Conversational Spanish
pay gar(d) la go-rrah: we are broke and we love Jesus, the way only broke people can.
oh-(h)allah, cay? you eva cafe en el camp-o: Lets drink wine, a lot of wine. Miracles of wine.
And when the water comes, or the fires burn, pray like only the washed away can pray.

I can’t find them in abandoned pit mines scattered lakes of
limestone & water łužiska jĕzorina villages on the land
seized treasure your voices of coal and rock crushed

the sparrows
they let their wings down
& I let the dishes gather
I was not as I wanted

At the Columbia Journal, we believe in creating space for and celebrating traditionally underrepresented voices. We seek out and support marginalized writers year-round, but this March marks our first ever Womxn’s History Month special issue. Our website will feature writing and creative expressions from artists reflecting the diversity of non-men, non-binary folx, women, and all those of marginalized genders. We are particularly interested in work related to the intersectionality of gender and other identities, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration, age, sex, sexual and/or romantic orientation, class, and more.

The Columbia Journal is now open for submissions to our annual Spring Contest in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Our badass and wonderful judges include Melissa Febos in nonfiction, Analicia Sotelo in poetry, and Kali Fajardo-Anstine in fiction.

Ode to a Wreck
Praise to my ovaries, those broken
little bee hives busy with trying. I’m sorry

A skeleton sat in front of a café drinking coffee while he read a magazine. The magazine was called Deadly Sins Quarterly. The skeleton daydreamed about publishing his photography in the magazine. He took photos of the various realms of hell, mostly. He took a photo of Lucifer playing an acoustic guitar. He took photos of rivers of fire and clouds of smoke. He took photos of red dragons and old wizards. His photography was showcased in New York City, Paris, Mexico City, and, of course, Hell. The skeleton finished his coffee, tipped his waiter generously, and returned to the cemetery to practice yoga.

The Columbia Journal is now open for submissions to our annual Spring Contest in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Winners of the Spring Contest will be published online on columbiajournal.org and will receive a cash prize of $250 each. Up to three finalists will also be selected and announced in each genre and published on our website, though there is no cash prize. Submissions open today on Submittable, and the deadline to submit is February 23rd, 2020. There is a $10 entry fee for each submission. More guidelines can be found here.

Tell me about last night
I drank when I hadn’t been drinking so everything felt like a movie
about being sixteen: all those big emotions. The swirl of ice in the glass.

we’re quiet for a moment
don’t sing out loud in pubs
don’t make love in public places

In poetry, a body becomes not just a vehicle through which we move about the world, but the lens from which we write that experience. What does it then mean to comment on the world from a body that exists at the intersection of so many systems of violence? How does that violence surround and move through the body? What does one do to try and move away from it, while not moving away from their communities?

Water-bearer:
constellation of your birth,
Not a womb, but a jar,

“The Hypnotist Suggests the Word Home”

^{Labyrinth, rapture, salvo. The release, all at once, a rack of rockets, a salve. Dismantling}

^{the elk nest,}

Question of Lust

Every thought that persists is contradiction.

Marcel Schwob

By Mike Guisinger

Our resident Print Translation Editor Megan Sungyoon chats with Ed Bok Lee, author of Mitochondrial Night (Coffee House Press, 2019) about family, Korean history, and language as a form of resistance and exploration.

Unfold, my potato
A bateau ivre full buttermouth for a bottomless breakfast
Brittany crepes and browned fats,

The first-ever Columbia Journal Fall Contest is now open for submissions in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and, for the first time, art. Our judges will be Akil Kumarasamy(fiction), Monica Sok (poetry), Emily Bernard (nonfiction), and Helena Anrather (art). The four winners of the Fall Contest will be published online on columbiajournal.org and will receive a cash prize of $250 each. At least three finalists will be selected and announced in each of the four genres in the fall. Submissions open today on Submittable, and the deadline to submit is August 9th. There is a $10 entry fee for each submission. More guidelines can be found here. You can read about our judges below.

Even the teensiest of curtsies
will make your shadow go away.
If you envision tucking your chin

The bed at the foot of the mountain, I wished it was brighter.
The train, delayed by summons and escarpments.
The fool feasting in the dining car, a child.