The Metaworker Literary Magazine
Where great stories are forged.
“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
“typoem” by Michael Betancourt: a visual poem made from collaged typographic fragments. #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“…she finds her balance again, inside her head, atop the roller skates.” excerpt from Skate Country by Robin Wyatt Dunn #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“In the Mood”, a poem by Lucia Owen #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poetry by David Capps #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
https://themetaworker.com/2024/01/29/micro-poetry-by-david-capps/
“Alone, he paces from room to room,/each room a cabinet of memories,/a diorama of another life.” – excerpt from The Inhabitant of the Tower by Taliesin Gore, featuring art by Cerid Jones #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Microfiction by Kathryn Gossow #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Her other big talent was the ability to talk Kit into anything as long as she supplied the courage. That’s how she got him to go into that cave that day.” – excerpt from Big, Blue Watery Eye by Joe Ducato #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Sheep are floating in the ocean, and I’m going to be sick again. Not that those two have much to do with each other.” – excerpt from Porcelain Sheep by Jamie Anthony Louis @jamieanthony187 #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poetry by Michał Zieliński #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Here’s where I was those last nights, / twisting on that rack / of a recliner next to your bed” – excerpt from “Last Nights, Dreaming” by Lucia Owen #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Introducing our new slush readers, intern, and Pushcart Prize nominees! @dannyjbrennan @coopd88 @mlmcguinness #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday #PushcartPrize
“Our Thoughts lurk in the darkened corner of your bedroom while you sleep. Our Thoughts are watching from outside the window while you enter the coffee shop and ask for a large chai latte with almond milk.” – excerpt from “Our Thoughts Are With You” by Sean Monett @nonsensepoetrycomics #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Elena, Mel, and Cerid talk with former Metaworker Editor in Chief Matthew Maichen about their writing rituals, how they create characters, and the benefits and drawbacks of writing with or without a plan. #TheMetaworkerPodcast #TheMetaworker
“Breathing through his respirator to filter out the steady stream of dust from above, Dimitri passed through murky pools of brown air illuminated by always-on streetlights.” – excerpt from “Astronaut Application” by Andrew Rodgers #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The beach is sinking. / It’s a sigh. It’s the lack of you and I, pulling like the tide / against its warm face.” – excerpt from “The Beach” by Daniel Brennan @dannyjbrennan #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The egg of flesh was placed on the table where my son and I were breakfasting. It was the shape of an ostrich egg, and slightly larger than one, too. Its ‘shell’ would bend to the touch, but it had skin like that of a human.” – excerpt from A Living Stone by Jason Ruiter #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
Elena, Mel, and Cerid talk with former Metaworker Editor in Chief Matthew Maichen about his writing and publishing journey since he stepped away from leading the magazine. #TheMetaworkerPodcast #TheMetaworker
“It’s Not You, It’s Us” and “The Procedure” – Micro Poetry by Sam Alec #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Enjoy these three short Halloween stories by our writing group members. Join us on Discord on Wednesday evenings at 8:30pm (EST) for writing prompts and a supportive group of folks! #TheMetaworker
“Give it up,” hollered a voice two tombstones down. “Nothing’s spooky to anyone in this damn world of endless light. You’re not scaring anyone.” Excerpt from “Grave Lightning” by Max Zell @ZellWriter #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“In a cracked-pot / full of tubes, / Chlorophyll leaks / out your mouth.” from “What if our bodies were trees?” by Lucio Cooper. #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“If my days were like the calcified chambers of a nautilus cell, then my work was the living meat they had arisen to protect. The most human part of me.” @mxwheels #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“The blinding light from the Frigidaire beams, a humming blaze fluorescing Lacey’s face as she stands, staring into the refrigerator glow with a vacant gaze.” @coopd88 art by @curiouscerid #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“It is raining in Boston. / My friend is in an ambulance on those wet roads” #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Many thought that the worldwide aphasia outbreak would bring about the end of the world. It certainly put a crimp in all normal day-to-day activities.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Our reconditioned 3D printer just made that gun,” said my boss. “The genuine ones were used by real cowboys during famous gunfights.” #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“One day, colorful dots specked the sky as if a rainbow exploded.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“At the height of my loneliness, I examine ways to escape my skin.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“An interview compilation with some of The Metaworker’s first contributors, reflecting upon the past and updating us on their careers.” #TheMetaworker
“The babies of Borad weren’t sleeping. They lay in their cribs blinking. Then the crying started.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The bottom drawer in my father’s room contains his trash. Crumpled Budweiser cans and Marlboro ash, frayed photos from his childhood.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Photo by David A. Goodrum
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“my swift nights powered by / Starbucks are behind me.”
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“I stand at the corner hailing autorickshaws. Many are ferrying schoolchildren, plastic sacks full of produce, five-litre gas cylinders, or the drivers’ wives holding stacked egg-trays bound for grocers.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Good news greets Quibble’s return: his wife has conceived.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“My little brother had shown early signs, spitting up fire with his baby food. My parents were
covered in small burns for the first few years but I’d never seen them so happy.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“When the desk guard told him to report to medical, Cobb was dressed to go, his flimsy khaki shirt tucked neatly into his khaki pants, his sneakers—the good white ones he ordered from an inmate catalogue—laced, his prisoner ID card already in hand.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
poetry by Russell Willis
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
