Fiction, Essays, Poetry, Artwork and Writing Workshops

Eckleburg No. 22

Eckleburg No. 22

Eckleburg is a literary and arts journal publishing original works from both emerging and awarded writers, poets, artists and musicians including Roxane Gay, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond ... Read More
I Am Not Antigone: Notes on Losing My Brother

I Am Not Antigone: Notes on Losing My Brother

“But he is mine. And yours. Like it or not, he’s our brother. They’ll never catch me betraying him.” —Antigone. My brother Mike died while incarcerated in Jacksonville, Florida on December 23, 2021. He was found in his cell, alone, at 3:24pm ... Read More
The Last Survivor Dance

The Last Survivor Dance

On the second Tuesday of January the survivors gather for the annual survivor dance. They gather in the ballroom of the historic synagogue on Ocean Avenue. Like many things, the place is a shadow of its former self. Spanning half a city block, it now sits cavernous and crumbling, like ... Read More
Couples

Couples

"These portraits have a secondary meaning: when the male is spliced together with the female—a representation bi-sexual being is created. The composite Couples image represents the male and female qualities in all of us." ... Read More
AWP 2025: Attack of the Book People III: 7.13 Books, Rare Bird Books & Eckleburg

AWP 2025: Attack of the Book People III: 7.13 Books, Rare Bird Books & Eckleburg

Join 7.13 Books, Rare Bird Books and Eckleburg for Attack of the Book People III at AWP 2025 in LA on Friday, March 28th, 6 to 10 pm. Food, drinks, DJ and a fantastic lineup of readers including Marilee Albert, Rae Cline, Rosa Kwon Easton, Danielle Harms, Sara Lippman, Chip Jacobs, Sameer ... Read More
on the nature of exception

on the nature of exception

shi in Japanese means death / herself reflected / his singular possessive projected by the he who (doer of the sentence) substitutes affection in other words indefinite/not quite determined / not that or this but object of the proposition Kathleen Hellen we not interrogating / pleasures of a self-delight that ... Read More
Eckleburg at AWP 2025, Los Angeles

Eckleburg at AWP 2025, Los Angeles

Join 7.13 Books, Rare Bird Books and Eckleburg for Attack of the Book People III at AWP 2025 in LA on Friday, March 28th, 6 to 10 pm. Food, drinks, DJ and a fantastic lineup of readers including Marilee Albert, Rae Cline, Rosa Kwon Easton, Danielle Harms, Sara Lippman, Chip Jacobs, Sameer Pandya, Jim Ruland and Hugh Sheehy. Find copies of Eckleburg No. 22 at the ... Read More
Lily Iona MacKenzie

Lily Iona MacKenzie

What drives, inspires, feeds your artistic work? Lily Iona Mackenzie I have hundreds of pages of story ideas that I'll never get to, but just knowing they're waiting to be developed is an impetus. But I also am passionate about all of the arts, not just the literary ones, so ... Read More
[I was born in Philadelphia's Temple]

[I was born in Philadelphia’s Temple]

I was born in Philadelphia's Temple Hospital, Jewish & full of the devil & the demerol they gave my mother perfection in satin & manicured popping gum & smoking such fun at 24 & pissed for sure at what they said was a girl. She dropped her ashes on my ... Read More
"Rocks, Fox and Wendell Berry" by Ruth Ann Dandrea

“Rocks, Fox and Wendell Berry” by Ruth Ann Dandrea

"The fox stops, half turns, half stays. The way a fox will, being two things at once and daring both. Mottled coat, those delicate fairy tale feet, one poised as if to point the way, a way for me to follow...." ... Read More
"Feeding" by Kay Cosgrove

“Feeding” by Kay Cosgrove

"Closed all the windows to the heat     How still Frances at this time of day     How still I      Feeding you means sitting means my body does my work    I’m so hot with you against me the way it used to feel in New York in ... Read More
"What's Your Emergency?" by Kim Chinquee

“What’s Your Emergency?” by Kim Chinquee

"When I woke from surgery, I wondered where my arm went. / It was still attached, I was assured. I saw it there, hanging from my body...." ... Read More
"They Kept Putting a 'D' in Front of Her Name" by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

“They Kept Putting a ‘D’ in Front of Her Name” by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

So it spelled Dumbell instead of Umbell. Infuriating, after she’d twice corrected the error by email.  Everyone wants to mess with what’s yours, make an ass out of a cluster ... Read More
"Tragicomedy for the Fallen: Part I" by Kurt Baumeister

