ELEVENTH HOUR LITERARY

ELEVENTH HOUR LITERARY ISSUE 2.1

Winter 2026

EDITOR’S NOTE: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

GUEST ESSAY CONTRIBUTION

Joe Ponepinto

Winner of the Winter 2026 Prose Contest

Girls Sitting in Bath Smoking Cigarettes

AMERICAN GIRLS

Gemstones and Jewelries on a Wooden Tray — Credit: MART PRODUCTION

AFTER FACE
Brett Berk

Brown Human Eye staring through wall — Credit: Jonathan Borba

HOUSE OF MAGGIE
Matt Lindenburg

Anonymous woman chatting on smartphone in cafe — Credit: Mathias Reding

COOL BEANS
Heather Holland Wheaton

Credit: Анна-Христина

LONGING V. WORTH
Douglas W. Milliken

Mourner in a black dress standing by urn with roses on table — Credit: cottonbro studio

ON VALENTINE’S DAY I THINK ABOUT DYING
Elizabeth Grey

Person Holding Orange Puzzle Piece overlaid on top of a photo of John Travolta — Caption: Tara Winstead, Pexels; Wikipedia Commons

CHARMED
Beth Sherman

Person Sitting on an Aquarium Window in San Francisco, Calif. — Credit: Ivy Son

JUST A LITTLE NATURAL TRAGEDY
Ari Blatt

The Great Jaguar Tikal in Guatemala in Tikal, Petén Department, Guatemala — Credit: Matthias Stutzman

THE CURSE OF MANOA
Jess Simms

Person wearing brown jeans With a pair of black sneakers sitting on a rail over water — Credit: Victor Freitas

V-NECKS
Jake La Botz

Winner of the Winter 2026 Poetry Contest

CELESTIAL WHALE

Wire Sculpture of Whale Above Snow at Starry Night

A Tunnel with Walls Covered in Graffiti in Londres, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni — Credit: Paul Bill

ARS POETICA FOR A SALVADORAN AMERICAN
Mauricio Ramirez

Shadow of woman with crown on head — Credit: Kristal Tereziu

BETA
Marie Anne Arreola

Man in Green Blazer Sitting on Brown Wooden Chair while Smoking — Credit: Yaroslav Shuraev

THE SECRET
Bill Garvey

Black Hawk Soaring in Trinidad, Calif. — Credit: Tim Mossholder

THIRST
Jessie Raymundo

Lake View with Two Trees, Grayscale Photography, in Indonesia — Credit: Ready Rey

STORM SURGE IN TEXAS
Sarah Kohrs

Black and White Photo of a Bull Race — Credit: BAC DANGDINH

ON THE DEATH OF A BLACK BULL
Grace Sleeman

ATMs at Night in Rotterdam, ZH, Netherlands — Credit: Keller Chewning

RICHIE
N.T. Chambers

Assorted-color Masks — Credit: hitesh choudhary

A LITTLE CONFESSION
KG Newman

A Silver Round Clock Covering the Person's Face — Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko

ABSURDITY AT MIDMORNING, SUN-SPATTERED OUTSIDE
J. J. Steinfeld

Issue Masthead

Editor-in-Chief

R. Renee Branca

Managing Editor

Ethan Knox

Fiction Co-Editors

Lauren Garnett

Amber Gates

Poetry Co-Editors

Hannah Nathanson

Arthur Turfa

Abigail Cornelia

Journal Board: Michelle L. Gardner, Sarah Ford, Sam Cota, Hannah Proaper, Kaitlyn Bellettini, Joshua Chimene, Ellie Noti, Taylor Veneto, Matthew Smearing, Douglas Russell

Cover Art: The Three Fearless, by Tetiana Yatsechko-Blazhenko

Submission Transparency

This issue received 657 submissions, for which we were honored to publish these 20, with a publication rate of 3.0%.