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Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Mary Fontana

Mary Fontana’s poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, SWIMM, Moss, and elsewhere. Her first book of narrative nonfiction, Strangers in the Province of Joy, is forthcoming from Orbis Books in May 2026. Fontana lives in Seattle.

Poetry

Current Issue

Built Close to Water, No. 2

By Mary Fontana

The Kenyon Review · “Built Close to Water, No. 2” by Mary Fontana In German, someone who cries easily is said to be nah am Wasser gebaut: built close to […]

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Poetry

Built Close to Water, No. 2