Issue 05

Content and trigger warnings for Issue 05 include mentions of murder, mental illness, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, death, abuse, addiction, substance use, and serious illness. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; these are overt themes or events.

Is a lack of hope always despair? Or can it simply be that: a lack of hope? What is it when we hope, but we are met instead with disappointment? Or met with grief, with sadness? Can we choose to hope nonetheless, despite it all?

Maybe we can, maybe it’s too hard. We don’t have the answers, but explore the possibilities in the words and images in Issue 05 of Reservoir Road Literary Review.

In order by written work with featured photography accompaniments:

  1. “Being the Murdered Transient” by Cathy Ulrich, featuring “Desiccated” by Stephen Ground

  2. “Ad Infinitum” by Michele Parker Randall, featuring “Post” by Mara Katcher

  3. excerpt from Pretend I Am Real by Leigh Chadwick, featuring “American Profile” by Sarah Kohrs

  4. “This Is Infertility” by Alissa Bird

  5. “I Live Next Door to a Convent” by Shannon Frost Greenstein, featuring “Against the Grain” by Em Harriett

  6. “Diagnosis Code F50.81” by Lindy Biller

  7. “Swimming Hole” by Travis Cravey, featuring “Morning Reflection” by Barbara Candiotti

  8. “Linda’s War Against the Possums” by Jeff Whitney, featuring “Skull” by Mara Katcher

  9. “Jesus Is Just Another Name for Gruyere” by Dutch Simmons, featuring “Entry” by Adele Quartley Brown

  10. “Tell Me If I Stop” by Barlow Adams

  11. “De Anima” by Robert Hamilton, featuring “Field Grown” by Sarah Kohrs

  12. “I-70” by Wilson Koewing, featuring “Bees Nest” by Guilherme Bergamini (cover image)

Copyrights held by authors listed. Individual content warnings not listed within each work; please review the content warnings at the top of the main issue page and assume all prose deals with adult subject matter and difficult themes. Photographs not listed here were sourced through Upsplash, per their rights of use.