Introducing Issue #24 ~ Summer 2026

Dear Friends and Readers,

Welcome to the beating heart of summer… Days when the heat lingers long into the evening, and the cicadas serenade the sun as it slides out of view. Today, we are beyond thrilled to announce the winner of this year’s HoneyBee Poetry Prize, Mara Lee Grayson, and with this exciting news, the release of Issue #24!

In case you don’t know, this is our 6th year running the HoneyBee Poetry Prize, and by now, we are not surprised to have received a record-breaking number of submissions (over 240). A little bit of math, and one can conclude that our team read through over 1200 poems to select the eight finalists included in this issue. Narrowing the field to the finalists who were sent to our esteemed judge, Marya Hornbacher, was extremely difficult, and also means that all of the pieces selected are truly the best of the best.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Marya for taking on the tough job of picking the winner. She selected Mara’s Poem, How to Be a Jewish Woman in Amerikkka while Your Friends Sleep Fitfully in War Zones. Here’s what Marya had to say about the selection process and the winning poem:

Unsurprisingly, this was a difficult decision – the poems selected as finalists were remarkable in both caliber and range. After repeated readings, considerable deliberation, and a good deal of sitting with each piece, I have selected “How to be a Jewish Woman in Amerikkka while Your Friends Sleep Fitfully in War Zones” as the winner. 

While its timeliness is undeniable – and brutal, and vital – the poem’s urgency and power derives as much from its linguistic and imagistic precision as from the subject matter. A palpable undercurrent of fury, desperation, and fear – not merely the speaker’s – is contained and given shape by the poet’s exacting syntactical design. Far from lessening its impact or cooling the poem’s fire, this deliberate restraint heightens the reader’s sense that the poem – like its subject – is barely contained, and may yet burn out of control. 

This issue features Mara’s winning poem plus all finalists from this year’s contest, including:

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

AND… As if that weren’t enough, we also have three pieces from each of our prose genres, cherry-picked by our editorial teams:

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

Congratulations to all these fine folks for creating such wonderful work!!

Our list of contributors does not end there, though. This issue also features artwork by David Quady, Kirsten Clay, Ellen June Wright, Harrison Zeiberg, and Celine Lam, with cover art by Agata Lis. More about these artists is available on the Issue #24 Artwork page.

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 invite you to dive into Issue #24 ~ Summer 2026 and celebrate with us! We hope that you enjoy these pieces as much as we do!!

Cheers to Shade Trees and Honeybees,
~Shyla, M.A., Annie, Toni, and All of The Good Life Review Team

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Issue #24 Editors: Lea Pounds, Amy Crawford, Toni Allen, Ashley Espinoza, M.A. Boswell, Annie Barker, Jill Veltcamp, Erin Challenor, Patrick O’Dell, Tana Buoy, Cid Galicia, Terry Belew, Stepha Vesper, Michelle Pierce Battle, and Shyla Shehan

Issue #24 Readers: Madeline Torbenson, Tabitha Soper, John Cook, Mitra Vajjala, Michael Lundy, Miranda Jansen, Lori Vermeulen, Julie Johanning, Michelle Ray, Susan Loveland, Christine Nessler, Madi Palmer, Allison Weiler, Aida Eure-Chooran, Brooke Wiese, Judi B, Zach Vesper, and Jamie Wendt.
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