Issue 80

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

Masthead

EDITOR IN CHIEF
Carolyn Hembree

MANAGING EDITORS
Sheena Holt, Stefene Russell

FICTION EDITOR
M.O. Walsh

ASSOCIATE FICTION EDITORS
Derek Dirckx, Gus Berg

POETRY EDITOR
Carolyn Hembree

ASSOCIATE POETRY EDITORS
Karen Sherk Chio, Julie Elise Landry 

READERS
Liv Demac, Lin Flores, Ben Fluet, James Giltenan, Courtney Harvey, Morgan Randall, Michael Noldt, Price Payne, Kyle Reynolds, Lauren Rizzuto, Amy Snodgrass, Micah Tasaka,  Danielle Unger, Dixon Wingrove

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITI
Joanna Leake, Barb Johnson  

MANAGING EDITORS EMERITI
Jamie Amos, Robin Baudier, Robert Bell, April Blevins, Lauren Capone, Samuel Cooley, Danny Caporaletti, Carrie Chappell, Amberly Fox, Amie Geistman, Carolyn Goetze, Barb Johnson, Marian Kaufman, Jesse Manley, Spencer Martin, Lish McBride, Kailyn McCord, Dorothy Nguyen, Adam Peltz, Melissa Remark, Nora Seilheimer, Luke Sirinides,  Reda Wigle, Phinnie Zahareas