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Three Poems by Erica Swallow
by Erica Swallow Contented Cat Lady I don’t need to tell you That you make My mornings bright My afternoons light And my evenings just right. Tucked under my arm While I sip tea and read. On my desk, While I write. At my feet, While I sleep. You are the best companion. Without words, We know. Slow blinks, Low purrs. And just like you are the lioness of this manor, I am your tiger mom, Hunting canned fish and chicken goop sticks Like it's my god-given life purpose. And
Erica Swallow
Dec 14, 2025
Two Poems by Esther Sadoff
by Esther Sadoff Moving Past I am moving past demarcation. I am moving past dates. I keep trying to close containers, to close each door, the last page of a book, but the leaves won’t stop curling, won’t stop blackening. The bed of flowers collapses: bright bulbs, bigger than my fists—soft implosions. Sudden pillage I can’t ignore. In School I Learned To Knit I assigned it to muscle memory. I could knit the air the same way. I played piano on any silent surface, moving my fin
Esther Sadoff
Dec 9, 2025
Three Poems by Vivian Faith Prescott
by Vivian Faith Prescott What To Do If You Crave Fish Tacos? 1. Wake up in the 4:00 a.m. daylight. 2. You’ve packed your go-fish bag the night before— notebook, pen, snacks. Don’t forget the herring bait. 3. You and your husband and dogs load up the boat at the nearby harbor. 4. Decide on salmon or halibut before you go—halibut it is. 5. Your father’s been gone-fishin’ in the spirit world for 6 months now, so head to his favorite bay. 6. At the halibut hole, jig and jig to th
Vivian Faith Prescott
Dec 3, 2025
Three Poems by Sumayya Arshed
by Sumayya Arshed Morning Nihari the pot opens at dawn, red rivers of spice thickening with bone marrow, steam rising like a sermon, coating the kitchen walls in devotion. bread balloons on the griddle, each tear of naan a covenant, and my mothers hand dips first, steady, practiced, into the stew. the broth carries fragmented echoes of empire, remnants of the alleys of lahore, where nihari is medicine, memory, and morning all at once. ginger slivers gleam like sunlit scyt
Sumayya Arshed
Nov 27, 2025
Three Poems by Bruce McRae
by Bruce McRae Star Guide The Insomniac's Guide to the Stars, its numberless blank spaces and the smear of gravity for those who don't...
Bruce McRae
Oct 5, 2025
Two Poems by Alex Stolis
by Alex Stolis The Sun is Just Another Star in a Distant Galaxy Summer was the best time to steal candy from Inforzato’s, the burnouts...
Alex Stolis
Jun 29, 2025
Safe Ground Book Review
by Setareh Ebrahimi Safe Ground was published this year, by a well-established woman of many talents, Rosie Johnston. Rosie is a poet...
Setareh Ebrahimi
Jun 24, 2025
Three Poems by John Swain
by John Swain Lotus Silk Lay your lotus silk over the river globe to float like our sleeping, I stretch parchment for the moon you...
John Swain
Jun 23, 2025
Two Poems by Ace Boggess
by Ace Boggess House Painters When they stroke their cautious marks over awning & eaves, gutters & trim, do they doubt themselves as if...
Ace Boggess
Jun 5, 2025
Six Poems by Strider Marcus Jones
by Strider Marcus Jones In and Out Arc i've joined this cast pressed against the glass breath condensing, unsure if the audience will...
Strider Marcus Jones
May 19, 2025
Two Poems by Eamon Stewart
by Eamon Stewart The Equerries The worst thing in life is getting used to things. Thousands of hangovers traded for a spark of jamais vu. Cats claw at trash bags flimsy as graphene This was the veil that was lifted from me. Callous, like modern mountaineers. Oblates of the craving for oblivion. Butterflies sip nectar. Houseflies sip ordure. Waking, I was back in Byzantium With the sounding boards calling the faithful to prayer. It was just kids battering the plywood That lazy
Eamon Stewart
May 15, 2025
Two Poems by John Grey
by John Grey One Day, Not Feeling Well I memorized the insides of public restrooms – every word scribbled on the walls. And snow fell on...
John Grey
May 12, 2025
4 Poems by Derek Thomas Dew
by Derek Thomas Dew Robbery The solitude is knowing together we can walk through every garden arch that is aimed our direction. The...
