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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...
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
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
A Little Bundle of Fur/ A Not So Little Bundle of Fur
by Charles Stott I go for a walk most afternoons, and this Saturday in June was no exception. I felt good so I thought that I would go...
Charles Stott
Sep 22, 2025
Reviews
Refugium Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.75/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ Refugium by Eric Nicholas (2025) is a novel set in the Pleistocene, where several different types of pre-humans co-habitate as they take refuge from the Toba super-eruption aftermath in Sumatra. Set in an unspecified area of lower Asia, an Homo Erectus named Last is the lowest-ranking person in the tribe who must make do with scraps but who is sustained by the love of his little brother. The Erectus tribe is beset by a tribe of Homo Deni
Catalina Bonati
Jan 5
The Cold Visitor Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.75/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ Jonathan Butcher’s The Cold Visitor (published October 4, 2025) is a haunted house and cosmic horror novel that centers on the marriage of Sally and Herbert, who have reached their twilight years and now live in the retirement village of Heaven’s Sent. Sally comes from an accursed family who every half a century must complete a gruesome ritual in order to keep a demonic cosmic monster at bay, and the time has now come for the ritual to be
Catalina Bonati
Nov 16, 2025
Willow Rose Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.25/ 5 stars ★★★☆☆ Willow Rose by M. Kevin Hayden (to be published October 28 2025) is a short novel of...
Catalina Bonati
Aug 26, 2025
Short Stories
The Silence of Wings
by Malkeet Kaur It takes off from the runway, a thundering metal bird let loose into the twinkling night sky, its landing gear crunching before folding in. Inside the long, seemingly secure tube, hundreds of souls prepare to cross distant lands and oceans. Some are simply answering the call of home. Its nose climbs higher and higher, slicing through air and wind until it becomes a speck of flickering light to the awe-struck denizens below. Inside the cockpit, the twinkling pa
Malkeet Kaur
6 days ago
Kaiju Summers
by Logan Noble Lead the Defenders of EARTH PRIME against the KAIJU HORDES – 14 cards per pack, one RARE and one HALO-FOIL HERO guaranteed! Copy on booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju (base set) Whenever we had a spare $3 to our name, my brother Rog and I would buy a booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju. The nearest place that sold them—at the time, this being rural Michigan, this being the early 2000s—was the Wal-Mart two towns over. Allowance, birthday money, the mythically rar
Logan Noble
Jan 11
One More for the Essex
by James Callan She rose from her ocean bed, roused from the dark by her need to breathe. Like stars, like Cetus in the night sky, she brought light to the world off the glint of her back. She was silver in the moonlight, the surf churning pearls, a rich foam and salted spray that stirred the lookouts from the masthead. Larboard, starboard, rise ye sleepers and roustabouts! Leeward! Captain Pollard cried. Leviathan! Thar she blows! Breaching the horizon, the sun raked the sea
James Callan
Jan 6
Poetry
Somehow I Still Exist
by Solape Adeyemi I walk through days that feel already decided, as if every door has been measured and I was found a fraction too small. Compliments arrive like echoes in an empty room, soft, distorted, gone before they touch me. I watch other people move with the ease of belonging, their voices certain, their laughter a language I will never learn. I keep trying, stitching myself together with effort and apology, but the seams split before night falls. Nothing I build holds
Solape Adeyemi
5 days ago
The Silence After Fire
by Malkeet Kaur When their worlds collided, the air thickened - sparks caught on skin, and the night held its breath. He, the dark lord of reason; She, the Titian goddess of defiance. At dusk, they forgot themselves, their names melting into touch. At dawn, they woke - half whole, half gone. They explored each other as though discovery could save them, as though love were not a kind of ruin. He kept her in his shadows, a secret worshipped in silence. She trembled against his
Malkeet Kaur
7 days ago
Myth of Harvest
by Srijani Dutta The female ones tiptoed to the forest To unburden the agonies of daily wages, Instead they heard the cries of the dead; Wind carried the leaves from the old tree And placed around the yellow swamp At the backyard of a lady’s hut; They went there to listen To the music of the earth And count fireflies like the fate lines of palms In the dark autumn night, Eyes stumbled out Reminding themselves Of their origins and history As their eyes came across None B
Srijani Dutta
Jan 8
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 respond to submissions within the span of two weeks.
Submissions
Contact
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, and short prose fiction less than 1,000 words will be translated from English-Spanish of Spanish-English by Wix Translation AI along with manual translation by the editor. The author has the right to approve or deny translation.
f) Poems will not be translated unless the author supplies their human-written translation.
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