“Tragicomedy for the Fallen: Part I” by Kurt Baumeister

"Odin’s spear struck Valhalla’s golden floor with a mighty thud, silvered veins of sorcerous power erupting from the point of contact, energy flying electric and jagged to the four corners of his vast throne room. This was One-Eye’s signal for quiet, and I went along. We all went along...." —Kurt ... Read More
Nadine

Nadine

Why don’t you bring Ashok over for lunch?” Nadine was an anthropologist and had to get to the bottom of things. All these days and months she’d gotten a second hand account and now she wanted to see the mystery man in person. I somehow knew she’d be disappointed, but ... Read More
"Frittura" by Judith Goode: Gertrude Stein Award Winner

“Frittura” by Judith Goode: Gertrude Stein Award Winner

"They were as light and fluffy as the small white clouds that floated across an otherwise spotless blue sky, of which Raffie and Kip had an unobstructed view from the balcony where they feasted on the fried scallops, clams, shrimp, calamari, and other seafood on the frittura platter. Raffie’s father ... Read More
Small Town Crisis

Small Town Crisis

Ann Lewis is the author of Inside Out: Meet Mama Schizophrenia, a debut poetic memoir of loving and living with a parent diagnosed with schizophrenia. A world traveler, she lived in South Africa and Argentina and now lives on the Gulf Coast where she teaches literature ... Read More
April Vázquez

Charlotte Sometimes

As a teenager, my favorite band was The Cure. This was pre-Radiohead, pre-Editors, before bands—even alternative bands—tended to be literary. Yet The Cure turned out songs like “Killing an Arab,” based on The Stranger by Albert Camus, and “How Beautiful You Are,” an echo of Charles Baudelaire’s essay “The Eyes ... Read More
Gertrude Stein Award

Announcing the Winners of The Gertrude Stein Award

Eckleburg is pleased to announce the Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction winners and finalists. Thank you to all who submitted. It is always a difficult task choosing among such talented voices and storytelling.  Gertrude Stein Award: First Place "Frittura" by Judith Goode Second Place "Little Sister" by Jarrett Kaufman Third ... Read More
Ukrainian Au Pair

Ukrainian Au Pair

smoke             cinder                           ash dye job from hell calls Putin “Daddy” spellbinding back tat-- a forest of impossibly tall trees with dark squid-like branches loves Billie “Eyelash” possesses                   a wicked                                    left hook ... Read More
Cloud Corporation

Cloud Corporation

They lock you up and feed you clouds. Cumulus candy puffs. Cirrostratus and Nimbostratus gummies. You float on delicious filaments. So much wonder. Silvery minnows of the mind. Nets for the careless. Stippled with black floaters ... Read More
Richard Peabody

Ophelia in Aspic

she is under the rice fingers poking up through the water playing air piano are fish allowed to swim the paddies? they should be flashes of koi gold among rich green every hillside a rice aquarium with jazzy flowing fish and rice fit for a Sumo wrestler who secretly yearns ... Read More
Dusky Time

Dusky Time

last days of autumn have fallen on your fragrant locks like honey rust clouds in the distance rolling toward the Rio Grande at Pilar trout are biting rattling the snakes behind every rock ... Read More
Star Spangled Bullshit

Star Spangled Bullshit

star bride on the beach paging Pierre Reverdy firecrackers in dubious battle overhead not even close to dark She yearns La Mordida the Frat boys mirrored along the strand ... Read More
Period.

Period.

I don’t want to be all playing into stereotypes here, but I’m on my period and everything is pissing me off. From my dog who selectively understands English and won’t stop whining at the squirrels to my long-distance boyfriend/affairmate who I haven’t even talked to today because I’m getting frustrated ... Read More
A Smaller Heart

A Smaller Heart

Why does his family piss him off so badly? No clue. All he knows is that he wants to scream. He nestles each fly into his tackle box. In the kitchen, his wife makes tuna-and-tomato sandwiches, their fish smell pervading the living room. She fills Ziploc bags with carrot sticks, ... Read More
https://frankfurter-goethe-haus.de/ausstellung/-/frankfurter-goethe-haus-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/234

Disappearing in Goethe House: Johann’s Sleep

No matter how long a journey is, and though it begins with eagerness and excitement, my heart aches the night before going back home for the narrow streets I had walked on for many days; the harmony of the unknown language, stores, coffees and restaurants, the rustle of women’s skirts ... Read More
"New Green Blueberries in the Wildlife Habitat Garden" by Rachel Ford James is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse&atype=rich