Derek Thomas Dew
May 7, 2025
Four Poems by Darren Demaree
by Darren Demaree Emily as I’ll Never Forget that I Happened to Be Particularly Down the Day I Wrote My Best Emily Poem The world is...
Darren Demaree
Apr 30, 2025
Two Poems by Peter Mladinic
by Peter Mladinic Buried Tenderness I couldn’t attend Paul’s funeral. He was an undertaker, and my handsomest male relative, with the...
Peter Mladinic
Apr 23, 2025
Three Poems by Ann Cefola
by Ann Cefola Translated to Spanish by Ligia Yamazaki Postcard The dead do not listen to entreaties; they watch. Stirred by tears, love,...
Ann Cefola
Apr 6, 2025
Almond Mom
by Kerry Lynd There was a tree that sent its branches weeping to the ground And I as a baby was lain beneath and grabbed at my toes. And...
Kerry Lynd
Mar 17, 2025
Three Poems by Kirsty Niven
by Kirsty Niven Looking Glass Whatever he sees, he boomerangs back faithfully, reflecting every expression with diamond clarity. A...
Kirsty Niven
Mar 10, 2025
Three Poems by Christian Garduno
by Christian Garduno Addison I lived on the outskirts of a long-dead galaxy in the year of the wooden snake I see a flair of O’Hara in...
Christian Garduno
Mar 3, 2025
Three Poems by Marianne Tefft
by Marianne Tefft Headland You need me to be the headland Around whose firmly planted feet Your flood waters rise relentless Without...
Marianne Tefft
Feb 16, 2025
Articles
The Morning It Started
by Elizabeta Žargi That summer I was travelling through Europe on an Interrail ticket — a month of trains and no fixed schedule beyond a language course waiting in Ljubljana. I had already spent a week in Malmö, made a delayed stop in Hamburg after sleeping through it once, then gone down to Geneva to visit Milena. Eventually I returned to Vienna, where I was staying with Gregor and Sandy. They were also planning to attend the course in Slovenia. I was meant to leave on the 2
Elizabeta Žargi
Apr 5
Dreaming of Kalbarri
by Meredith Stephens “Wake up! If we don’t get going now it will be too hot!” urged my fiance Alex. I couldn’t understand why we had to leave for Kalbarri National Park at 5:30am in darkness. Was it really going to get that hot? We quickly arose and headed to the car for the long drive. By the time we arrived, the day was breaking and we were among the first tourists to arrive at the famed Nature’s Window. We made our way along the trail to the window where international tour
Meredith Stephens
Nov 2, 2025
Between Two Skies: An Egyptian Heart in Albany
by Walid Abdallah When I first arrived in Albany, New York, in the winter of 2014, I felt as if I had stepped into a painting. The air...
Walid Abdallah
Oct 13, 2025
Reviews
Salvage Comic Review
by Catalina Bonati 4.5/5 stars ★★★★⯪ Salvage: A Graphic Novel by Renée Nault (published July 2026) is the colorful and lighthearted story of Paolo, a boy who lives in The Flats, where houses float on the water and the main income comes form diving into the Old City, a submerged city center where priceless artifacts, such as old designer clothes, phones, and music records, must be scavenged and brought to the surface to be salvaged and sold. Paolo dreams of more—he wishes to e
Catalina Bonati
10 hours ago
Hedgehog Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2/5 stars ★★☆☆☆ Hedgehog by Maggie Koons (to be published March 2027) is a horror novel that revolves around two young women: Riley Kilkenny and Irina Lebedev. Riley is a well-off writer of daily news briefs for influencers, and who is struggling to come to terms with the breakup of her girlfriend Markie, which happened almost a year ago. She finds a new coping method consisting of the killing and torture of animals, which she begins to upload to the intern
Catalina Bonati
Oct 18
To The East of the East Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 1.75/ 5 stars ★★☆☆☆ To the East of the East by Ping Lu and translated by Jeremy Tiang (to be published October 2026) is a translated literary fiction novel about Min-Hui, a Taiwanese writer who after the disappearance of her husband, Chien-I, a Taiwanese businessman, must stay in Beijing to help authorities figure out his whereabouts. She meets a strange man named Shangjun who begins to accompany her in conversation in her hotel room every day, which makes
Catalina Bonati
Oct 15
Short Stories
Back in the Day
by Robert Lowinger I was in the seventh grade, in 1969, living in a little town outside of Buffalo, New York when me and Danny Nissen, who was almost 15, threatened to beat the crap out of Larry McKoon for telling Danny that he wasn’t good at basketball, and he should get booted off the team. Well, Danny said, “Jimmy, you got to be a man and not let anyone diss your friends, certainly not a little prick like Larry,” and ever since Danny killed that cat with a knife behind the
