Past Issues
Issue 01: Sex & Money
Fiction
Interview
Poetry
Issue 02: Writing Across Eastern Europe (with Olena Jennings)
Issue 03: Family (with Chris Molnar)
Fiction
Interview
Poetry
Issue 04: Mind & Body
Issue 05: The Critic As Artist
Issue 06: Fellow Travelers (with Matthew Stadler)
Fiction
Issue 07: Commitment (with Christopher Stoddard)
Issue 08: Music & Transformation (with Ian King)
Issue 09 - The Poetry Issue
With work by Elaine Equi, Katie Degentesh, Youssef Rakha, K. Eltinaé, Paula Bernett, Leah Umansky, Ace Boggess, Lynne Sachs, Olena Jennings, and Alex Dimitrov.
- Ben Shields
Issue 10 - Idols & Idolatry
An Aztec emperor’s chambers and the dreary quarters of a worker made ancient by his windowless office: two poems and two universes by Marshall Mallicoat.
At the outset of B.H. James’s “Dale,” we’re in a religious cult whose god is the original Karate Kid film. By the end, we’re in a memoir of marriage counseling, writing, and narrative structure.
In Shani Eichler’s debut story, “The Ties That Bind Us,” a secular Jewish family goes through an identity crisis when their daughter announces her engagement to a non-Jewish young man.
From his recent collections The Sailor and Turncoats of Paradise, Joobin Bekhrad’s six poems are written in a classical style steeped in Iranian mythology.
Dana Schein’s four paintings span from the spontaneity of artistic creation to pressure and melancholic boredom. One image depicts a student excelling in a piano lesson; in another, a man looks on the verge of losing consciousness from lifting the same instrument.
Frank strolls in a vanishing New York in Carl Watson’s novel excerpt, “A streetcorner in limbo.” Aware that nostalgia is just a scarecrow to ward off change, he can’t entirely resist it.
In Mike Corrao’s imagined apartment complex, there’s no reason to stay: landlines are severing, fires igniting, potential meteors dropping—yet no one can bear to leave.
Five poems by Josh Lipson locate his studies of Levantine language and culture as a passageway in which he may declare his allegiance to idle reverie.
The speaker in two poems by Dante Fuoco, calloused by waiting and the wind, runs late and turns the ticking of time into song.
Issue 11 - Voice (w/ guest editor Buku Sarkar)
Ada Limón, Aleksander Hemon, Tishani Doshi, and others introduce work by Elizabeth Acevedo, Faruk Šehić, Tope Folarin, Vamika Sinha, Tiziano Colibazzi, Quenton Baker, and Birgül Oğuz in a special issue of KGB.
-Ben Shields
Issue 12 - Curators of KGB
Fiction
Non-fiction
Poetry
Issue 13 - Promise and Possibility
Contributors in this issue have addressed the subject of possibility, using genre choices and themes or form to explore stimuli that lure their subjects, and perhaps their readers, to follow the sometimes all-but-impossible promise of love, transformation, power and fame, or perhaps a surprising new way of seeing, thinking. Examples of fiction, nonfiction and poetry addressing the subject are highlighted above and followed up by further examples of these genres as well as additional offerings: an interview on Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, a book review on Jhumpa Lahiri’s new novel, Whereabouts, and a review of the recent Burns/Novick documentary on Ernest Hemingway.
Book Review
Fiction
Interview
Non-fiction
Poetry
Issue 14 - Masking
Contributors in this issue have addressed the subject of masking as it refers not only to the actual masks worn for protection during the Covid Pandemic, but also as it relates to disguises, concealments, camouflages, self-deceptions, and/or hidden intentions or realities of characters. Ruth Vinz’s “Thoughts on Masking” muses on various understandings of masks and masking and introduces the idea of masks as potentially valuable in the defining of oneself. Other works, such as a book review by Kasia Bartoszynska, address masking as a literary device employed by writers to hold details or reveal surprise endings or previously unnoticed writing techniques for a final effect. Examples of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry addressing the subject are highlighted above and followed up by further examples of these genres below, as well as additional ones including a TV review of the Netflix series, The Chair, by Editor, Pat Zumhagen
Headshots were provided by writers All other photos, unless identified, were shot by Pat Zumhagen.
Visual Artists are identified in works where their paintings are featured.
Book Review
Fiction
Non-fiction
Poetry
Issue 15 - December Holiday Medley
December Holiday Medley is a mix of packages all wrapped up and tied with colorful bows to take you through the holiday season. There is a grab bag of New York City poems by Francesca Marais, Tom Pennacchini, and Mary Durocher to excite you, two reviews to invite you to read more over the holidays: Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads by Pat Zumhagen and Nastassja Martin’s, In The Eye of the Wild by Kasia Bartoszynska, and a nonfiction chapter from Randi Dickson’s new book that could be a belated Hannukah gift. There’s a Secret Santa Seaside Salmagundi by Jeffrey Alfier, George Franklin and Rich Leise to warm you up; a Poetry Pot Pourri by Tim Resau and Scott Renzoni to provide the scents and spirit of the season; and special poems by Patricia Smith, Stella Wong, and Paul Ilechko. There are gifts that have been sent all the way from France–a book chapter by James Graham, a story by Johnsmith “Bughouse” Davis, and a provocative essay about Julian Assange by the mysterious JG. There are also other new stories to read by the fire by Leah Erickson, Terena Elizabeth Bell, Kunal Mehra, and Hadley Franklin. A highlight in this issue is an interview with the talented and celebrated artist, Karen Green, who has generously offered me the use of her unique and wonderful artistic creations in the KGB Lit Mag this year. Thank you, Karen! Happy Holidays to all!
- Pat Zumhagen, Editor
Headshots provided by writers. All other photos, unless identified, were shot by Pat Zumhagen. Karen Green is identified in her interview with her work.
Book Review
Fiction
Interview
Non-fiction
Poetry
Issue 16:
Book Review
Fiction
Interview
Non-fiction
Poetry
Issue 17: Home and Away
INTRO: The best way to enjoy a summer in New York City is to leave as often as possible. The second best way is drinking at KGB.
In Ross Barkan’s “Tad,” our protagonist wanders the United States, trying to escape himself, drawn along by the receding tide of the American century. Jesse Salvo’s pathetic David hopes to transfer to the Indian state of Goa so he can be closer to the casually cruel boss he has fallen in love with. And both Sophie Madeline Dess and Madeline McFarland take us on a trip to Madrid.
Who are we when we’re away from home? these writers ask. If travel changes us, do the changes stick?
Our poets, on the other hand, don’t want to stray too far from the nest.
Ari Lisner’s “Summer,” Mormei Zanke’s “Eating a Sandwich in Tompkins Square” and Matt Proctor’s “Scenes From A Life” are all about city life, though you might not recognize the subject from one poem to the next. Lisner is romantic; Zanke is reflective; Proctor is positively chaotic. Even Aristilde Kirby’s “²d - Baetylus [Side A, Scoubidou Suite],” as much a wormhole as it is a poem, spits the reader out on DeKalb Ave. Sooraz Bylipudi’s “The Errand for Infinite Saturday” is about finding belonging within oneself, while in his poem “The Big E 2023,” Anthony Haden-Guest wonders about the future of the planet Earth, the home that we all share.
- Carrigan Lewis Miller, July 19th, 2023