Girls on a Train, 2024. Oil on linen panel. 20x25 cm. Mollie Douthit.
From the Current Issue
Watershed
I imagine March 16, 1991 when ticker tape / announced hers first & last; that I began the reluctant task of dispensing the / surprise of death into my fifteen-year-old imagination.
This Is My Face When You Won’t Stop Talking
I let go of the handle and slowly turned my head back at Pedro, to find thick melancholy already pouring out of his mouth in the form of a teenage love tale. What kind of person would interrupt a poor creature like this?
Like Mother
I will cook, clean, catch a bullet, and bring down the moon with more ease than I would hug Mother and tell her I love her. She must know that I do, right?
News from the Neighborhood
After all, the block’s a mix of old / and new and you never know what will return.
Sugartown
When they heard her idea, the others had all lobbied to go to a casino instead, to Vegas or maybe Reno, but Glory reminded them she needed to stay within a forty-minute drive of the hospital, so they grudgingly gave in to her choice.
A Poet Asks a Painter
I think it is crucial to my work that I see the joyful moments I have experienced during such a trying time. I believe my work often holds a bittersweet quality, but the paintings are nearly always about the good things in my life.
About Shenandoah
Reading through the perspective of another person, persona, or character is one of the ways we practice empathy, expand our understanding of the world, and experience new levels of awareness.
Recent Blog posts from the Peak
An Interview With Lesley Wheeler on Mycocosmic
Shenandoah intern Ellis Nicholson sat down with poetry editor Lesley Wheeler to talk about her sixth poetry collection, Mycocosmic, and her writing process.
Shenandoah Interviews State Senator Ghazala Hashmi
In 2019, Ghazala Hashmi, a former English professor, became the first ever Muslim and Indian American State Senator in Virginia. In another historic feat, she won the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in June 2025 and will appear on the ballot for the statewide election this coming November. Shenandoah’s Special Features Editor, Nadeen Kharputly, sat down with Senator Hashmi for a conversation about her early life, her career in education, her transition to a political career, and how literature has shaped her life—and her desire to make life better for her constituents.
Curating Connection Through the Art of Vulnerability: A Conversation with Stevie Billow
Shenandoah intern Kaia Beddows sits down with nonfiction editorial fellow Stevie Billow for a conversation about their writing journey, creative inspirations, and the curation behind the essays featured in Shenandoah’s 75th anniversary edition.