Mothers figure in our lives in ways both large and small. Here, Cutleaf writers examine the effects of becoming and being a mother.

Cutleaf is interested in essays in both standard and hybrid forms. We welcome new approaches such as speculative nonfiction, essays based in metaphor, essays in verse, and other re …

Cutleaf publishes a new issue online every other week throughout the year. A project of EastOver Press, Cutleaf seeks work that responds to our common experience and reflects our differences.

Cutleaf issues are not directed towards a specific theme, but we have noticed echoes of interest across the journal. These features gather together works by different writers addressing similar …

Cutleaf is an online journal that publishes poetry weekly along with short fiction and literary nonfiction.

A Murder for Jesus It’s another night of leftovers—soup beans, cornbread, a dab of mashed potatoes. I make a tater cake—to jazz things up a bit; mix the potatoes with a couple spoons …

John Honkala lives in Chicago, IL. He was born in Michigan. His fiction has been published in New Ohio Review, Orca, and The Normal School.

A pileated woodpecker haunts the grove, the beat of its beak against the rotting oak marking time. As the morning mist rises, the heron appears, stalking the shore out by the island. A flip and a …

The Ghost of Black Creek Road It’s 1973 and the house is new Our father holds us spellbound in the living room inventing the Ghost of Black Creek Road … and there she is! Our mother …

How often do we do this—pay attention to what we actually want? And then simply do that thing instead of its opposite?