Susan Isla Tepper has a Novella just out from Wilderness House Press titled GIRL UPSIDE DOWN. Currently it is only available from the author direct.  A twenty-year writer, she has penned 14 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 Stage Plays. Honors include 25 Pushcart Prize Nominations, a win in the Francis Ford Coppola Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award and more. Her stage play ‘The Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022, at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review.
http://www.susantepper.com

BELLY OF THE SEAL

By Susan Isla Tepper

Coming from water to
finally return
there’s that odor—

What made you drink
so much at dinner though
I kept nagging you

You cursed me
under your breath
turning sour almost bitter
refusing to hand over
the keys

Desperate, I even engaged
our favorite waiter
who jokingly tried to talk
some sense into you.

Road wet the car
flipping, I felt
trapped and swirling
Everything slippery
under the belly of a seal.

Look at that sky
in a whole new way.

Photography by Alexis Rhone Fancher

Poet/photographer, Alexis Rhone Fancher has authored 11 books of poetry and flash, most recently, EROTIC, and BRAZEN (both published by NYQ.), and TRIGGERED (MacQueens). Coming up: A Picture is Worth a Poet’s Words, a photo-portrait book of over 100 Southern California poets will be publishe in early 2026 by Moon Tide Press, in addition to publishing Alexis’ full-length, erotic book of poems and flash fiction, CockSure. SinkHole, a chapbook of twenty-five“sister” pantoums, exploring her beloved sister’s final illness and death, will be published by MacQueen’s in January, 2026. A multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, Alexis recently won Best MicroFiction 2025. She calls the Mojave Desert home..www.alexisrhonefancher.com