Full Stop

[Spunk Editions; 2026] Art resonates when it is specific. When an artist tries  to make their art universally appealing, they jeopardize its potential to mean much to anyone.

The following is an introduction to the latest issue of the Full Stop Quarterly, edited by Full Stop Fellow Keely Shinners. You can purchase the single issue here or subscribe at our Patreon page to get every issue and more. I approached art through writing. That is, once I had decided to become a writer, I was determined to write and, crucially, determined to make a living as a writer. My first job in this regard was at an art magazine in Los Angeles.

[World Poetry Books; 2026) Although few contemporary Anglophone readers would be familiar with Edith Södergran’s (1892-1923) poetry, her status as one of the preeminent Scandinavian modernists has recently been revived by republication of her debut collection, Dikter (Poems), in an elegant bilingual edition by World Poetry Books.

The stories in Keith Pilapil Lesmeister’s new collection, Ask Me About the Money, provide a deep dive into the ways money and class shape the lives of the Midwestern characters who fill these pages. The stories in this collection are full of surprises that feel both impossible and inevitable; the dialogue is wonderfully sharp and memorable; the characters are drawn with such care.

[Haymarket; 2026] When We are Kin is a roadmap of the complex histories and the untrodden futures of Afro-indigenous Solidarity. If you have no background in the history of Indigenous and Black resistance to settler-colonialism in the United States, Kyle T. Mays’s books are a solid introduction.

Molly McCloy’s new memoir, Nine Grudges: The Spiteful Origins of the Happiest Dyke on Earth, won the 2023 Book Pipeline “Unpublished” Award and the 2023 Quill Prose Award from Red Hen Press. Red Hen will publish her book this month. The story recounts a letter Molly composed to her father, outlining nine times he failed her and nine times she struggled to forgive.

[Heydey; 2026] It’s fire season in Los Angeles. Whenever the wind bats the palms in my yard, my stomach drops. Hot, gusty days fray my nerves. Only a year and some months ago the LA Wildfires ripped through Altadena and the Palisades, destroying homes, schools, and communities. Many of those who lost homes are still displaced today. While the immediate impact of fires is often local, the ongoing aftermath is broad. Smoke and ash enter the atmosphere, blanketing skies.

This essay was originally published in the Full Stop Quarterly “Tender Tongues,” edited by Natália Affonso. Subscribe at our Patreon page to get access to this and future issues, also available for purchase here. A person’s linguistic literary palette is a function of schooling, environment and, ultimately, choice. It is not predicated only on the presumed ethnic origin or nationality of the writer.

[Granta; 2026] Writing about Ben Lerner has long felt to me like an act of hubris. The grace with which he articulates his own artistic vision—in the work itself, in discussing it, and when engaging with the work of others—seems to raise the stakes of a piece of writing like this one. What can one add that Lerner hasn’t said better?

This review was originally published in the Full Stop Quarterly “Tender Tongues,” edited by Natália Affonso. Subscribe at our Patreon page to get access to this and future issues, also available for purchase here. [Counterpoint Press; 2025] When I began writing this book review, I was hoping to do it with as much care and respect as Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe put into writing Thunder Song: Essays (2024).