Pithead Chapel is an independent and volunteer-run literary journal and small press founded in 2012 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We publish art, fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry online every month by emerging and established artists.
Editorial Statement
At Pithead Chapel, we’re looking for engaging art, fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry. Most of all, we want your work to make us feel something. We want to reach the last word and immediately crave more. We want your work to leave a brilliant bruise. Send us your polished work and we’ll do our best to help your voice get heard.
Diversity & Inclusion
Since our inception, Pithead Chapel has been committed to fostering diversity in the literary community by providing a safe outlet for artists to share their literary works and visual art. We stand firmly against all forms of racism, discrimination, and inequality and will continue to support those who are marginalized. We are committed to publishing, promoting, and working with underrepresented artists.
About the Editors
Editor-in-Chief & Fiction Editor: Kim Magowan lives in San Francisco and teaches in the English Department at Mills College at Northeastern University. She is the author of the short story collection How Far I’ve Come (2022), published by Gold Wake Press; the novel The Light Source (2019), published by 7.13 Books; and the short story collection Undoing (2018), which won the 2017 Moon City Press Fiction Award. Her fiction has been published in Booth, Craft Literary, The Gettysburg Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, and many other journals. Her stories have been selected for Best Small Fictions and Wigleaf’s Top 50. Find her on Twitter @kimmagowan.
Managing Editor: Brittany Terwilliger grew up in the Midwest and graduated from Indiana University. Her novel, The Insatiables (Chicago Review Press) was published in 2018. Her short fiction has appeared in JMWW, (mac)ro(mic), Ellipsis Zine, Ghost Parachute, Five:2:One, Ponder Review, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and the Pushcart Prize. She was a finalist for the 2021 Oxford Flash Fiction Prize. Find her on Twitter at @Brttnyblm.
Nonfiction Editor: Katherine Gehan is a graduate from Emerson College’s MFA program. Her short story collection, The Girl and the Fox Pirate, was published by Mojave River Press in 2018. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Sundog Lit, and Split Lip Magazine and has, along with her fiction, been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Wigleaf’s Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions, and Sundress Publication’s Best of the Net Anthology. Find her on Twitter @StateofKate.
Prose Poetry Editor: Simeon Berry won the 2013 National Poetry Series for his first collection of poetry, Ampersand Revisited (Fence Books), and the 2014 National Poetry Series for his second book of poetry, Monograph (University of Georgia Press). He has been an Associate Editor for Ploughshares and won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Grant.
Social Media Editor: Kyra Kondis holds an MFA in fiction from George Mason University. Her work can be found in Necessary Fiction, Wigleaf, the Pinch, the Northwest Review, Pithead Chapel, and the Wigleaf Top 50 and Best Microfiction of 2020. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories and a novel (or two).
Assistant Fiction Editor: Josh Jones graduated from The University of Alabama’s New College. His writing has appeared in Bartleby Snopes and The Golden Key. He currently resides in Maryland with his wife and daughters. He’s sporadically on Twitter @jnjoneswriter.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Lori Barrett lives in Chicago. Her work has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Barrelhouse online, Citron Review, Laurel Review, Peatsmoke Journal, and Middle House Review, where she was nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020. She’s contributed to Salon and the Wall Street Journal, covering hard-hitting topics like music videos, custom-stuffed pillows, and dog-food delivery services.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Elise Glassman lives and writes in Seattle. She studied fiction with Laura Kalpakian and others at the University of Washington Extension, and with Marilynne Robinson at the Iowa Summer Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Colorado Review, Main Street Rag, The Portland Review, Tawdry Bawdry, Referential Magazine, Per Contra and Opossum. Her essay, “Touch,” appeared in the 2013 anthology, “Beyond Belief” and most recently, “Fast Food and Box Wine” appeared in Sliver of Stone, Fall 2017.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Anne Rasmussen lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Split Lip Magazine, Jellyfish Review, Sundog Lit, Cosmonauts Avenue, Blood Orange Review, Little Fiction, Barren Magazine, and The Southeast Review. From 2014-2017 she served as editor of Late Night Library’s Late Night Interview column. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Find her on Twitter at @whatll_i_do.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Lucy Zhang is an anime lover, writer, and software engineer. Her work has appeared in Columbia Journal, Gone Lawn, Jellyfish Review, Okay Donkey, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net. A New Jersey native and Duke alumnus, she currently writes (and procrastinates) from a small, cozy apartment in California. Find her on Twitter @Dango_Ramen.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Kaylie Saidin grew up in California and now lives in North Carolina, where she is an MFA candidate at UNC Wilmington. In addition to Pithead Chapel, she works for Ecotone Magazine, where she has served as a fiction editor and reader. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Nashville Review, Fourteen Hills, upstreet #15, Columbia Review, Catamaran Literary Reader, and elsewhere.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Teddy Engs is a writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in Split Lip Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Expat Press, and he placed 2nd in Chestnut Review’s Winter 2021 Stubborn Writer’s Contest. Find him on Twitter @WardoEngs.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Chelsea Stickle is the author of the flash fiction chapbook Breaking Points (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Her fiction appears in CRAFT, Chestnut Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Best Microfiction 2021 and others. She lives in Annapolis, MD with her black rabbit George and a forest of houseplants. Find her on Twitter @Chelsea_Stickle.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Nora Esme Wagner lives in San Francisco, California. Her work has been published in Milk Candy Review, JMWW, Flash Boulevard, Litbreak Magazine, and other journals, and nominated for Best Microfictions. She was a 2020 Adroit Journal Summer Mentee.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Rosemary Harp lives in Chicago. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Masters Review, Fiction, Electric Literature, Creative Nonfiction, and other journals. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Virginia but her heart belongs to her undergraduate school: the University of Michigan.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Alyson Mosquera Dutemple’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Passages North, DIAGRAM, The Journal, and Wigleaf, among others. Her story collection was a runner-up for the 2022 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and she’s been nominated for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She works as an editorial consultant and creative writing instructor in New Jersey and holds an MFA from The Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Find her on Twitter @swellspoken.
