Read ! - Exclamation Mark Literary Journal

! publishes online issues weekly; 2–4 pieces every Sunday

(This is not the same as our print issues / special issues)
Browse past issues below, or sign up to receive each new issue directly in your inbox

Want more? Check out these local mags we love to read

The collection below contains all online issues published since Issue 12 (May 10, 2026). You can also explore more issues by browsing our complete archive here.

Issue 21

Three Poems

by Charlie Brice | July 12, 2026 | Poetry | Surprised!

“I come from the Cheyenne Country Club where chubby hands / hold highballs and gin rummy cards in the smokey bar / desperate status seekers clamor for superiority…”

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The Animals

by Jodi Pearce | July 12, 2026 | Fiction | Soooo awkward!

“Bash and I divorced four years ago, but Gram keeps inviting him to Christmas, so I have to wear the red dress with the buttons…”

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The Tomb-Burner of Oak Point

by Nathaniel G. Moore | July 12, 2026 | Fiction | Tomb-Burner

“The law in New Brunswick requires twelve months of documented separation before the gears of a divorce can actually turn…”

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Two Poems

by Corey Mesler | July 12, 2026 | Poetry | Startled

“Ygdrasil, our giant oak, / spreads its heaviest / limb over the street. / He’s reaching for something / few of us can see…”

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Issue 20

30 thoughts you may have with a loved-one’s ashes in your carry-on bag

by Jake Hamilton| July 5, 2026 | Experimental | i didn’t know this would be this weird!

“1.What was once out here (person, world) is now in there (ash, urn). Ashes to ashes, etc. etc… 2.She gets through security faster now”

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Apocalypse Lullaby

by A.F Rivero | July 5, 2026 | Fiction | aww!?

“I used to have insomnia. The roar of the jets made me restless. But I can sleep now. The bed I plundered is good food for the fungi…”

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I Know It When I See It

by Jeffrey Hantover | July 5, 2026 | Fiction | You call this art?

“Monday morning, I hadn’t even had my first cup of coffee when I got a call from the superintendent. Without even a hello or good morning, he said…”

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The Invalid Aquarium

by Ben Nardolilli | July 5, 2026 | Fiction | Who is really in charge of the story!? What’s with the wiggles?!

“Here we are again, Bogo and Numnuk, back for more adventures. What will we get up to today? Let the logo have its time…”

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Issue 19

The Hummingbird Hears the Piano’s Hooves, Rings the Rope of His Small Bell

by L. R. Anderson | June 28, 2026 | Poetry | Buried alive!

“Grey sky stewing branches, straggly end of winter, / birds a dirty spattering, I took the bus to Sandomierz / on a Saturday.”

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Astoria Park

by George Surilas | June 28, 2026 | Fiction | Why did that squirrel stop running!?

“I never would have thrown the rock if I thought I could hit it. Now these guys are hooting and hollering and running around yelling, Yooooooo…”

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Long Drive Long

by Matthew Betti | June 28, 2026 | Fiction | just driving!

“If I wasn’t looking directly at it, the sky took on a blue-olive tone. This was not a normal colour for a sky, and the strangeness drew my focus.”

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Moth-Sized Bat

by Amelia Edwards | June 28, 2026 | Flash Fiction | mildly gross, itchy

“A rabid bat can be mistaken for a harmless moth that gnaws at your clothes but leaves your skin unbitten. Do moths tap on the window, crash into the wall like that?”

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Issue 18

Linehan and Brault

by Zoë Vega | June 21, 2026 | Fiction | Swearing, Confusing thoughts!

“Devise a plan. Sleep with him excessively, look your best, pretend to share the same interests, be charismatic, be overly kind…”

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Canny ‘Ooh,’ Here Writ An Oulipian Puzzle-Poem

by Petru Rosu | June 21, 2026 | Puzzle-poem | Homophonous paragraphs!!! A puzzle that’s a poem that’s a puzzle!!!

“Miss Ives, the bearer of bad news, looks both ways…”

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Catholic Naturalist’s Lonesome Rebellion

by Kampie | June 21, 2026 | Poetry | Here I am God!, Yeah I see you, we all do…

” Standing tall within a field of / grass in midmorning in May in too many years / with the plague of my head.”

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Braiding Her Hair

by Sydney Flaherty | June 21, 2026 | Fiction | Ever! So! Slightly! Disturbed!

“Bella locks the door to her bedroom before telling me. She’s been having stomach pain, strong flushes of cramps and jolts.”

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Issue 17

Discussion: Toronto Review on Literary Publishing in Canada and Building a New Magazine and some other thoughts

A discussion between Robert Hills (Exclamation Mark), Abby Lacelle, and Adrianna Michell (Toronto Review).

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Makeup tutorial for beginners

by Alba Zalli | June 14, 2026 | Poetry | Overwhelmed

“Hey, could you lay your forearm on my leg / And hold still so the nail polish won’t smudge?”

