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This month, we’ve got exciting news about our new Discord community, a fun and diverse look at past Okay Donkey publications from fiction reader Eleanor Ball, and a whole bunch of promos from past OKD contributors and OKD staff! Plus, as always, we’ve got links to the pieces we published in February so you can revisit them (or read them for the first time).

Thanks so much for being here — your support means everything.

🫏 OKD Updates

We’re excited to share that Okay Donkey is now on Discord! Join our community and meet new people, talk about reading and writing, and keep up with the latest OKD news. This community is a work in progress, and we can’t wait to meet more of you!

Important note: Our Discord is a social extension of OKD. Joining won’t impact your chances of your submission being accepted for publication. All of our updates will still be posted to our social channels and newsletter as usual.

(P.S. If you’ve never used Discord before, here’s a beginner’s guide to the platform.)

🌟 Into the OKD Archives…

by Eleanor Ball, OKD Fiction Reader

After the new release buzz fades, it can be all too easy for the amazing pieces published by lit mags to slip readers’ minds. That’s why for this month’s newsletter, I want to share some 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!

op-ed from the balloon that escaped the trunk of my mom’s car in 1989

poetry by Catherine Weiss (Februrary 2021)

If a balloon could speak, what would it say? This poem asks and answers that question with humor and poignance. Through closely observing a balloon, Weiss challenges us to think beyond it — to think about our relationships with objects and our obligations to one another in this fast-moving, consumerist society.

Stones My Mother Carved from the Mountain

flash fiction by Noa Covo (August 2020)

This story is a powerful meditation on what it’s like to come of age and lose your faith, only to find it again in new places. Infused with elegant and fresh speculative elements, Covo’s beautiful depictions of grief and belief stayed with me long after I finished reading.

The Emmy Goes to the Seagull, Flying off with a Hot Wing… in Front of the Chicken Spot?

poetry by Khadjiah Johnson (January 2023)
2024 Best of the Net Nominee

In this whip-smart, hilarious poem, Johnson effortlessly weaves together the image of a seagull eating a hot wing (“And I was like, / but ain’t that shit cannibalism? / Ain’t that your cousin in some retrospect?”) and scenes from the rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood she grew up in. This poem bears witness to modern capitalism’s destruction of communal relationships, mourning the loss of mutual reliance and reciprocity. As Johnson observes, “Damn, sometimes it be cannibalism.”

📚 February at OKD

• “Fireflies,” flash fiction by Rina Olsen

• “App City,” poetry by Rachel Myers

• “giving all my heart to the dirt sprayed across my hands,” flash fiction by Fabiola Cepeda

• “[When a man and a],” poetry by Jason Fraley

🔎 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. (If you’ve emailed but don’t see your name here, rest assured you’re in the queue.)

• Allison Field Bell’s essay collection, Edge of the Sea, is out on March 5. Edge of the Sea was a runner-up in CutBank’s 2024-25 chapbook contest! (OKD: “Stitch,” Aug. 2024)

• Michelle Ross and Kim Magowan have a story collection out on March 11 called Don’t Take This the Wrong Way. The collection includes “The Present Moment,” which the pair published at OKD in Aug. 2019. (Ross has appeared in OKD twice solo — “How I Learned About Evolution” in May 2020 and “Tea Kettles” in Nov. 2018 — and Magowan published “Madlib” at OKD in Sept. 2018.)

• Dani Putney’s book of poetry, Mix-Mix, is out on April 8. In March, they’ll be doing signings and readings at AWP. (OKD: “Dear Andrew Cunanan,” July 2021; Salamat sa Intersectionality, May 2021)

• Whitney Collins’ Ricky & Other Love Stories was longlisted for The Story Prize. (OKD: “Rod,” Jan. 2024)

• OKD fiction reader Maria McLeod’s short story, “Dirt,” appears in the latest issue of the New Ohio Review. (Before joining the reading team, McLeod’s story “Rabbits” was published in OKD in 2023.)

• OKD poetry reader Liz Kingsley is doing a reading at the duCret Center of Art in Plainfield, New Jersey on March 20. Liz is also a finalist in the Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Poetry Contest!

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