Assistant Fiction Editor: Cate McGowan is an essayist, poet, storyist, visual artist, and author of two books—she won the Moon City Press Short Fiction Award for her debut short story collection, True Places Never Are, and her debut novel, These Lowly Objects, was released in 2020. McGowan’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in many literary outlets, including Glimmer Train, Citron Review, Chestnut Review, Shenandoah, Tahoma Literary Review, and Norton’s anthology Flash Fiction International. McGowan is currently completing her Ph.D.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Caroljean Gavin started her MFA at The New School and finished it up at Queens University of Charlotte. Her work has appeared in places such as: X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, Pithead Chapel, Moon City Review, Barrelhouse, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. She is the editor of What I Thought of Ain’t Funny, a short fiction anthology based on the jokes of Mitch Hedberg. Currently she lives in North Carolina where she’s working on a novel, earning her yoga teacher certification, and raising two rambunctious sons who never ever ever leave the house. Twitter: @caroljeangavin.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Naira Wilson received her master’s degree in journalism from Georgetown University, where she focused on narrative nonfiction and opinion writing. Her reporting or opinion pieces have appeared in Politico, The Root, The Washington Informer, and Bitch Magazine. Her creative writing appears or is forthcoming in Typehouse Literary Magazine, Nymphs, and Dynamis Journal. She lives in Northern Virginia and works as an essay editor and writing coach. Find her on Twitter @naira_wilson.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Susan Triemert holds an MA in Education and an MFA from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She sees herself as a teacher and has taught grades 6 — undergrad. She has been published in Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, Pithead Chapel, Gone Lawn and elsewhere. You can find her on twitter at @SusanTriemert.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Joe Kapitan writes fiction and creative nonfiction in Cleveland. Recent work has appeared in DIAGRAM, No Contact, X-R-A-Y, Pithead Chapel, New Flash Fiction Review, Spry, and others. He is the author of a short story collection, CAVES OF THE RUST BELT, and is a staff CNF reader for Atticus Review. On Twitter, you can find him @joekap64.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Shanelle Mullin is a writer and international speaker from New York. Her work has been published by Wiley, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc, Business Insider, Mashable, and others. She’s currently trying desperately to remember what it’s like to write for fun, and working on a collection of personal essays. Find her on Twitter @shanelle_mullin.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Martha Krausz holds an MA in English & American Literature from Mills College, where she explored the anti-imperial implications of Virginia Woolf’s mellifluous prose. Determined to wield the social power of storytelling & style in her own political moment, Martha has pursued a career in teaching and creative nonfiction writing. In 2021, Martha’s essay, “Shadow Sister” was nominated for Best of the Net. Her work also appears in the Burningword Journal, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, Prometheus Dreaming, and others. Martha is currently working on a collection of essays that investigates the role of food in relationships, and the link between bodies and bodies of language. She lives in Marin County CA, where she runs an editing & coaching business, Write Align, fights against disordered eating as a Be Body Positive facilitator, and hikes the trails with her white shepherd, Alfredo.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Susan Ito teaches writing at the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, Mills College/Northeastern University and at BayPath University’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Hyphen, McSweeney’s, the Bellevue Literary Review and elsewhere. Her memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, is forthcoming from the Ohio State University Press in 2023. Find her on Twitter, Post and Mastodon at @thesusanito.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor: Lea Page’s work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes and has appeared in The Rumpus, Sweet, The Pinch, Sycamore Review, Pithead Chapel, High Desert Journal, and more. She is also the author of Parenting in the Here and Now (Floris Books, 2015). She lives in rural Montana with her husband and a small circus of semi-domesticated animals.
Assistant Prose Poetry Editor: Jennifer Met lives in a small town in North Idaho. She is a nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net anthology, a finalist for Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and winner of the Jovanovich Award. Recent work is published or forthcoming in Cimarron Review, Gone Lawn, Gravel, Gulf Stream, Juked, Midway Journal, The Museum of Americana, Nimrod, Ninth Letter, Sleet Magazine, and Zone 3, among other journals. She is the author of the chapbook Gallery Withheld (Glass Poetry Press).
Assistant Prose Poetry Editor: Molly Sturdevant‘s work appears or is forthcoming in Orion, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, The Great Lakes Review, The Westchester Review, The Nashville Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Montana Prize in Fiction, 2019, and a Pushcart nominee in 2020. She lives in the Midwest.
Assistant Prose Poetry Editor: Kianna Greene is an Atlanta-raised poet, essayist, and recent graduate of the University of Central Florida. Her work has appeared in Maudlin House, Eunoia Review, and The Cypress Dome. She is currently living in Orlando, FL and can be found on Instagram and Twitter @kiannaelaine.
Assistant Prose Poetry Editor: Andrew McSorley is the author of What Spirits Return (Kelsay Books). A graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at Southern Illinois University, his poetry has appeared in journals such as The Minnesota Review, UCity Review, Poet Lore, HAD, Sledgehammer, and many others. He lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he works as a librarian at Lawrence University.
Assistant Prose Poetry Editor: Anne Riesenberg: Winner of Blue Mesa Review‘s Nonfiction and Storm Cellar‘s Force Majeure contests, finalist in the Noemi Press Prose contest, a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, Anne Riesenberg’s work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent, Lily Poetry Review, Pleiades, Posit, Heavy Feather Review, What Rough Beast, and elsewhere. She practices Five-Element acupuncture in Newcastle, Maine.
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