The Bookends Review

Established in 2012, The Bookends Review is a standalone creative arts journal that focuses on showcasing exceptional original works. It features a diverse range of content, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, essays, book reviews, and visual and musical art from across the globe.

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Articles

Missing Mira: A Review of 'Wrongful' by Lee Upton

1 day ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

It’s not often that a writer is equally adept at poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary criticism, yet Lee Upton has been an exception to the rule for over a decade. Unsurprisingly, her latest novel—Wrongful—only cements that fact, as it’s a thoroughly stirring and imaginative but realistic mystery/character study (in the self-aware vein of Agatha Christie) that exemplifies her many talents.
Undressing in Public: An Interview with Peter Murphy

1 day ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Peter E. Murphy is the author of a dozen books and chapbooks of poetry and prose including the forthcoming A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption about growing up in Wales and New York City. The founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University based in Atlantic City, he leads writing workshops around the US an in Europe. I met Peter Murphy at the Murphy Writing Winter Getaway in January 2024.
The Wrong Advice

2 days ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Apparently, I was the last person to see David Carver alive. I can’t remember if he froze or starved to death; it’s been too many years. It would have been late November. We had a storm come in from the south on Thanksgiving, melting most of the early snow into slush and knocking down widow-makers. I took my four-wheeler out, looking for fallen trees blocking paths. I could throw aside any fallen branches I found, but the fallen logs required me to break out my chainsaw.
Where We Going From Here?

3 days ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

The plate is what did it. George hated the damn thing ever since him and Hannah got married. She said her aunt told her it was a relic from the Civil War, that her great grandad had it in his pack when he was shot in the nose at Vicksburg. Horseshit. She probably bought it at some flea market and conjured up some make-believe like all them old Kentucky women do. The chipped, porcelain circle – white rim decorated with blue flowers – was a shrine to deception and fabrications. George couldn’t stand it.
Impasse - The Bookends Review

6 days ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

In a small town, the weary figure of a man walking his dog, chain lead strung slackly between the man’s right hand and the dog who follows a good dozen feet behind him, a dog so aged, overweight, and arthritic it’s a miracle of sorts that it can move at all. Links of the chain drag on the sidewalk. The man wears an ancient army coat with a fur-lined hood and what seem to be ancient fur-lined bedroom slippers on his feet.
A Modern Epistolary

1 week ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Jane,I’ve been thinking of you lately. I’m sorry our relationship ended as it did. We were so sympatico, always in the same orbit, my sun to your moon. Remember when we walked the Plaza that April day? We stopped for ice cream, some of the chocolate dripping down your chin. I wiped it off with my sleeve so your white dress wouldn’t smear. Pretty gallant, huh?
Dream Souvenirs - The Bookends Review

1 week ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Check It Out! SUMMER 2025 SUBMISSION PERIOD DELAYED TO JUNE 1We’ve postponed the start of our summer reading period to June 1 so that we can work through our remaining submissions from Dec and Jan. Thanks for understanding, and keep an eye out for Submittable to be open for submissions on June 1!PRINT ANTHOLOGIES!We’ve released several print anthologies! Please check it out (as well our previous ones) and maybe even spread the word and/or purchase some?
At the Appointed Time

1 week ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Here I am longing for what will never be taken apart by an unbearable discontent happiness goes away humankind spending too much time on a terrible story it’s likely going to be ugly it’s likely too that it’s either absurd choices or a heinous tomorrow an increase of this accidental tragedy blinded by the promises of heaven easily taken in I am despite the rumors of the curtain calls without being seen after years of this I’m not myself as kids learn to twitch there is no second chance –...
Gardens Watered by Running Streams

1 week ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

Paradise, you should know, is but a versionof our world where everything isjust as it should be; hereaboutsbrooks flow through lush meadowsfrequented by hovering hummingbirdsand butterflies flitting between flowersas dark-eyed houris, virginal but nubile,splendidly endowed, outstretch and sunthemselves on lawns or rove vineyards,ready and eager to ensorcell newcomerswith their wiles and charms, with figuressinuous and sensuous, lovely to behold.
From Something, Nothing

1 week ago | thebookendsreview.com | Jordan Blum

The echo of shackles in motion filled the room with a searing tension. “Kneel,” a guard commanded as he forced it down. The king’s eyes widened in a mix of wonder and terror as he gazed upon what knelt before him. Or, as it felt, what didn’t. It was emptiness in the form of a human body. What knelt before him felt not like a creature, but the lack of one—an inky void from head to toe with the exception of its eyes, like an inferno condensed and solidified into the form of eyeballs.