The Brussels Review

Featured artist: Najib Joe Hakim, cover: "Earrings"

The eighth issue opens with Najib Joe Hakim's photo essay Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay — twenty-five portraits scattered deliberately through the issue, each face carrying a QR code that opens an oral history, with nothing printed alongside. Nineteen stories follow, from Daryna Riznyk's Bakhmut to Joanne Soper-Cook's Herr Meisner's God, eight poets, and three essays, including Chris Arthur on what an essay should be allowed to call itself.

Featured Artist

Najib Joe Hakim: Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay

Fiction

Madeleine Foster: 2000 Light Years From Home 
Jacinta Cogan: Imperial Blue 
Craig Stockwell: Righteousness 
Ema Dumitru: Clean like forgetting 
Charlie Freelander: Mainland 
Soline Lippe de Thoisy: Olfactory intrusion 
Monika Andrulyte: Cesarean section 
Julia Breitkreutz: Witness 
Daryna Riznyk: Bakhmut 
Chad Poovey: A Simple Story about Pigs 
Tomasz Laczny: The Prince Bites 
Patrick Kruth: Till Death Calls You Away 
Yvonne Conza: Blue Lady 
Robert Dall: The Murray Slaughter Experience 
Keith M. Hinrichs: Currency 
Juan Parra: Salt and Vinegar 
Jake Shore: Immersive Theatre 
Joanne Soper-Cook: Herr Meisner's God 
David W. Sprecher: Reunion on Sage Street

Poetry

Thomas Heise 
Daniel Rye 
Laura Michiels 
Cait McCann 
Susan Kolon 
Genevieve Chornenki 
Steve Pollack 
Sajidah Mustafa AlSaihati

Nonfiction

Chris Arthur: You're not really going to call it 'The Art of the Essayist,' are you? 
Michael Hardin: Tools 
Baharan Eghbalzadeh: A note to self: on love and other apps

Featured artist: Vlada Teaca

Grief, reminiscence, trauma — and watermelons. Nine stories built around change and what refuses to pass: Jacqueline Chou's memoir of 1970s childhood poverty and a misdirected punishment, Kevin MacAlan's son forging postcards from a West Indies cricket tour his dead father never took, Anthony Schneck's absurdist quest to prove watermelons have changed taste. Four essays run from a café in Seoul to gender in the Romance languages, and four poets compress the rest.

Nonfiction

Mark Crimmins: Glimpses Of Gangnam 
James B. Nicola: The Gentle Revolution 
Ann Perrins: Asparagus, a Gift for Audrey 
Pete Warzel: Damage

Poetry

Ann Marie Gamble: Just Asking · Trying · Ode to the Peach · Just Write · The Cashier · An Early Morning Along the Road to the Lake Collin
Garrity: Leafblower · Hospital Poem · Naked Polaroid Vending Machine · Bathroom Floor · Skin On 
Olivia Soule: The Deep End of the Pool · computers don't have feelings · Blood Draws in Los Angeles 
Ty Cronkhite: Ode to the Ellipses · Sonnet Regarding Buttons

Fiction

Jacqueline Chou: An Ode to Jammie Evans 
Marcus Delmont: Three Days 
Meryl A.H. Franzos: Hair of the Dog 
Erin Gaura: Bed Linens 
Kevin MacAlan: Wish You Were Here 
Scott Macmann: A Child's Christmas in Ohio · Gracie 
John Picard: The People's Choice 
Anthony Schneck: Flavor Profile 
Thomas Wright: Anglo-Irish

Featured artist: Dr. Benjamin Erlandson, cover: "Ritual, No. 1"

Ten stories, four poets, and four essays — among them Shena Cavallo on the junk dealers of Athens and the flea markets of Pennsylvania, and Dritan Kiçi on the dimensionality of character. The fiction ranges from Mary Burns's The Corsaire's Daughters to Shanti Ariker's Fungal Vengeance in the Bro-Verse.

