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Your Impossible Voice Bind yourself to us with your impossible voice, your voice! sole soother of this vile despair.

-Arthur Rimbaud, “Phrases”

Your Impossible Voice publishes brash and velvety new work from around the globe, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translations, literary reviews, essays, and interviews.

And we're back! Our first flash of 2025 is "Cool Moon" courtesy of Katie Coleman — a sure sign it's going to be a good y...
07/01/2025

And we're back! Our first flash of 2025 is "Cool Moon" courtesy of Katie Coleman — a sure sign it's going to be a good year for stellar writing.

"I thought of stopping the car, taking a ladder to chip off a fat chunk of cool moon. You’d pass me a chisel and I’d break off a specimen. We’d suspend it above the dining room table. Visitors would say that’s neat, admiring the way you’d aim an angle-poise lamp to accentuate its lunar glow."

By Katie Coleman — "I thought of stopping the car, taking a ladder to chip off a fat chunk of cool moon. You’d pass me a chisel and I’d break off a specimen."

"Now, sex is boring. No, sex is something more complicated; it’s neutral. It‘s not stimulating, disgusting, or even a eu...
19/12/2024

"Now, sex is boring. No, sex is something more complicated; it’s neutral. It‘s not stimulating, disgusting, or even a euphoric rush. It’s just something people do. It just exists."

Who is ready for "Risky Sex" by Taro Williams?

By Taro Williams — Now, sex is boring. No, sex is something more complicated; it’s neutral. It’s not stimulating, disgusting, or even a euphoric rush. It’s just something people do. It just exists.

"The day after Heinrich Scheimann discovered the ancient city of Troy, all the she-goats came down from the mountain and...
18/12/2024

"The day after Heinrich Scheimann discovered the ancient city of Troy, all the she-goats came down from the mountain and stated quite matter-of-factly that they refused to ever be inseminated again."

Our final poetry highlight from issue 31 comes courtesy of "from: The Oyster" by Ann Pedone.

By Ann Pedone — The day after Heinrich Scheimann discovered the ancient city of Troy, all the she-goats came down from the mountain and stated quite matter-of-factly that they refused to ever be inseminated again.

“Well, we’re off to a fine start,” my father said after an hour’s drive.My mother looked down at Suzie, didn’t answer.I ...
17/12/2024

“Well, we’re off to a fine start,” my father said after an hour’s drive.

My mother looked down at Suzie, didn’t answer.

I didn’t either. If I took his remark at face value, that we were making good time, and said that was good, it could be a trick. “Good?” he’d ask. “Good your sister is sick? You just say whatever stupid thing comes into your head, don’t you?”

Visit Omaha by Jane Snyder in our latest issue!

By Jane Snyder — I didn’t know when I would make my father mad. I’d tell him I liked a song on the radio or repeat a joke from school, and he’d go off. I never saw it coming.

16/12/2024

"You want “bedroom” eyes and hair without engaging in bedroom activities. Apply eye primer, smoky shadow, and winged eyeliner. Fake smile for mirror. Smush face against pillow or giant stuffed dog. Smush until you smudge. Weep. Look into mirror. Know you are beautiful."

Make yourself new! Start your week with The Weight of Drowned Calla Lilies by Katherine Elizabeth Seltzer.

"It’s an old story: everything was coming new. Layers on layers of new. New neighborhoods gridding out like dead stars. ...
13/12/2024

"It’s an old story: everything was coming new. Layers on layers of new. New neighborhoods gridding out like dead stars. At new airports tequila was green, snacks vacuum-packed. The clouds pearl-piled. Stores were new; registers silent, smooth as eggs. But not everything could be new."

Rubric is just one of three amazing new poems from Linda Wojtowick in our latest issue!

By Linda Wojtowick — It’s an old story: everything was coming new. Layers on layers of new. New neighborhoods gridding out like dead stars. At new airports tequila was green, snacks vacuum-packed.

"It’s like when someone fills a basket. It looksgood. It looks like the right thing. But that’show it happens. You won’t...
11/12/2024

"It’s like when someone fills a basket. It looks
good. It looks like the right thing. But that’s
how it happens. You won’t know the road.
Sometimes the largest fillers are the emptiest men."

Basket Filler by Linda Wojtowick appears in Your Impossible Voice 31!

By Linda Wojtowick — It’s like when someone fills a basket. It looks / good. It looks like the right thing. But that’s / how it happens. You won’t know the road. / Sometimes the largest fillers are the emptiest men.

"Nearly a million people died in the Iran-Iraq war, my dad one of them. The Iraqis fired tank shells at him, and, in a s...
10/12/2024

"Nearly a million people died in the Iran-Iraq war, my dad one of them. The Iraqis fired tank shells at him, and, in a split second, he vanished from the earth. Of him remained only a nameplate, a bag of memories, and a seed in my mom’s belly."

