Introducing Issue #20 ~ Summer 2025, The Honeybee Prize Edition
July 15, 2025
Dear Friends and Readers,
Welcome to the sweltering heart of summer. If this is your first visit to The Good Life Review, the 20th, or the 100th, we thank you. If you’re here to read a single poem that was written by someone you know or intend to read this latest release “cover to cover,” we thank you. And if you are just here for a taste of what we have to offer because you are considering sending us some writing or art, we thank you. No matter the reason, we are grateful and excited to share what we feel is one of our most glorious collections to date!
This issue includes the winners of our annual Honeybee prize, along with other select finalists that were favorites of our editorial team. This is the 5th year we’ve run a contest, and we received a larger volume of poems, stories, and essays than ever before. It makes narrowing down to a short list of finalists (available here) extremely difficult, and also means that all of the pieces selected are truly the best of the best.
Before we get down to business with the official rundown of what’s included in this issue, we want to express gratitude to the judges of this year’s contest – Julia Kolchinsky (Poetry), Brenna Womer (Short CNF), Kristine Langley Mahler (Flash CNF), Michael Czyzniejewski (Short Fiction), and Tom Paine (Flash Fiction). All were wonderful to work with, generous with their time, and thoughtful in their endorsements. Those endorsements, incidentally, are included with the winning piece in each genre…
In Poetry: Autobiography of a Violin by Cassie Burkhardt
In Flash Creative Nonfiction: I Conjure My Great-Grandmother In a Dream; She Gives Me a Lesson on Revision by Alayna Powell
In Flash Fiction: While Making Out the Lineup for Tomorrow’s 12U Softball Championship Game by Jim Parisi
In Short Fiction: When Mr. Boppo Joined the Cohort by Sharon Lee Snow
In Short CNF: The Laundry Hangs at Noon by Ginger Tolman
In addition, the following pieces were selected by our teams to receive Editor’s Choice accolades…
Poetry:
Red and Yellow Light Over the Top of Houses by Dolapo Demuren
Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O LORD? by Yin Cheng
The Year I Carried You by Sara Shea
The Widower Writes From the Shipwreck by Ellie Gold Laabs
True Apothecary by Ellie Gold Laabs
In Flash Creative Nonfiction:
The Leftovers by Michelle La Vone
In Short Fiction:
Take Me Through the Finish by Tom Ziemer
In Flash Fiction:
The Summer He Left by Alison Ozawa Sanders
Solitary Creatures by Charlie Rogers & Jaime Gill
Congratulations, again, to all these fine folks for creating such wonderful pieces.
Our list of contributors does not end there, though. This issue also includes some incredible artwork by several talented artists: Mary Amato ( “Zephyr” featured on the cover), Roger Camp, Britnie Walston, Nataliia Burmaka, Ferris Jones, Milena Makani, Maud Bocquillod, Joe Hernandez, and Sebastian Mark. These pieces were selected because of their style, use of color, and texture, and also because of how their work visually complements the writing in the issue. More about these artists is available on the Issue #20 Artwork page.
With that, we invite you to dive into Issue #20 ~ Summer 2025 and celebrate with us! We hope that you enjoy these pieces as much as we do. Thank you again for visiting, reading, supporting independent journals, and believing in the arts.
Cheers to Shade Trees and Honeybees,
~Shyla, Tacheny, and All of The Good Life Review Team
❀
Issue #20 Editorial Team: M.A. Boswell, Erin Challenor, Debra Rose Brillati, Annie Barker, Patrick O’Dell, Tana Buoy, Tacheny Perry, Carina Faz, Dave Mainelli, Cid Galicia, Michelle Pierce Battle, Cat Dixon, Terry Belew, Stepha Vesper, and Shyla Shehan
Issue #20 Readers: Amy Crawford, Julia Sample, Madeline Torbenson, Jamie Wendt, Jill Veltkamp, Toni Allen, Julie Johanning, Zach Vesper, Ashley DeVrieze, Arianna Ashby, and Miranda Jansen.
