Cover Reveal for the Print Version
Escape Your Mental Prisons
by Vishaal Pathak
A self-taught photographer, Vishaal Pathak’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Juste Milieu Zine, Moiramor, Arkana, Stonecoast Review, Welter, Moonlit Getaway, Quibble Lit, Union Spring Literary Review, Reservoir Road Literary Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Route 7 Review, Asterales Journal, Nat 1, Gabby & Min’s Literary Review, Paper Dragon, 3Elements Review, Eleventh Hour Literary, and The Word’s Faire.
Pronouns: he/him
Editor’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you for stopping by and reading this latest issue of FLARE! We decided to team up with fellow literary magazine, Exclamation Mark Literary Journal, where we opened to the theme: Exclamation for and by the Disabled and Chronically Ill. We wanted pieces that exclaimed (!), were urgent to tell (!), and emotional!
We are thrilled to share this incredible issue with 14 creators and 16 total pieces! Get the word out by sharing and commenting on social media, telling your friends, and more about this issue!
If you want to do more, you can donate to FLARE‘s GoFundMe for 2026 or buy from our merch store. ALL proceeds for both go toward funding more contests and/or paying future contributors. Let’s pay disabled creators!
Exclamation Mark has a donation page too! It supports their publishing, printing, and future issues. As a thank you, all donors will be acknowledged on their website’s supporter list, regardless of the amount they donated.
And as always, since people ask, yes, your EIC of FLARE does have a ko-fi that acts as my tip jar. However, it’s always and forever absolutely optional, but I do get people asking me how they can help me as a chronically ill writer/editor myself.
Be on the lookout soon for the print version of this issue, which will be available to purchase really soon! We truly hope you enjoy this issue just as much as we loved curating it!
Love,
Kelly Esparza, Editor-in-Chief of FLARE Magazine
Robert Hills, Editor-in-Chief of Exclamation Mark Literary Journal (and the reading team!)
Poetry
- “I Used to Love Rain” and “You Were Sick Too” by Anna Samson
- “Twist and Shout” by Barbara Krasner
- “Breaking” by Bella Melardi
- “Shift Change” by Dana Hangle
- “The Glass House I Built Myself” by Hannah E. Kraus
- “collecting myself as a series of heat blisters” by Nisha Patel
- “dead woman” by Theo Foster
- “Night Offerings” by Tori Hirsh
- “August 6, 1995” by Trystan Popish
Microfiction
- “One Pill a Day” by Alex Fendrich
- “Fixing the Fault” by Brigitta Scheib
Creative Nonfiction (CNF)
Art
- “Be Ourselves” by Catherine McGuire
- “the many me’s” by Vishaal Pathak
Thank you so much for reading this special collab issue!
Daily author/artist spotlights will begin on June 28, 2026 via our social media accounts!