A Tiny Green Blueberry

A tiny green blueberry. Crunchy. It’s eaten by mistake. It was mixed in that package of frozen berries that I’ll pretty much eat by the pound. I poured a handful of the frozen berries into my glass and poured two shots of vodka on it. This makes the alcohol sweeten ... Read More
"Jimmy The Iceman Cometh: All heating and cooking is done with coal oil in the FSA (Farm Security Administration) housing project. Hartford, Connecticut. September 1941." by polkbritton is marked under CC PDM 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

The Iceman

About 1937. We had a large card with numbers on it which we put in the window to tell the iceman we wanted ice. The number on top of the card showed him what size block to bring in. When our ice was just about all gone, we put the card ... Read More
Developmentally Editing Characters in Eight Steps

Developmentally Editing Characters in Eight Steps

Eight steps for developmentally editing characters. 1. Make a character list... 2. Identify frequency... 3. Code characters... 4. Amalgamate main characters... 5. Amalgamate secondary characters... 6. Give divine introductions... 7. Create character timelines... 8. Repeat ... Read More
"[mb] Tinnitus" by Merrick Brown is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Tinnitus

The first time was in the fifth grade, where I sat in the back of the room, with a large window behind me. One late-winter day, I heard a shrill whistling. Startled, I made a dramatic jump to the window. While not outgoing, I liked getting attention, and I got ... Read More
"Writing words.." by _StaR_DusT_ is licensed with CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

Snapshot

When I was nineteen, I moved to Montreal both for school and in the hope that the city would be for me what Paris was for the Lost Generation. That moveable feast, to quote Hemingway; that Babylon to be revisited, to quote Fitzgerald instead. Unlike Hemingway or Fitzgerald, I wasn't ... Read More
"Anxiety" by kevin dooley is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The Gift of Pain

I was in Pasadena, California, looking after a cat for a friend of mine. What I had initially embraced as a writing retreat quickly became a nightmare. I was trying to write at a desk in the living room when my back went into spasm, causing me worrying pain. Trying ... Read More

Submit Your Fiction, Essays & Poetry

We accept previously unpublished and polished prose up to 8,000 words year round, unless announced otherwise.  We accept essays and poetry, too. No multiple submissions but simultaneous is fine as long as you withdraw the submission asap through the submissions system. During the summer and winter months, we run our Writers Are Readers, Too, fundraiser when submissions are open only to subscribers. During the fall and spring, we open submissions for regular, unsolicited submissions. Submit 

Join us for creative writing workshops in fiction, essay, poetry and more.

Issues

Eckleburg No. 22

Eckleburg is a literary and arts journal publishing original works from both emerging and awarded writers, poets, artists and musicians including Roxane Gay, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond, Stephen Dixon, Moira Egan and David Wagoner. Eckleburg No. 22 curates a beautiful selection of traditional and genre-bending creative nonfiction, poetry, art and fiction featuring our Gertrude Stein Award winner, Judith Goode.

 

 

 

Eckleburg No. 21Eckleburg No. 20Eckleburg No. 19Eckleburg No. 17

What others are saying about Eckleburg

“Being a good lit citizen means supporting lit pubs. Donate. Buy. I’m going to show some #AWP17 mags that you need to support… .” Meakin Armstrong (Guernica)
 
“The most exciting and adventurous and gutsiest new magazine I’ve seen in years.” Stephen Dixon
 
“Refreshing… edgy… classic… compelling.” Flavorwire
 
“Progressive….” NewPages
 
“Eye-grabbing… fun… bold… inviting… exemplary.” Sabotage
 
 
“Eclectic selection of work from both emerging and established writers….” The Washington Post
 
Literary Burroughs D.C…. the journal cleverly takes its name from the The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald….” Ploughshares
 

Proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

 

The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review was founded in 2010 as an online and print literary and arts journal. We take our title from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and include the full archives of our predecessor Moon Milk Review. Our aesthetic is eclectic, literary mainstream to experimental. We appreciate fusion forms including magical realist, surrealist, meta- realist and realist works with an offbeat spin. We value character-focused storytelling and language and welcome both edge and mainstream with punch aesthetics. We like humor that explores the gritty realities of world and human experiences. Our issues include original content from both emerging and established writers, poets, artists and comedians such as authors, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond, Stephen Dixon, poets, Moira Egan and David Wagoner and actor/comedian, Zach Galifianakis.

Currently, Eckleburg runs online, daily content of original fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translations, and more with featured artwork–visual and intermedia–from our Gallery. We run annual print issues, the Eckleburg Reading Series (DC, Baltimore and New York), as well as, the annual Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction, first prize $1000 and print publication, guest-judged by award-winning authors such as Rick Moody and Cris Mazza.

