Bethany Jarmul

Dec 5, 2024 | thesunlightpress.com | Bethany Jarmul

by Bethany Jarmul “Mom, it’s blurry out there,” my four-year-old son says of the downpour—as if rain’s essential quality is not its wetness, not the way it soaks through my cotton hood and clean hair, not its ability to feed the pepper plants, to quench the thirst of the deer, to refill our 60% water bodies, not the way it overfills the stream and surrounds our neighbor’s SUV, floods their basement, carries off their trash cans while we watch from above like angels heaven never sent—but...

Nov 14, 2024 | litmagnews.substack.com | Bethany Jarmul

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world. At the start of 2024, I wrote down my goals for the coming year, including listing my top two “dream” literary magazines—Brevity for nonfiction and Rattle for poetry. Eleven months later, that dream has become a reality. Of course, the journey of how I got here doesn’t start at the beginning of 2024 but many years before that.

Oct 9, 2024 | scholarsarchive.byu.edu | Bethany Jarmul |Brigham Young

KeywordsMemory, nature, Self-ReflectionDescriptionA place within my memory, an intersection. A minivan full of dreams, desires. Frozen by red light. Knock, knock, knock-ity, knock. The sky cracked, hail shards cackling against metal and pavement. I’m a passenger, a child strapped in the back, ignorant of destination or direction. Recommended CitationJarmul, Bethany(2023)"Intersections,"Inscape: Vol. 43:No.1, Article 8. Available at:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/inscape/vol43/iss1/8

Apr 26, 2024 | havehashad.com | Bethany Jarmul

I woke up early on Sunday with an enormous antler sprouted by each ear. I screamed, and I screamed, and I screamed until the mirror cracked in three. Then my husband woke up and started the coffee, but we’re not coffee drinkers. When our children woke up they had daisies growing from their ears and vines wrapping around their legs. But my husband—only his beard had grown—seven feet long and dragging along the floor. Three mice lived there eating saltines and cheddar.

Feb 1, 2024 | litmagnews.substack.com | Bethany Jarmul

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world. On Twitter (X), poet Allison Zaczynski asked, “Writers: How will you know you’ve ‘made it’?” Without reading the other comments, I responded, “I’ve made it. I’m living a literary life, a life that I love.