Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: some words with Justin Carter

‘Everything starts, in some way, with my life, and then the question becomes if I want to dive into my life or not’

Like a lot of teens who came of age during the early days of the internet, Justin Carter spent a lot of his online time reading and posting on message boards. He is such a fan of the format of these online forums that he decided to create a literary magazine based on the message board structure. The result: the retro-looking lit mag Some Words. Since going live some six months ago, Some Words has published over 120 stories and poems, including a poem each day during National Poetry Month (April). I was honored to have one of my poems (“A Cure for Doomscrolling“) included in the April lineup.

When he isn’t running the lit mag–or perhaps moderating is the more appropriate term–Justin writes poetry and short stories, as well as freelance articles about women’s basketball, racing, and the NFL from his home in Des Moines, Iowa. He also is a relatively new dad. Justin’s first poetry collection, Brazos, was published in 2024 by Belle Point Press. Originally from the Texas Gulf Coast, Justin holds degrees from the University of Houston, Bowling Green State University and the University of North Texas, where he graduated in 2019 with a PhD in English. His poetry appears widely, including work in The Adroit Journal, Bat City Review, The Journal, Sonora Review and Sycamore Review. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in BULL, Daily Science Fiction, HAD, Passages North, and other spaces.

Read on for more about Justin’s reasons for creating Some Words, his advice to submitters, writing poetry versus writing fiction, and more.

Friday Five: talking trash with Benjamin Drevlow

A Q&A with the author of ‘Trash Poems for Trash People’ and editor of BULL.

Content warning: strong language.

Reading Benjamin Drevlow‘s new collection of poems/pomes, Trash Poems for Trash People, put me in remembrance of my grandfather who, on walks home from his job at the shoe factory, had a habit of picking up items others left on the curb and bringing them home, thinking he might somehow find a use for them. The idiom “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” also sprang to mind as I read through this collection. That phrase aligns with the opening words of this volume’s epitaph:

Trash only becomes trash if you throw it away

Let it grow and clutter and climb and spread wings and fly.

Suddenly it becomes the hot new home decor.

Like some weird sort of alchemist, Drevlow, who is also the editor-in-chief of a great literary magazine called BULL and the author of several other books, turns trash into treasure with the poems in this collection. At least I think it’s treasure. Does that make me one of the trash people? If the old, discarded boot someone tossed at a dumpster and missed fits this misfit…

Read on to learn more about his reasons for writing this book, his work at BULL, his influences, his teaching gig at Georgia Southern University, and more.

Friday Five: recent craft-y reads

On submitting short stories, crafting great dialogue, persevering in the face of rejection, and more.

Happy May Day, everyone! And for all you writers in distress–perhaps you’re shouting Mayday! Mayday! into the void right now–I hope the following five essays and articles on the writing craft will help:

Switching it up

Featuring an exclusive golden shovel poem

One of the valuable bits of advice I did not cover in a recent Friday Five post about the book Writers on Writing was this morsel from the essay by Rosellen Brown (author of Tender Mercies and much more):

If it begins to feel too easy to do something, change forms. Make yourself an amateur in a new genre.

In case you missed ’em

Links to my latest published writings.

Over the past week I had three pieces published in various literary magazines:

“Weather Report” was published last Wednesday, April 15, in Flash Fiction Magazine. This flash fiction piece describes how an ordinary morning walk is disrupted by an extraordinary encounter. I’m grateful to Aishwarya Mishra for her helpful edits, which strengthened this piece.
“The Cat Says” was published last Friday in The Orange Rose Literary Magazine. This short story is about the dynamics between humans and their pets, with a bit of woo-woo psychic work thrown in. This piece was part of a special themed issue about pets called “Love You, Miss You,” created to honor the recently departed Biscotti, one of editor-in-chief Amber Budd‘s two cats that inspired the magazine’s name (Biscotti being the Orange). My thanks to Amber for including my piece in this issue.
“A Cure for Doomscrolling” was published Sunday, April 19, in an interesting literary message board called Some Words. My poem was one of the poems posted by Some Words in honor of National Poetry Month, which continues through April. Some Words creator and editor Justin Carter pours his heart and soul editing and curating this quirky lit thing, and you should visit to read some of the great works appearing there.

I have one other piece, a short story, that should be published sometime this spring, and the short story that will appear in the Warren Zevon-inspired anthology that comes out in July. Other than that, no other writings have been picked up lately. I hope that changes soon. Whether it does or it doesn’t, I plan to keep writing.