Nonfiction

Shena Cavallo: Junk People 
Cynthia Graae: A Wedding Promise 
Burcu Seyben: Private Lessons 
Dritan Kiçi: The Dimensionality of the Character

Poetry

C. Desirée Finley (Fin) 
Greg Sendi 
Rip Underwood 
Sarah Dunphy-Lelii

Fiction

Corey Mertes: The Doctrine of Signatures 
Jon Filipek: Here We Go Again 
Laurence Klavan: The Sleepwalker 
Lia Tjokro: The Caretaker of Tears 
Mary Burns: The Corsaire's Daughters 
Kevin Joseph Reigle: Zebulon Burning 
Lydia Renfro: Greetings From 
Shanti Ariker: Fungal Vengeance in the Bro-Verse 
Victor McConnell: Machines Don't Whimper 
Ross McQueen: Voice in the Storm

Cover: Pippa Darbyshire, "Ships 13", oil on primed board, 30 × 40 cm

Four essays open the issue, including Cecile H. Blanc's The Peep Show and Bernardo Montes de Oca's A Little While. Ten poets hold the middle. Eight stories close it, from Jake Kendall's The Caricaturist to Ben Tufnell's Personation, by way of Tehran, Beijing and an American dream.

Nonfiction

Dani Otnes Aurouze: Plight Cecile H. Blanc: The Peep Show Jan Rylewicz: Light Bernardo Montes de Oca: A Little While

Poetry

Julie Adrian Kathie Clarke Carol Shillibeer Shivani Sivagurunathan Susan Thornton Arber Selmani Blaire Baron Ted Morrissey Nolo Segundo Patrick Vala-Haynes

Fiction

Jake Kendall: The Caricaturist Karla S. Bryant: Unsaid Faith Miller: An American Dream Abdul Elah Abdul Qader: Labor Robyn Bashaw: Chain of Evidence Vahid Zakeri: Naarmak and the Clones Du Jie: Guinea Pig Ben Tufnell: Personation

Cover: Ximena Maldonado Sánchez, "Ambar", 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 × 30 cm

Thirteen stories and three essays, with four poets given generous room: Sonnet Mondal, Yelena Moskovich, Christina Brannon and Paul O'Brien. Patrick ten Brink opens the fiction with The Word Thief; Louis Kummerer supplies a founding father's guide to contingency planning; Yannick Marien closes with Mrs. Purefoy.

Nonfiction

Gaye Brown: Some Gifts 
Sue Tong: Father in the Photograph 
Gina Elia: Show and Tell

Fiction

Patrick ten Brink: The Word Thief 
Beatriz Seelaender: Motion Picture Sickness 
Louis Kummerer: A Founding Father's Guide to Contingency Planning 
Charles Wilkinson: Hayden in March 
Danila Botha: Like Freedom or Fear 
Molly Collins: Violent Design 
Jonathan D. Scott: Please Help Yourself 
Crystal McQueen: The Begotten One 
Joshua Carlucci: We'll Ride Them Someday 
Wilson Neate: His Last Picture in the Ashes of the Fire 
Stacey Megally: I Get the Lies 
Gabrielle Glaslyn: The Farthest Sea 
Yannick Marien: Mrs. Purefoy

Poetry

Sonnet Mondal: Fragments of Life · The Biscuit Factory · The Bridge at Midnight · Grandpa's Veranda 
Yelena Moskovich: Little Morning · Beauty · Lack · Girlfriend · Time · Manuscript · A Name 
Christina Brannon: Experience More Than Clean · I really can't · pink 
Paul O'Brien: Perishing Beauties · Gran Paradiso · Zenith · Beneath the Layers · Face Unseen · Ecce Ovis · From a Bridge

Front cover: Philip A. Zimmermann, "Untitled", 2022, acrylic on canvas, 190 × 170 cm · Back cover: Sasha Ferré, "And the sun can never burn through it", 2023, oil stick and tempera on canvas, 200 × 160 cm

The largest poetry gathering in the archive — sixteen poets, one poem each, from Buffy Aakaash's Hollister Hill to Zilin Wu's Wilderness. Fifteen stories follow, opening with K.P. Taylor's Miss Mittens, and three essays begin the issue, among them Atieh Asadollahi's Enchanted, a Brussels ghost story told on a bicycle.

Nonfiction

Atieh Asadollahi: Enchanted 
Thomas Behan: Plans for the Past 
Elizabeth Cohen: The Music of Snow

Poetry

Buffy Aakaash: Hollister Hill 
Connie Johnstone: Early Doubts 
Matthew Gulley: Coney Island Return 
Oz Hardwick: Leaving the Mechanical City 
Julian Kanagy: Last Night 
Liana Kapelke-Dale: Paris Syndrome 
Arsh Kaur: The Dying Plant 
L. Ward Abel: All Cloud-to-Cloud 
L. Lois: Baker's Dozen Brightness 
Christina E. Petrides: Showoffs 
Zack Rogow: Wisdom of the Automat 
Shaun Day Woods: The mouse 
Gerry Stewart: Mother and Child Burial 
Scott Stewart: Proof of being dressed in white linen 
Nisha: Every Home is Haunted 
Zilin Wu: Wilderness