A Short Bob by Mehdi M. Kashani appears in issue 31!

By Mehdi M. Kashani — Fresh snow carpets the road and glitters under the faint streetlights. Neighbors snuggle up in their homes, leaving the quiet roads a haven for strays.

"She says: It’s not like before. I know who I am. I don’t have doubts. Even asleep, I know who I am. But I hear things. ...
09/12/2024

"She says: It’s not like before. I know who I am. I don’t have doubts. Even asleep, I know who I am. But I hear things. Close or way off. A train rushes by and I wonder: Is it in my head? Is it real? "

Start your week off with a visit to "EVPs Captured in the Old Fort" by Addison Zeller

By Addison Zeller — She says: Some skies just hang up there like cracked ice.

"A man climbing up a steep mountain wielding a Claymore with a wild boar as a guard dog would not be considered strange ...
06/12/2024

"A man climbing up a steep mountain wielding a Claymore with a wild boar as a guard dog would not be considered strange during an apocalypse."

Damn that's a good poem. Close out the week with "Damn!" by Steve Castro.

By Steve Castro — A man climbing up a steep mountain wielding a Claymore with a wild boar as a guard dog would not be considered strange during an apocalypse.

We are thrilled to nominate the following outstanding writers for this year's Best Microfiction anthology!
05/12/2024

We are thrilled to nominate the following outstanding writers for this year's Best Microfiction anthology!

A sofa floating in the fog. Inside, declining, I sink in sweet softness. 6 a.m. Everything’s fine. A head chopped off by...
05/12/2024

A sofa floating in the fog. Inside, declining, I sink in sweet softness. 6 a.m. Everything’s fine. A head chopped off by a machete. Pre-recorded. Unfortunate. Reeking trousers on the dirty black flesh, green flies on red blood. A cloudless sun, all-over tan for those parts of the epidermis out in the open. This sofa, which endlessly sinks and grows hollow …

The Sofa by Jean-Luc Raharimanana and translated by Tom Tulloh appears in our latest issue!

By Jean-Luc Raharimanana, translated by Tom Tulloh — A sofa floating in the fog. Inside, declining, I sink in sweet softness. 6 a.m. Everything’s fine. A head chopped off by a machete. Pre-recorded. Unfortunate. Reeking trousers on the dirty black flesh, green flies on red blood.

"burnout was discussedif it’s toxic then imbibewhat the soil wears to bedon a typical workday nighthere be my oneon ones...
04/12/2024

"burnout was discussed

if it’s toxic then imbibe
what the soil wears to bed
on a typical workday night

here be my one
on ones"

A mid-week gift — "some gifted" by Gerónimo Sarmiento Cruz appears in our latest issue!

By Gerónimo Sarmiento Cruz — the month of april / in excess of march / obstinate as a foreign language / seemingly garrulous but suave

"After the embryo transfer, Mel and I go to dinner with Aroha. Aroha orders sake. Mel has some. Nurse Annie had said Mel...
03/12/2024

"After the embryo transfer, Mel and I go to dinner with Aroha. Aroha orders sake. Mel has some. Nurse Annie had said Mel should go home and rest.

Mel is like one of those outdoor standing gas heaters. Rigid and blazing with heat.

I’d said to Mel on our first date—'I don’t want kids.' She’d laughed and said, 'Me neither.'"

Don't miss "When I Finally Eat the Cake" by Sumitra Singam!

By Sumitra Singam — After the embryo transfer, Mel and I go to dinner with Aroha. Aroha orders  sake. Mel has some. Nurse Annie had said Mel should go home and rest.

(Drumroll SFX) And the nominees are...
02/12/2024

(Drumroll SFX) And the nominees are...

"There are the large women with thunderboltneedles and the smaller figures single-filing it, ant-ish, across high voltag...
02/12/2024

"There are the large women with thunderbolt
needles and the smaller figures single-
filing it, ant-ish, across high voltage ropes.
There is the chasm and faces
haunting its waters in funhouse cut-out."

Take a peek into "Untitled (Phrenology Box)" by Kirsten Kaschock!

By Kirsten Kaschock — Maybe even the galaxy is holistic. / Then there’s the split between / beauty and reality. There’s the fault line / dividing them and threads that traverse it.

"On the radio, they broadcast the description of my missing sister: wears a rainbow-print coat, green with a red sheen o...
26/11/2024

"On the radio, they broadcast the description of my missing sister: wears a rainbow-print coat, green with a red sheen or red with a green sheen—asks every day if someone will build her a castle in the garden behind the house"

Don't miss Envy by Adelheid Duvanel & tr. by Tyler Schroeder

By Adelheid Duvanel, translated by Tyler Schroeder — On the radio, they broadcast the description of my missing sister: wears a rainbow-print coat, green with a red sheen or red with a green sheen—asks every day if someone will build her a castle in the garden behind the house.

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