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This month, Eleanor Ball dives back into the Okay Donkey archives and highlights three fabulous pieces from OKD’s past, plus we’ve got a handful of exciting lit mag announcements we can’t wait to share with you and a ton of shoutouts to our contributors and staff who have done cool things lately.
Thanks for sticking with us! Enjoy this month’s issue.
🫏 OKD Updates
The time of change at Okay Donkey continues! We’re so thrilled to welcome Erin Malone as our new Poetry Editor. Erin replaces the departing Carolene Kurien, who had been guiding our poetry section since 2024. You can hear more below about what both Erin and Carolene value in poetry submissions as we wrap up our Editor AMA.
We also just welcomed new Fiction Readers! Please join us in welcoming River Allen, Ellie Amos, Samantha Borek, Daniel Burton, Kier Davison, Isabella Ferreira, Gersande La Flèche, Steven Genise, Connor Harding, Halley Holmes, Karis Mulcahy, Sanyukta Nath, Gaia Tilotta, Andre'a Victorian, and Cedar Warner. This was a very tough selection process — big congratulations to those selected!
Another thing we’re excited about? Okay Donkey is now a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP)! While we’ve always been about CLMP’s values — in essence, embracing diversity in publishing and being an active member of the literary community — we’re stoked to be joining so many of our peers and making these commitments official with such an awesome organization.
🌟 Back Into the OKD Archives…
by Eleanor Ball, OKD Fiction Reader
Check out Eleanor’s first dive into the archives in the March 2025 newsletter.
After the new release buzz fades, it can be all too easy for the amazing pieces published by lit mags to slip readers’ minds. For this month’s newsletter, I’m sharing some more of my personal favorites from the Okay Donkey archives. Take a dive into the poetry and flash archives, and let me know what your favorite pieces are!
flash fiction by Chloe N. Clark (September 2018)
This story was published in 2018 — the first year of Okay Donkey! Clark captures an everyday conversation between a couple washing dishes after breakfast, exploring the twin tensions and tenderness at the heart of their relationship. Lyrical prose and a hazy, dreamlike atmosphere tie this story together.
flash fiction by Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom (May 2020)
I had no idea what a jackalope was before reading this, and now, it’s one of my favorite cryptids! In this charming and unexpectedly sorrowful story, Bergstrom imagines how a nearly-extinct cryptid lives in the modern world and holds up a mirror to our 21st century loneliness.
poetry by Patric Pepper (January 2019)
This slyly observant poem captures Pepper’s encounter with a flock of grackles. The dry humor and vivid details propel me through the poem at the pell-mell pace of a wild grackle, but it’s the heart of this poem that stayed with me long after I finished reading. Pepper prompts us to stop and recognize the natural world that might be “hiding in plain sight” around us, even the less appealing parts. It all has something to share with us — even the grackles.
💬 OKD Editor AMA: More Poetry!
In January, we published our OKD Editor AMA! Then, last month, our fiction editors answered even more questions about fiction. This month, we’ve got more answers for you from the world of fiction from Erin Malone (new Poetry Editor) and Carolene Kurien (outgoing Poetry Editor).
What are poetry editors looking for when it comes to what to choose for publication? Is there ever space for editorial changes to be suggested to make the poem publishable?
Carolene Kurien: We look for poems that fit OKD’s aesthetic of “the odd” and “the off-kilter,” but that do so with intention. We are not necessarily interested in weird for weird’s sake; we want to see that the poet paid careful attention to craft and that there is a larger emotional core to the poem, whatever that may be. There is definitely space for editorial changes; I’ve done that in the past when I see immense potential in a poem and would like to publish it after some revision.
Erin Malone: I suggest that submitters always read what we publish before sending us their poems. As our website states, we’re looking for work that’s “odd” or “off-kilter,” but that doesn’t mean your poems have to be wacky! They should offer surprise, a way into a subject that feels honest and newly strange, so that we as readers are feeling our way through new territory. I want to be moved, whether to laughter or caught breath, or just profoundly struck. If a poem has all that but maybe doesn’t quite stick the landing, or I can otherwise see that a few edits would get it there, I might suggest revisions to the writer and work with them to publish. Whatever ideas I offer will always be in service to the poem and respectful of the poet’s vision.
Is form poetry preferred? Do you have a favorite form?
Erin: I don’t have a preference for certain forms, but I like to see poets experiment with them, and even create new ones — for example, Jericho Brown’s “duplex,” or Terrance Hayes’ “golden shovel.” Following the golden shovel form, poet Matthew Nienow has written what he calls “broken shovels.” It’s cool to know a tradition thoroughly and then engage it in a way that feels fresh. It’s a kind of call-and-response that echoes through literary history.
Carolene: Form poetry is not preferred, and I do not have a favorite form — however, we do primarily receive free verse poems and prose poems, so I’d be curious to see other forms!
What happens if a poem is not understood by the editors, such as a lyrical poem with a vague emotional meaning? If it sounds beautiful but the meaning is unclear, is it considered, debated, thrown away?
Carolene: “Meaning” has always been a hotly debated word amongst poets. Personally, I don’t think there has to be a “logical” meaning for a poem to be resonant. If there is a clear emotional core to the poem, and/or a specific mood that is created within the poem, I’ll definitely consider it even if there isn’t any overt “meaning” I can assign to it.
Erin: I love lyric poems, and meaning can be construed in ways other than by story—driven by sound or image, for example. I like to sit with a poem that arouses my curiosity, however that happens. Mary Ruefle said, “If you have enjoyed a poem, you have understood it.”
📚 February at OKD
”Join the Dots,” flash fiction by Nora Nadjarian
“From there we came outside and saw the stars,” poetry by Lane Devers
“Mr. Mayor,” flash fiction by Sarah Bess Jaffe
“NO OFFENSE TAKEN,” poetry by Bennett Rine
🔎 Check Us Out
We love when past contributors keep us updated on their lives! If your work has ever appeared in OKD, reach out and tell us about your new book, project, album, etc. We’ll give you a shoutout on our socials and here in the newsletter.
Dani Janae’s debut poetry collection Hound Triptych is out March 3. (OKD: “Bright Invitations,” Jan. 2025)
Allison Field Bell has a poetry collection, All That Blue, out on March 20. (OKD: “Stitch,” Aug. 2024)
“Escalator” by Dan Sanders (which we published in June 2018) will appear on standardized tests for the English Teachers Association of Western Australia.
The inaugural Monarch Queer Literary Awards anthology is out March 3. Two of its co-editors are OKD Newsletter Editor Christine Salek and Fiction Reader Eleanor Ball.
OKD Fiction Editor Steve Chang (with former Guernica editor Autumn Watts) is offering one more Revision Workshop through Lit Match Collective on March 28. (This workshop is free — just fill out the linked form and you’re all set.)
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