Fiction

K.P. Taylor: Miss Mittens 
Timothy Riley: A Gold Sky Arching 
Bryan Oliver: The Deluge 
Vishwas R. Gaitonde: Open Secrets 
SP Singh: The Bridge 
Steven P. Unger: Rose Nicaud: New Orleans 
Ankit Raj Ojha: The Boys Who Lived 
Anthoney Dimos: Funeral Games 
J. Alan Nelson: Human begets puppy 
Nadim Silverman: Thursday Night Disappointment 
Elhassan Ait Elamal: Ports of Pain 
Mohammed Khalaf: Better Than It Should Be 
Es-said Skhiri: Parallel Universe 
Eric Morlock: Bovine Scenes 
Kevin Joseph Reigle: As the Crowd Roars

Cover: Ardit Boriçi, "She was like that, an apparent tranquility, and inside a disarming chaos.", soft pastel & carbon on paper, 40 × 25 cm

Nineteen stories. The fullest fiction list the review has run — opening with Subha Roychowdhury's farewell letter and closing with Maggie Nerz Iribarne's Stigmata. Seven poems sit at the centre, and two essays report from Hungary and from the bush.

Fiction

Subha Roychowdhury: Your existence and me 
Madhumati Dutta: Brothers 
Victor Oluwalana: Ebele 
David Levine: Blood Brother Jack 
Isabella Mori: Threading The Needle 
J.R. Gerow: In the Garden 
Jawahara K. Saidalluah: Wild Song of Grief 
A.D. Capili: The Appointment 
Zach Murphy: The River Is A Mirror · Orbits · Good Evening, My Friend 
Lucie Bonvalet: Aurora's hair 
Dave Hangman: My Husband Is an Emotion 
Michael Lithgow: The Taxidermy Lesson 
Mandy Ruthnum: The Snow Castle 
Jim Wasserman: The lineman 
John Carneson: The Bar, the Scar, and Bambi 
David Labi: Lord of the Manor 
Peter Newall: Landscape With Birds 
Ken Reimer: Two Final Cups of Tea 
Maggie Nerz Iribarne: Stigmata

Poetry

Gabriel Simone: gold leaves 
Arthur Henry Ginsberg: The Bones are Singing 
Stan Sanvel Rubin: War Requiem 
Jean-Paul Thuot: A Substantive Change of Circumstance 
Mohammad Mansournejad: It's obvious 
Ace Boggess: Fire and Water 
Martin Rieser: Flood

Nonfiction

Lindsay Nash: Nem! Is Not A Bad Word But Hungary Can Howl 
Matthew Phillips: The Bush

Cover: Paula Raiglot, "Reading women are dangerous", 2011, acrylic, 160 × 140 cm

The first issue, and the only one to carry an interview: Annelies Verbeke on a literary journey. Fourteen stories open with F. Kevin Murphy's The Carousel, Warsaw, May 1943, and nine poets follow, several with small sequences of their own.

Interview

Annelies Verbeke: A Literary Journey

Fiction

F. Kevin Murphy: The Carousel 
Rebecca Klassen: All That Grows 
Ciara Mandulee Mendis: The Secrets of Dead Leaves 
Ornela Musabelliu: The Shoes 
David Hutto: The Price of Angels 
Robert Slentz-Kesler: Stay Calm, Stay Discreet 
Huina Zheng: Bonds 
Urmi Palchoudhury: The gulmohar tree 
Jonathan Scott Davies: An apartment in Paris 
Janet Goldberg: Much Happiness 
Paul Lewellan: Almost Famous 
Stephen O'Donnell: Sacred Sunday 
Patrick ten Brink: My Special Condition 
Nelly Shulman: The Badlands

Poetry

Frank William Finney: In Memory of Papa's Pond Robert René Galván: Venerable Tree · Coal Shack to Brooklyn
Banyan Elizabeth Gunn: Cartographer · Time-Lapse Photography · Tuesday 
James B. Nicola: Diogenes · Mon Semblable, Ma Soeur 
Eleni C. Traganas: Helianthus · Metamorphosis · Inheritance 
Nadine Ellsworth-Moran: What the wind carries · If you want to find me, follow the scent of mandrake · Ode to peculiar beauty: On reading Clarice Lispector 
Peter Graarup: Jesus · Plaster Saints Aki Dueñas: God and Other Excuses 
Amy L. Bernstein: Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window