past issues
CURRENT ISSUE
by Greg Santos
For our first issue of 2024, the carte blanche team and I are proud to present twenty-four creative works of fiction, comics, photography, poetry, translation, and creative nonfiction which make up our outstanding open-themed issue 48!
by Jordan Penland
Jordan Penland is a 27-year-old, half-Black, half-Ecuadorian artist/cartoonist from Los Angeles, CA. He predominantly works with watercolor markers and gel pens on paper to create brightly colored drawings with a strong doodle aesthetic.
by Jessie Carson
First, finish watching Mister Ed on TV at your sister Pearl’s house. Give her a hug before you leave and walk the short distance home. Pass the man who would soon murder your family as he passes you in your yard.
by Samuel Freeman
On a cold, rainy, April morning, Catherine called to tell me our baby was coming. Her gynecologist was sending her straight from the clinic to the hospital. The baby—our first—had stopped growing and needed to come out, even though her due date was a month away.
by Robin Gow
We are the earring collectors. We are goblins. We are hungry. We are queer. Our most recent pair are stained glass windows. A wooden frame with thin colorful glass on the back.
by Katherine Li
Take, for example, my family. We are a closed system. The sum of our energy remains constant, even when it takes on different forms: over time, rage turns into bitterness; happiness dulls to a slim sense of satisfaction.
by Jonathan Bessette
Steven trips through the front door at 5 a.m. with Kim in tow. He swears the Blundstones on top of the other piled shoes had grabbed him. Carla slinks into the hallway wearing the silk red pyjamas he bought her in Singapore—he promised not to make noise when he got back.
by Megan Callahan
When she wakes on Tuesday morning to the prickle of smoke in her nose, Janie’s first muggy thought is that her father has come home, miraculously—has simply walked in the door like he never left. Her second is that her mother has picked up smoking again.
by Michaela Di Cesare
Nothing feels better than someone else’s mother saying she’s proud of me. I instantly regress to a blissful embryonic state, suspended in warm amniotic admiration.
by Audrey Larson
Audrey Larson is an artist and writer who lives in Bellingham, WA, USA. They are known for their love of dreary beaches, public libraries, and old bicycles.