Editors’ Choice: Melody N. Akbari

Orange Blossoms 2:18 am. I’ve been in here long enough to be able to guess hours and minutes accurately. My name is inconsequential. There is no need for familiarity between us. 2:20 am. I can hear someone screaming. I have lived in a white square room for the past 2 years. They put me in [...]

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Editors’ Choice: Jeff Santosuosso

Visual Purple Visual purple has failed me once more. The light photo-bleaches my retinae, And I cannot respond. I enter the theater and stand in darkness Like the caves of Puerto Rico, Where bats fly and echolocate As if the rods in their retinae were in full bloom, Where the scorpions stalk the muddy cave [...]

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Editors’ Choice: Lucian Childs

Hit Me Back “You what?” Thomas’ fingers trembled slightly against his khaki shorts. Robin Lapointe blew a string of cigarette smoke through taut lips. “I made it all up.” Thomas couldn’t bring himself to look at her: dirty, lime-green sweats; oily hair flat against a face as pale as canning wax. He examined the small [...]

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Compass Rose Volume XI Available Now!

That’s right. Compass Rose Volume XI is ready for your reading enjoyment! Click HERE to order yours today!

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“Laura Gives Good Interviews:” Interview with James Shea

Poet James Shea recently spent the day at Chester College of New England. Compass Rose staffer Laura Evans caught up with him after his reading. Laura Evans: Reviews of your work use phrases like, “accessible but not easy.”  In your writing, how do you reconcile the complex and the readable? James Shea: I take a [...]

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