction Micros by Kevin Browne #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
In this two-part series, we celebrate our Pushcart Prize nominees. This episode features Amita Basu, Daniel Brennan, and Marie-Louise McGuinness. #TheMetaworker #PushcartPrize
Photo by James Reade Venable #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Announcements: Submissions will close during the month of May, and we introduce our two newest slush readers: Amita and Katie! #TheMetaworker
“I longed to brush my lips next to yours– to taste the tang of rubies on your tongue.” excerpt from Rubies by Carol E. Anderson #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Microfiction by F.D. Jackson #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Today was the day – the day I’d make three year’s salary in a single evening. The day I met the Spaniard.” excerpt from Ashmedai and the Hairdresser by Allister Nelson #MetaworkerMondY #TheMetaworker
“You wait for the night / below the castle on the mountain.” – Excerpt from All You Should Remember by Perry L. Powell #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Where shall they meet? The deli, let’s say. Maybe she works behind the counter. Maybe he comes in for a sandwich.” – excerpt from Recipe by Annie Borelli #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Magic Tricks For The Homeless”, a web comic by Kevin Charles. #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
A Knight in Shining Armor for a Dad by Maxine Flam #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“the recurring colonnades /
offered the illusion / of progress, vital calamity / passed into oblivion…” excerpt from On the Plaza by Clay Waters. #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Cleotis and I were guards at Parchman… He was a single man, a quiet kind of guy, and an exceptionally talented amateur oil painter.” excerpt from “Cleotis, The Secret Portraitist” by T. G. Metcalf #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
