The Issue 50 Poetry Round-Up!
Curious which poems lie within our Spring 2026 issue? Look no further than the Pulp Literature Issue 50 Poetry Round-Up! Enjoy the opening of a new poem by Maria Giesbrecht below, along with excerpts from Magpie Award for Poetry Honourable Mentions written by KL Schilling and Greer Stothers! To read these poems in full, be sure to pick up a copy of Issue 50, Spring 2026.
Inspired to share some poems of your own? The 2026 Kingfisher Poetry Prize is currently open to entries! Send us your best short poems up to 20 lines in length for a chance at the top prize and publication. And those who enter before tomorrow, July 15th, 2026 will be able to take advantage of our reduced Earlybird entry fee, so get your submissions in ASAP! Find all of the details here.
If I Had a Bird on My Shoulder
by Maria Giesbrecht
I would have fallen in love with Magritte
too. I would have worn a golden cross on my neck
to provoke those who dream (the best part
of being alive) and if I was the reason
Belgium and France disagreed on surrealism
I would have celebrated. What women can do
when they’re adored.
Maria Giesbrecht’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Literary Review of Canada, Narrative, Grain, ONLY POEMS, The Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2025 Jack McCarthy Book Prize and the Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize. Her new book of poetry, A Little Feral, is due out this year. You can read more of her work and connect at mariagiesbrecht.com.
Dahlia
by KL Shilling
Wait, my mother says. I hover in the hall outside her bedroom.
She puts on her wig, prizes this cacophony of tussled,
Earth-coloured hair, this echo of chestnut curls
That gave up growing back.
Defiant, dainty, she flings her curls and coral lipstick
Against emptiness that waits, hungry and looming.
Against chemo, radiation, that shredded her like petals;
Made frail, but no less fierce.
My father buries his head, waits for his heart to follow.
KL Shilling graduated from SFU’s Writers Studio. She’s published in SAD Magazine, the Journal of Religion and Film, and Tahoma Literary Review. Her story ‘Death and Laughter’ was an honourable mention for the Jack Whyte Storyteller’s Award, and appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 35, Summer 2022. She teaches creative writing classes in prison, and Star Trek TNG is her comfort viewing because she believes the future will be awesome and will include aliens speaking in poetry.
An Argument for Time Travel
by Greer Stothers
House sparrows have invaded from Europe,
they’re bathing in puddles of oil outside.
Three hundred years ago, you’d hear no chirrup
(yes, in their home range, but not yet outside).
Twenty-three million more, you’d have spied
the ancestor of native and foreign,
has not yet split into those who’ll collide.
Greer Stothers is a nonbinary artist based in Toronto, and the author of Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die. After graduating from Sheridan College’s illustration program, they developed an interest in the history of life and studied evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto. They worked as an illustrator specializing in paleoart for many years until injuring their wrist, at which point they switched their focus to writing. Once they find some way of being injured by writing, they plan to move on to breeding heirloom chickens.
To continue reading these poems, pick up a copy of Issue 50, Spring 2026!
Want your poems featured in Pulp Literature? The Kingfisher Poetry Prize is open to entries until August 15th, 2026! Find all of the details and enter here.
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