Issue #24 ~ Summer 2026
Release Date: July 14, 2026
Poetry
2026 Honeybee Poetry Prize Winner, selected by Marya Hornbacher:
How to Be a Jewish Woman in Amerikkka while Your Friends Sleep Fitfully in War Zones by Mara Lee Grayson
Finalists:
Farmworker Dies Fleeing an Immigration Raid in Southern California by Karla Hernandez Torrijos
Section 01 – Tree Removal by Sam Aureli
Hunting Season by Jamie L. Smith
at the immigration office by Cianga
Love Letter on Lombard Street by Audrey Lane
The Sun and the Prison by John Dennis
No Certificate by Todd Epp
Flash & Micro Creative Nonfiction
When Talking Gets Hard by Katherine Toler
Beauty Like That by Laura Westby Cannon
The Dark by Chelsy Diaz Amaya
Flash & Micro Fiction
The Hanging God by Luke Electious
Point the Way by Melissa Fiegel
Paradise in a Bowl by Derek Harmening
Catharsis by Georgia Maull-Keyser
Short Creative Nonfiction
To Be a Perennial by Jade Nicholson Eliasson
Love Flows Forward by Etya Vaserman Krichmar
Can You See by Amelia Drake
Short Fiction
Salt and Sand by Ali McLafferty
The Atkins Supper Club by Kevin McCaffrey
Neighbors by Ryan Keeney
Artwork and Photography by:
Agata Lis, David Quady, Kirsten Clay, Ellen June Wright, Harrison Zeiberg, and Celine Lam
Micro Monday
Features brief fiction, cnf, and poetry. It’s like a shot of literary adrenaline to jump start your week.
Image credit: Michael Yuan
This week’s feature…
Brumation by Melissa N. Vincel
We hold each other before meals from then on, one sleeve each grasped by my hand and his, a circle of human flesh and wool. We tell my mother’s coat about the day, fill her pockets with plastic dinosaurs, and sniff air around the notched collar…
Keep readingTGLR Spotlight…
Author Q&A with Christopher R.A. Adams
What keeps me coming back to the keyboard is the chance to live beyond myself. Unlike the restrictions of my singular life, writing allows me to step into new modes of being, to see new perspectives, and learn from them. If I want to know if there’s life after love, I can step into being a widow and all its burdens. If I want to confront my mortality, I can become a man in his final days. If I want to be betrayed by God, I can become a prophet. I can’t deny writing, because it gives me more than…
Keep reading
For all the news, interviews, book reviews, and Micro Monday features visit The Buzz
TGLR News & Announcements…
April 2026: Discover the Magic Spring has to Offer
February 2026: Fashionably Late but Coming In Red Hot
December 2025: Pajama Pants Are the New Black
November 2025: Wedged Together We Are Tumbling Toward The End
October 2025: Golden Hours and Hot Whisky Sours
Oct. 17, 2025: Introducing Issue #21 ~ Autumn 2025!
September 2025: As Summer Slips Into Autumn
2025 Honeybee Prize Results and Issue #20 ~ Summer 2025 Release
May 2025 (Inaugural Substack): Today Is A Good Day To Start
April 9, 2025: Introducing Issue #19 ~ Spring 2025
Jan. 29, 2025: Issue #18 ~ Winter 2025 “Best Of” Edition
More news and announcements here!
from the archives:
Little Sparrow, Baby Mole (The MoMo Twins) by Carey Salerno
Little Sparrow, Baby Mole (The MoMo Twins) | Carey Salerno Listen as Carey reads from her poem… About the Author: Carey Salerno is the executive director and publisher of Alice…
read more
Iowa Blues, and Greens by Summer Hammond
Iowa Blues, and Greens | Summer Hammond the cornfields. McCausland, Iowa. Population 300. Row upon row of green, shimmery stalks, leaves turning liquid in the breeze. The cornfields are my…
read more
Tbilisi by Sara Maria Hasbun
Tbilisi | Sara Maria Hasbun The morning I arrived back in Tbilisi, I messaged my old trainer, who met me just inside the door to Urban Garden. He rested his…
read more
Razia, Razia by Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar
Razia, Razia | Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar I select a yellow songbird from the cages the bird vendor dangles towards me and pay him 300 rupees. He thanks me, then asks,…
read more
Palimpsest by Jake Bienvenue
Palimpsest | Jake Bienvenue Palimpsest: A Horror Idyll If you write over something enough, it turns black. Example: Condense this paragraph into one line. When you reach the margin, instead…
read moreFor more good stuff from all our issues
visit the archive
Submissions:
We are currently open for all genres. TGLR nominates for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and more! Plus…We are a paying market! $60 per piece published in a seasonal issue, $25 per piece published in Micro Monday, and $25 for cover art.
The Good Life Review is seeking previously uncurated work by writers from all walks of life. Please read submission guidelines and when you’re ready, head over to Submittable to submit your work.
IMAGE: “Holding the Light“ by Siying (Rella) Wang