Cincinnati Review

Contest Submissions Now Open!

Posted by Cincinnati Review | Jun 18, 2019 | Contests

Spring might be coming to an end, but the summer contest season is just heating up!

miCRo: “Black Life circa 2029” by KB

Posted by Cincinnati Review | Jun 12, 2019 | miCRo

Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: This poem starts off deceptively simply, with a description of rooms and circumstances—a clean fridge, “intact” window blinds, and money in the bank.

Why We Like It: Newtown, by Dan O’Brien

Posted by Cincinnati Review | Jun 11, 2019 | Why We Like It

Alison Carey: The opening act of Dan O’Brien’s latest play, Newtown, is heartbreaking and nauseating: Nancy Lanza is speaking to her son, Adam, the night before he kills her and then twenty-six children and staff at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School…

miCRo: “On Statistics” by Zining Mok

Posted by Cincinnati Review | Jun 5, 2019 | miCRo

We’re given an alienating, bug-eating premise, placed in an effete literary space and positioned at odds with the whole stiff scene (uncomfortable shoes, Wordsworth’s snobbery, the “man, suited and tied”, etc.). Then, suddenly, we are steeped in a rich, compelling argument about Western exceptionalism…

Firecracker Finalist!

Posted by Cincinnati Review | May 30, 2019 | Literary News

We’re exploding with excitement: The Cincinnati Review is a finalist for the CLMP Firecracker Award for general excellence in a magazine!

miCRo: “Also Milk” by Laura Grothaus

Posted by Cincinnati Review | May 29, 2019 | miCRo

How can language be used to express the limits of language? In Laura Grothaus’s “Also Milk,” Luca reveals to the speaker that her mother’s losing language. “She calls everything milk. / Ketchup is milk. Water is milk.”

miCRo: “Classic Length” by Lindsay Reeve

Posted by Cincinnati Review | May 22, 2019 | miCRo

The narrator wants us to look at her hair, at its future length and sheen, but her revelation about an old friend points us to a far darker theme.

Why We Like It: “The Goddamn Sorcerer of Love” by Adam Latham

Posted by Cincinnati Review | May 20, 2019 | Why We Like It

Editorial Assistant Jason Namey: I always love when authors use language in unexpected ways, but I especially love when authors—such as Adam Latham, in his story “The Goddamn Sorcerer of Love” from issue 16.1 (read an excerpt here)—do this right from the opening sentence.