We have collaborated with a number of talented and high profile literary, art and intermedia organizations in DC, Baltimore and New York including The Poetry Society of New York, KGB Bar, Brazenhead Books, New World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review Online), The Hopkins Review, Boulevard, Gargoyle Magazine, Entasis Press, Barrelhouse, Hobart, 826DC, DC Lit and Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival at AWP 2013, Boston, for a night of raw comedic lit and music. We like to promote smaller indie presses, galleries, musicians and filmmakers alongside globally recognized organizations, as well as, our local, national and international contributors.

Rarely will readers/viewers find a themed issue at Eckleburg, but rather a mix of eclectic works. It is Eckleburg’s intention to represent writers, artists, musicians, and comedians as a contemporary and noninvasive collective, each work evidence of its own artistry, not as a reflection of an editor’s vision of what an issue “should” be. Outside of kismet and special issues, Eckleburg will read and accept unsolicited submissions based upon individual merit, not theme cohesiveness. It is our intention to create an experience in which readers and viewers can think artistically, intellectually, socially, and independently. We welcome brave, honest voices. To submit, please read our guidelines.

Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away. —The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

WRITING WORKSHOPS | Fiction, Poetry, Essays & More

Writing Workshops

COMING SOON

The Eckleburg Workshops: Online Writing Workshops

Eckleburg offers noncredit online writing workshops in fiction, poetry, essays, short stories, the novel and more. The writing workshops are intended for writers who want to focus on craft in an encouraging, professional, diverse environment. 

All writing workshops are work-at-your-own-pace. When you are ready for individualized feedback—developmental edits, line edits and endnotes—submit your work. Our instructors have graduate degrees and professional publication experience in their writing workshop focuses and are happy to meet participants at whatever writing stage and focus participants find themselves. Participants may complete assignments anytime. We are open to English-speaking and writing participants both locally and globally and encourage gender and cultural diversity with a focus on historically marginalized voices.

Our instructors are award-winning and published authors and hold degress from/taught at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa’s International Writing Program, Johns HopkinsYale, BrownHarvardColumbiaNew SchoolNew York UniversitySUNY, Portland, San Diego State University, New York University, Bennington, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, the University of Oregon and more. They live in Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Ankara, San Diego, LA and Denver. Several of them are award-winning and with books out. They have been interviewed and published in The Paris Review,  The New YorkerAtlantic Monthly, McSweeney’sThe RumpusThe Nervous BreakdownThe New York Times, Salonand more. What our instructors share is an eye for innovative storytelling with solid narrative structure as well as a focus on personal voice. Learn more about our individual instructors. More Questions? Visit our FAQs Page.

Methods

Each work has its own strengths and needs, successes and focus areas. I approach each new work with an eye toward individual voice so that the work can take on a life of its own that focuses on your intentions. Below, you’ll find a link for submission guidelines and submitting your manuscript. As we move through your work, we’ll look at the following:

    • What is the intention for the work, as communicated on the page and as is essential to the main characters?
    • What is the authentic voice of the narrator, and how can this be brought out thoroughly and to the work’s best interest?
    • What is your authentic voice and how can this be coupled with the needs of the narrative voice?
    • Developmentally, how can the character arcs and the overall narrative be brought to fuller realization?
    • Linguistically, how does the cadence, syntax and repetition in language support the overall artistry of the piece? 
    • Mechanically, are the choices being made in the overall best interest of the authentic narrative voice?
    • What can be strengthened from word choice and comma usage?

Thank you for joining us at The Eckleburg Workshops. I promise to honor your hard work and talents.

How intensive is the Eckleburg Writing Workshops schedule?

You will be able to log in and complete the weekly writing prompts, readings, discussion prompts, etc. as it best fits into your schedule, whether you are at home or traveling. The online visual structure of the course makes it easy to read and respond via your desktop, laptop and smartphone.  Submit work for individualized feedback when it is convenient for you and your project.

How do I register for the Eckleburg Writing Workshops?

Begin by clicking on the workshop link you would like to take. Next, click on the CART link and you will be taken to the payment portal where you can pay by credit card or Paypal. You can CANCEL at anytime with a click. 

The Eckleburg Gallery

eckleburg gallery

eckleburg gallery

About The Eckleburg Gallery

Since 2010, we have been an online, print and pop up gallery space for contemporary and international artists, including event installations in Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Boston and more. We seek to share provocative art forms in all media through intimate, intellectual moments in which aesthetics and ideas entwine. We are committed to providing artists an international platform to explore voice, context and form in canvas, sculpture, performance, digital media, intermedia, video, technology and more. We encourage all aesthetics with gender and diversity awareness.