Dear Reader,
During our Summer reading period, we received submissions of 746 poems from 183 North American poets. We chose 20 poems from 7 poets for the Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 issues for an acceptance rate of 2-3%. My thanks to D.W. Baker and Shelli Rottschafer for being PCR’s first Poetry Readers and helping with this issue.
Over the past couple of months I have been looking for long-term Poetry Readers, and I’m pleased to say we had some strong candidates. In addition to D.W. Baker, who will be staying on, please welcome Lynn Wagner, Herb Kitson, and Danielle McMahon to the PCR staff. I will be continuing to look for a dedicated Poetry Editor in 2026, but this should help with the original poetry submissions.
Issue Archive & Donations
Since PCR is nearly two years old, I finally got around to creating a way to view our past content by issue. In addition to being able to view all recent content on our Front Page, readers can now click on the current issue’s heading to view the contents for that issue so far. They can also click on the Issue Archive banner to find past issues and view their contents.
While it’s my firm intention that all PCR content remain free to all, I’ve created the PCR Contributor Fund through PayPal that will now receive donations. I will continue to fund our operating expenses and pay at least $10 per contributor, but I’d love to expand what we publish and/or pay more. If you’re interested in contributing to our Fund, you can click on Donate in the menu for more information.
Fall Poetry Call & More
The end of the year tends to be a slow time for publishing, but we are open to original poetry submissions through 12/15 for the Winter issue and beyond. In a policy change, we now accept original poetry from anywhere as long as it is at least 50% in English. Find out more information and get the link to submit by viewing our call here: Winter Call for Poetry Submissions
Toward the end of this month, we’ll be publishing my profile of the annual New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set—the latest of which, Kumi Na Moja, is available from from Akashic Books in December—based on an interview with Editors Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. We also have four more poets to publish between now and the end of the year and will announce our Pushcart Price nominations before the end of November.
Finally, I began this publication with a poem and statement of support for the Palestinian people suffering in Gaza. While we’ve published poems that mention the ongoing tragedy, I haven’t addressed it in these pages again partially for lack of words. I often recalled what Kurt Vonnegut wrote about his difficulty recounting the firebombing of Dresden, “[T]here is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.”
Though I still mostly lack the words, I wrote a short review of Omar El-Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The review was declined because of possible blowback, but I published it on my author website and am using my small platform here to share it. Unlike myself, El-Akkad speaks eloquently and knowledgeably about these issues. You can read my review and find out where to buy the book here: Aiden’s Review.
Thanks for reading,
Aiden Hunt
Editor/Creator
Contents
Chapbook Poem: When I Was Straight by Dustin Brookshire
“‘When I Was Straight’ prompted me to think about a common queer experience—how most parents assume their children are ‘straight’ and expect their children to live a ‘straight’ life.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for October 2025 along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: American Girl: Fort Hood, 2023 by Thea Matthews
“[W]eaving in and juxtaposing the lyrics of Tom Petty’s ‘American Girl.’ The song’s themes of desperation, wanderlust, and longing are subverted by Ana’s life and tragedy at Fort Cavazos, previously known as Fort Hood, Texas.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem for October 2025 along with words from the poet.
“It seems such a shame that a beautiful location is just gathering dust and overgrowth, and I wanted to lean into the juxtaposition of that.” Read three poems by Bryana Fern along with a few words about “Women on the Wall.”
Bodies in Transition: Sacred & Perishable by Carissa Natalia Baconguis
“There is a muscular intimacy to the ecosystem of these poems, each one of them creating as vivid a world individually as exists in the collection as a whole.” Read Gray Davidson Carroll’s full review.
“In ‘No Breaks’ I was writing about something I hope I never have to experience. … I tried to keep despair at bay and show some defiance and resilience.” Read two poems by Gerald Yelle along with a few words about “No Breaks.”
November ’25: New Staff, Issue Archive & Donations
Read a note from Editor Aiden Hunt about our new Poetry Readers, the additions of an Issue Archive and a Contributor Fund, Fall poetry submissions, and Gaza.
Chapbook Poem: Two egrets at the edge of a tidal marsh by Rebekah Wolman
“Settling on the mirror form opened the way into the parallels between the original image of the egrets, their reflection, and their ambiguous relationship and the shifting, even reversing, roles of an adult daughter and her aging mother…” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for November 2025 along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Alexandra Burack
“Subsequent drafts enabled me to … uncover the metaphor of exile, whose meanings are intended to move readers from an experience of alienation to one of discernment of the liberating qualities of outsiderhood.” Read three poems by Alexandra Burack, along with a few words about “To Know Blue From the Color of Snow at Dusk.”
Book Excerpt: Rondo by Yamini Pathak
“The sculpture gardens are located on … the native land of the Lenape people. The poem is a conversation between sculpture, land, and its human and more-than-human inhabitants.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for November 2025, “Rondo” from Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps by Yamini Pathak, along with a few words from the poet.
Two Poems by Yasmin Mariam Kloth
“As I shaped the poem, the olive trees became a witness to a deeper experience—to a region’s ongoing, collective pain. It was the land I wanted to make speak in a place where I did not have words.” Read two poems by Yasmin Mariam Kloth, along with a few words about “Before.”
A Conversation with Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes
“We wanted something that was alive, highlighted an ever-expanding list of books by these poets, and that will hopefully survive the both of us and flourish under the curation of a fresh set of poets.” Read the full interview about the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook series.
Chapbook Poem: Red Tide by Mary Gilliland
“Reflection, research, a public service announcement, an old Zen koan, and 3 weeks of bicycling for groceries with a bandana tied around my nose and mouth inform ‘Red Tide’.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for December 2025, “Red Tide” from Red Tide at Sandy Bend, along with a few words from the poet.
Three Poems by Veronica Tucker
“’You Left the Fridge Open Again’ transforms an ordinary domestic moment into a meditation on tenderness and decay. The open refrigerator becomes a quiet altar, its hum a hymn to what lingers after love’s warmth has cooled.” Read three poems by Veronica Tucker, along with a few words about “You Left the Fridge Open Again.”
Book Excerpt: The Samadhi of Words by Richard Collins
“Zen poets, past and present, who experience deep absorption in the grandeur of this world may even gain wisdom through the way of poetry, Shidō (詩道). This is the samadhi of words.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for December 2025, “The Samadhi of Words” from Stone Nest by Richard Collins, along with a few words from the poet.
December ’25: Pushcart Prize Nominations
Editor Aiden Hunt announces Philly Chapbook Review’s 2026 Pushcart Prize anthology nominations in this editor’s note and provides links to, and a carousel of, the nominated poems.
“From the height of the camel, I could see the ruins of Palmyra and a medieval castle on a hill. Present day Wadi Rum in Jordan has no evidence of an ancient civilization in the desert until one arrives, by car not camel, in Petra.” Read two poems by Sandy Feinstein, our sixth and final biweekly poet of the Fall 2025 issue, along with a few words about “Souvenir.”