Editor’s Note
Thanks to the Herculean efforts of managing editors Sheena Holt and Stefene Russell, this landmark eightieth issue ushers in the new online Bayou Magazine. By going digital, we hope to become more accessible to readers here and abroad. However, the vision of this enduring little magazine out of the University of New Orleans remains uncompromised. Thanks to rotating associate genre editors who read all submissions and argue the merits of some, Bayou‘s vision is, simply, to change. Working alongside faculty editors, associate poetry editors Karen Sherk Chio and Julie Landry and associate fiction editors Gus Berg and Derek Dirckx have selected fierce writing for the current issue. Additionally, we proudly include Nicolette Visciano’s Spit, selected by Justin Maxwell as winner of the 2025 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival One-Act Play Contest. What distinguishes the contents of Issue 80 may be the theme of isolation that emerges, though not by design. Whether swallowed by quicksand as in Andy Young’s “Party’s Over,” grieving a “short-lived nation” as in Joseph Omoh Nduwku’s “The Cosmic Dust of God’s Voice,” or risking one’s life as in Julia Moore’s “Rock Climbing with Strangers,” the characters and speakers struggle alone. Smaller themes, such as gender, art, death, and love also surface. Perhaps there is enough writing in the world that makes nice. For the most part, it is not here. These stories and poems may not leave us feeling better, but given a good read, they also do not leave us.
Carolyn Hembree
Editor in Chief
Theater
2025 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival One-Act Play Winner
Nicolette Ashley Visciano Spit
Fiction
Julia Moore Rock Climbing With Strangers
B.B. Garin Ten Rules for Girls and Monsters
G.C. Collins This Cafe I Walked into Once When I Was in the City
Gerri Brightwell One Night in Winter
Poetry
Susan L. Leary Self-Portrait with Fiction & Oversized Eye
Elinor Ann Walker Sally Mann’s Night-Blooming Cereus