The Offing

Dec 6, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Shlagha Borah |Gauri Awasthi |Aurielle Marie |Joseph Osmundson

KB Brookins is a writer, cultural worker, and artist from Texas. They are the author of HOW TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF WITH A WOUND (2022, Kallisto Gaia Press), FREEDOM HOUSE (2023, Deep Vellum), and PRETTY (2024, Alfred A. Knopf). The Offing published their poems March 20, 2024. Editorial Assistant Shlagha Borah conducted the Q&A. Donate to The Offing! Our Patreon supporters received early access to the Q&A with The Offing contributor KB Brookins.

Nov 26, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Janan Alexandra |Deborah Thompson |Lilly Dancyger

1. We tend to use the word “bitter” to denote taste, temperature, or feeling. Often, though not always, bitterness carries a negative charge, bringing us into proximity with a mostly undesirable set of feelings or experiences. Perhaps like jealousy, one doesn’t aspire toward bitterness in one’s inner life, relational world, emotional wheelhouse, etc. 2. In common parlance, the word is familiar and mundane: bitter greens, a bitter wind blew all night.

Nov 20, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Emma B.N.J. Janssen |Mia Ayumi Malhotra |Shannan Mann |Noelani Piters

I lose the language to speak to my bodyso I pick up math for its new notation. I wear out fingernails & nights on graphpaper & learn matrices, determinants, sets. The best part is that I’m no good at math,never have been. I tire professors & scrap paper,exhausting notebooks with errors & paperingmargins with graphite. Tattooing the clean bodyof a proof with eraser scrubs & messy math. To improve my reasoning, I bring notationinto my routines.

Nov 15, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Ashaki M. Jackson |Kosiso Ugwueze |Mimi Wong |Kennedy Marie Crowder

Ariana Benson is a southern Black ecopoet and the author of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize collection BLACK PASTORAL (University of Georgia Press, 2023). Back of the Envelope Assistant Editor Kennedy Marie Crowder conducted the Q&A. This interview has been edited for clarity. Donate to The Offing! Our Patreon supporters received early access to this Q&A with Sarah Ghazal Ali, as well as exclusive access to her list of favorite ghazals.

Oct 22, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Deborah Thompson |Lilly Dancyger |Ananda Kumar. S

tía Daniela has a Depeche Mode rose tattooed above her ankle tía Hortensia moves from pot to pot across her backyard, begonias, hibiscus, and gardenias anointed with holy hose water tía Janie tells stories of young white men asking her to two-step at Cowboys Dance Hall tía Susan makes the sign of the cross every time she drives by a Catholic church tía Cindy says aver while she puts on reading glasses to look at a photo of your novio tía Rosie watches Sex in the City reruns on E! before bed...