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FIVE YEARS OF FOREPLAY: LET THE GAMES BEGIN

by Fay Faron | June 14, 2026 | Fiction | Let the Games Begin!

“I was born a teetotaling virgin. Okay, let’s face it, we all were. The difference is I was expected to stay that way until I married the piano player at church…”

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Taylor Made Me

by Vin Berardi | June 14, 2026 | Fiction | Fatherhood!

“(Written on the front and back of a napkin found under the windshield wiper of my newly-dented car)”

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Issue 16

The Swarm

by Kaylynn Garner | June 7, 2026 | Fiction | Startled, Frightened

“Buzzing and the sound of blood made a deafening cacophony in my ears as my small hands lost their grasp…”

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The Body Keeps Small Receipts

by Avriel Mejrah | June 7, 2026 | Poetry | Delayed

“A bruise appears on my thigh without origin. Blue at the center, yellow at the edges, already preparing…”

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Ashes in the Wind

by Blaze Beaty | June 7, 2026 | Fiction | Is this really what she wanted!?!

“When she was alive, my mother had looked at me while smoking a cigarette and told me “I want to be…”

[Read Full Story]

Measures of Harm

by M.J. Rose | June 7, 2026 | Fiction | Surprised, Alarmed

“I didn’t start out with something as convenient as language at my disposal; I don’t know that I could even claim…”

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Issue 15

Jaws of Life

by Gabrielle DiCanio | May 31, 2026 | Poetry | Startled, Jaw dropping

“I’ve never owned a gun, But I carry one in case I ever get to see her mouth and remember…”

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fangs

by Natalia Marshall | May 31, 2026 | Fiction | Startled, Scared

“To live everyday is a greater challenge than it should be. Somehow, I manage to end up here most nights.”

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Stones In My Pockets

by Noah Leete | May 31, 2026 | Fiction | Too late!

“The dead follow in my wake, yelling and shouting for me to leave. I do not. I soldier on, across the grounds of this haunted place, for there is nowhere else for me to go.”

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The Return

by Anita Noelle Green | May 31, 2026 | Fiction | Shocked

“The frantic rapping on the door shakes the shabby, jagged door. The banging gives the entire damp shack a wobble.”

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Issue 14

The San Callisto Catacomb Prisoner on Soup Day

by Travis Flatt | May 24, 2026 | Fiction | This work is hungry! Does he get soup!?

It is Friday? It is soup day!

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The Lisp is Real

by Stephanie Bramlett | May 24, 2026 | Non-Fiction | is the lisp real?

“I’ve been a teacher for nearly 20 years now. The other day, one of the interns at my school asked me how I got my first teaching job and this story came to mind.”

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On his recent visitations

by Estill Pollock | May 24, 2026 | Poetry | Startled

A feverish portrait of William Blake as a devoted husband: madness and love blur into one eternal voice.

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rain on marks

by Leonid Shlangman | May 24, 2026 | Experimental | marks, Marx?

Rain on marks or Rain on Marx? An experimental play on one of Marx’s most well-known lines.

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Issue 13

A history of exclamation marks and Exclamation Mark

by The editors | May 17, 2026 | ??? | !!!

Our message celebrating the 3 month anniversary of Exclamation Mark. We still have a long journey ahead, but with your support we’ll make it.

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Barbed Wire Choker

by Alexander Buchanan | May 17, 2026 | Poetry | Startled

Short but powerful lines. A silver chain interferes with the blue hum of dimensional love. Self explanatory.

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How bodies are used as storage units in Sudan

by Abigail George | May 17, 2026 | Poetry | Silent Witness

From the poet: “The garden is the “silent witness” like so many countries that stand by and say nothing, and do nothing. “

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The Kelpie

by Aislinn McDougall | May 17, 2026 | Poetry | Intense suicidal ideation!?!

What is the Kelpie? A Scottish mythological creature? A suicidal ideation? Or what? What is the Kelpie?

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Issue 12

11:52AM

by Evan Fleischer | May 10, 2026 | Poetry | Aesthetic pleasure!?, Political complicity!?

From a London rooftop to Fred Again’s music through podcast culture to Louisiana’s racial history to a speaker standing at the edge of a roof…

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Oh Brother!

by George Ferenczi | May 10, 2026 | Non-Fiction | “really terrible things!”

A vanished brother keeps insisting he isn’t family. Flowing through Montreal’s psychiatric wards, Hungarian cafés, foster homes, and hospital corridors.

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Gauzy Boho Chic

by Aanum Khan | May 10, 2026 | Fiction | Sassy!!, #activism

A teenage girl trails behind her glamorous aunt through the polished world of East Coast luxury, where wealth is but a performance.

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Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house

by Lisa Lahey | May 10, 2026 | Flash Fiction | Startled

Grotesque familial decay/Inherited dysfunction/Ritualized chaos/Dinner-table nihilism – a thanksgiving at grandma’s.

[Read Full Story]