Poem of the Month, Best Small Fictions Nominees, AWP Info

Read online "The Grand Days of Noho Star"

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor

The Grand Days of Noho Star

for Kathy Engel

Dear Kathy I miss our poetry brunches
at Noho Star
our talks on MFA programs
children spouses mothers finances
manuscripts submission guidelines—
I miss our San Pellegrino flat radish onion and avocado salad

at Noho Star we enjoyed
fried onions in a spicy mango chutney
it was there that I tried Blue Moon beer for the first time
with two orange slices
she gave me not one but two orange slices
and who ever heard of Mexican pizza with raw eggs on top
or fried shrimp with garlic eggplant

on other days a white eight-seater bench
on Lafayette Avenue near the window
held our joy after readings
after classes after book launches
where we sat for hours sipping drinks and laughing loud

then that time the clumsy white boy spilled deep red Chilean wine
on my new suede jacket
on my mother’s beige antique hat
Golda held me back I almost fucked him up
because he refused to give his name
and hid in the kitchen rather than apologize

it was at Noho on that fall Saturday evening
that I fell in love with Kathy Engel and her two beautiful daughters
we set out on a journey of writing poetry and keeping each others secrets
I think of you Kathy and our beloved Noho
every time I order garlic eggplant and curry fries
from the bodega near my corner.

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet born in Trinidad and raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of seven collections of poetry which include Mama Phife Represents, a verse memoir about the life of her son, Hip Hop Legend, Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award. Her most recent collection,The Limitless Heart, won the 2024 Firecracker Award for poetry. Cheryl is a graduate The Stonecoast MFA program.

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MER Best Small Fiction Nominations

Congratulations and good luck to our nominees!

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#AWP26 - Please join us!

You’ll be hearing more from us about the upcoming AWP conference but I wanted to let you know that Poetry Editor Cindy Veach, Book Reviews Co-Editor Melissa Joplin Higley and I will be at book table T841; we’ll have signings, swag and book specials. Stop by and brighten our day!

We’ll be having our legendary offsite event, “Off site. On purpose.” with collaborators SWWIM, Whale Road Review, Nelle, Perugia Press, and Cultivating Voices. The event will be at Westminster Hall, on the evening of Wednesday, March 4, 2026. This is always an amazing evening of literature and community. We hope you can come. More details soon.

Are you going to AWP? Please comment below and add any info or events you will be participating in.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there! Best, Marjorie