Robert Lowinger
Sep 24
Ticket to Ride
by Sara Etgen-Baker "You gotta have a ticket to ride!” snapped the Carney. “Get a ticket or move outta da way, kid. You’re takin’ up space!” I stared motionless as the Ferris wheel cut through the heavy summer clouds. “Here’s her ticket, sir. We three are ridin’ together.” “Not happenin’ lady—only two per chair. One of youz has to ride by yerself.” “No problem! She’s the oldest; she’ll ride by herself.” “Whatever ya say, lady. She seems a bit scared to me though.” “Your broth
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 15
Intangible Ingredients
Sara Etgen-Baker After Granny died, Mother requested only one item from her mother’s possessions. “All I really want,” Mother told my uncle, “are her old recipe cards and antique file box.” Mother’s request puzzled me, for I knew Mother didn’t need the recipe cards and file box for any practical reason. She’d known for decades how to make Granny’s pumpernickel bread, sauerkraut, and her breakfast specialty—streusel kuchen. But when the file box arrived a few days later, Mothe
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 13
Poetry
The Lying Ashes
by Francis Godoy The match’s offering to consume oneself, Accepted by the candle’s curiosity— Its light radiant. Yet the match has burned its purpose. While the candle burns its own. An endless, sterile fire The lighter’s glow The shine gnawing at the candle’s wick Beside the ashes. The match’s silver, powdery helmet Shines as it leaves. The lighter stays as plaque, Coating its metal ridges. The match and candle Die together Merging into one final canvas. Th
Francis Godoy
1 day ago
La Romana
by Robert Wardell Vermilion shoes stepping over the vermouth-soaked tiles, the clasp of wine glasses holding those exquisite dry grapes against porcelain plates with tongue twister dishes. A cuisine of spoken incantations chanted like ancient spells and hymns. Like the flamingos trotting through the sapphire marina water, they move so confidently, gracefully. At no older than 20 a collective mastery of form, restraint and elegance draped over the drunken stupor. A bise here,
Robert Wardell
4 days ago
Two Poems by Megan Mealor
by Megan Denese Mealor A Serial Killer His victims could have been sisters: ladylike, dewy-eyed, halcyon, the swaggering Southern belles of a flaxen new era. Panache shot out of their fingertips like searchlights. Eva was exploring nursing and dancing off her teenage years in democratic nightclubs. Scrappy Regina swam for state two days before her blustery end; she scratched like a black-footed cat. Alyssa was at home with three brand-new boys too young to define his church
Megan Mealor
Oct 29
Art & Photography
Submission Guidelines
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We do not publish homophobic, transphobic, racist, or misogynist works of any kind.
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If the piece you wish to submit has italics or an image attached, please email us your submission at ultramarineliteraryreview@gmail.com rather than using the submission form.
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Art and photography must be uploaded to an email and must NOT be shared as a Google Drive document.
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Prose must be less than 3,000 words.
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Poetry must be less than 3 pages, single-spaced.
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We do not accept AI work or AI-assisted work.
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We respond to submissions within the span of two weeks.
Submissions
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Terms and Agreements
By clicking on the SUBMIT button, you are agreeing to the following terms:
a) The submission is an original work that has not been previously published.
b) You have obtained permissions by the third party involved if the submitted work contains intellectual property not attributed to your authorship.
c) By submitting, you guarantee you hold the rights to the work, and you grant Ultramarine Literary Review the rights to publish the submitted work. After publication, rights revert to the author.
d) Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but the author must let us know if their work has been accepted elsewhere prior to publication.
e) Submitted articles, reviews, poetry and short prose fiction may potentially be translated by translation students of the Universidad de Atacama and published on our site.
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