Kim Chinquee is Chief Editor of Elm Leaves Journal (ELJ), Senior Editor of New World Writing Quarterly, and Contributing Editor of Midwest Review. Her work has been published widely, received three Pushcart Prizes and a Henfield Prize; her eighth book and debut novel is Pipette and her three forthcoming books will appear in 2025. She's a competitive triathlete and lives with her three dogs in Tonawanda, New York. More of Kim’s work can be found at Atticus Review,
and Ghost Parachute
For more about Kim, visit her website at www.kimchinquee.com.
for Ross Gay Sitting at the stoplight, I watch the clouds move, wishing I was somewhere out in nature: the park, the woods, the childhood farm where I grew up, where I used to spread on my back on the grass with my sister and look up, naming clouds, in all their shapes and sizes. It’s a cold day, wet,… Read more →
I get on a ladder and pick the crabapples from my tree, put them in my bucket. There are way more than I’ll know what to do with, but I figure I’ll find recipes, maybe do some canning. I’m not really into jam, but I imagine being creative, filling pretty jars with fancy covers and giving them as gifts for… Read more →
On the train ride home, I fall asleep and dream of eagles taking over the farm where I grew up, letting the cows loose and they roam. My family evacuates our home, and then we’re riding past a brushfire in a convertible bus until there is a roadblock. Peach trees talk to me, saying, Find your way. Bristlecone trees wave,… Read more →
It wasn’t your fault the door wouldn’t lock. It wasn’t your fault you loved your dogs so much you hugged them where they lived in the barn, then you got spanked because of bringing in the dog hair. It wasn’t your fault you turned purple–bruised–because your dad got mad, because you didn’t un-peel an orange right. It wasn’t your fault… Read more →