Publishing interesting and excellent writing since 1980.
Our contributors use form, content, and subtext to create work that dissolves boundaries set by traditional publishers.
The Latest
Pinch and PJO offer an escape hatch from the echo chamber of monetized content. That means no ads—just poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and art. Our print issues come out in the spring and fall, and you’ll always find new work in our online journal
From the Archives
In honor of Chill Subs naming Pinch A 2026 Damn Good Read, we are featuring great work from our online archives
“Death is easy to presume when you did not know the life, had never seen Ella in a party dress …”
Read Terena Elizabeth Bell’s incredible piece about Ella Jackson, who is the subject of the Dateline episode The Bluegrass Mystery.
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"I think it means you don’t mind the friction of the living; that sequitur and non-sequitur, nonsense and a great hope can all be together, and the work included in Pinch requires those tensions. "
— Poet Darren C. Demaree on what it means to be pinchy.
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"A sweet spot as a journal that’s super selective but also down-to-earth—a little gritty, a little weird, and I’ve never left an issue and found the work pretentious or over my head."
—Writer Michael Chin on what it means to be pinchy.
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"There’s a hint of mystery, that “pinch” of something extra you can’t quite name. It leaves you savoring the unknown. You don’t know exactly what the flavor is, but you want more."
—Poet Kelsey D. Mahaffey on what it means to be pinchy.
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"Pinchy poems trust that strangeness will carry them through. They aren’t afraid to stumble toward meaning, or to let the image lead the logic. A Pinchy poem keeps its nerve when the world starts to tilt."
—Poet Kerry James Evans on what it means to be pinchy.
