Featuring Military Writing in North Carolina
cover art by elin o’Hara slavick
Pushcart Nominations
Karen Sherk Chio
Laura Cruser
Others TBA
“Who shall absolve the foulness”
section introduction by Anna Froula, Guest Feature Editor
“‘. . . what does it mean to win a war?’ asks Paul
Crenshaw in these pages. And what parts of war
get inside you and stay?”

Taking the Swamp to the Jungle:
The Role of the Lumbee Identity in Delano Cummings’s
Moon Dash Warrior
by Jessica Cory
art by Gene Locklear
All Clear
a essay by Leah Hampton
art by Reuben Jarvis Mabry
Arc Light
a poem by Elisabeth Lewis Corley
art by elin o’Hara Slavick
Discovering Laos and Finding My Voice:
An Homage to My Military Father
an essay by Kimberly Towers-Kubik
art by Reuben Jarvis Mabry
The Album
a poem and art by Michael White
From Eyes Right and Thereafter, From Military Scandal to
Mentor, Writer, and Publisher: An Interview with
Marine Corps Veteran – and Writer – Tracy Crow
by Alyssa Froemel
art by Ida Mae
The Whittaker Wall
Doris Betts Fiction Prize Story by Laura Cruser
art by Mary Kamerer, Dan Nelson, and Skip Rohde
Oil Fires Burning
an essay by Paul Crenshaw
art by Darrold Peters
Looking for the “form things wish to come as”:
An Interview with Michael Ramos
an interview by Anna Froula
Grabbing Us by the Ears:
A Panel Discussion with Three Veteran Writers
an interview by Anna Froula
art by A.R. Ammons
Raccoon
Barrax/Bayes Prize poem
by Morrow Dowdle
art by Glenn Eure
Miraculous
an essay by Joseph Bathanti
A “Miraculous” Addendum: Brothers Like These
Performances Open Paths for Veterans’ Awareness
by Joseph Bathanti
Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues

Several Seconds Lauded
section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor
“The content in this section revisits some of our most popular past feature themes: Appalachian (2010), Environmental (2011), African American (2019), Expatriate North Carolina Writers (2020), and LGBTQ+ (2025) Literature of North Carolina. . . . “
This Postage Stamp of Mountain Soil
by Terry Roberts
Can Literary Language Save Us?
an address by Ben Fountain
Slaughter
Jacobs/Jones African American Literary Prize
short story by Brenda C. Wilson
art by Cornelio Campos
Spelunking
a short story by Theresa Dowell Blackinton
art by Catharine Carter
Boogie’s Purse
a short story by Julian Anderson
art by Ida Mae
Reflections of the Ecosystem
a poem by Roxanne Henderson
art by Luther Stroup
My Stillborn Son, the Moon
the James Applewhite Poetry Prize
poem by Karen Sherk Chio
art by Elizabeth Catlett
North Carolina Miscellany
The Second Fold of Our Twofold Mission
section introduction by Margaret D. Bauer, Editor
“. . . Our mission, as readers familiar with NCLR know, is to preserve and promote the state’s rich literary history, and we include in that, literary history in the making, North Carolina writers like Mimi Herman and Sharon Kurtzman, whose first novels are discussed in these pages. . . .”

Mimi Herman’s Timeless Coming of Age Novel, The Kudzu Queen
an interview by Margaret D. Bauer
When Darkness Comes, Look for the Light: A Conversation with Sharon Kurtzman on her Debut Novel, The Lost Baker of Vienna
Randall Kenan Prize Interview by Sheryl Cornett
Online Issues
2025–2026 Student Staff
Senior Editorial Assistant
Kenly Corya
Editorial
Assistants
Azner Alvarez
Trevor Mason
Cody Messer
Senior Intern
Abby Trzepacz
Interns
Morgan Boyce
Matt Cole
Aija Everett
Samantha Higgins
Layla Hope
Josefine Klaker
Vicki Maas
Sam Raia
Axel Snyder
Casey Wild
Jayden Willis
Print Issues
Other Nominations from this Issue
TBA
Partial funding for this issue came from
a North Carolina Arts Council Healing Arts Grant

North Carolina Literary Review
East Carolina University
Mailstop 555 English | Greenville, NC 27858-4353
NCLRstaff@ecu.edu | 252-328-1537
