AIOTB’s Nominees for the 2027 Best of the Net Anthology

As It Ought To Be is proud to announce our nominees for the 2027 Best of the Net Anthology.

Susan Cossette: “Bad Marguerite”

Dolo Diaz: “Environmental Collapse”

Joseph Geskey: “STEM As Part of a Flower”

Jade Kleiner: “Blood Draw at MGH”

Anna Saunders: “One whistle to go after”

Alicia Wright: “She doesn’t wish me dead”

Poetry: May 2026

Sue Blaustein: “Philosophy”

Dolo Diaz: “Environmental Collapse”

Salvatore Difalco: “What You See at the End of a Lion”

John Grey: “In The Shadow of the Bridge”

Paul Ilechko: “Impossible Blue”

Amy Smyth Miller: “Estranged”

Craig Phillips: “Lost Balloonist”

Poetry: April 2026

Ruth Bavetta: “Litany”

David A. Goodrum: “Keeping Things No One Else Wants”

Candice M. Kelsey: “pop rocks”

Lindsay McLeod: “Once I Believed But”

Jim Murdoch: “Beliefs (Three Kinds)”

Sreeja Naskar: “If This Turns Out To Be Another Love Song”

Kenneth Pobo: “What An Exhausting Night!

Robin Wright: “Expiration Date”

Poetry: March 2026

Barbara Berg: “To change the shape of wood, you must understand its properties”

Susan Cossette: “The Agreement”

Ken Gierke: “Dulcet Tones Do Not Lessen the Impact”

Bill Griffin: “Spoonfuls”

Rocío Iglesias McKenzie: “Immigrant’s Lullaby”

Daniel Edward Moore: “When All Else Fails”

Alan Perry: “Lift”

Donald Sellitti: “Why do souls just seem to linger?”

Poetry: February 2026

Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal: “Do Not Be Afraid”

Rose Mary Boehm: “Dead machines”

Aarik Danielsen: “South 190th Street, Omaha”

Jade Kleiner: “Blood Draw at MGH”

Jeremy Nathan Marks: “Cattywampus”

Samuel Prestridge: “Drab Horses (America, 1958)”

Anna Saunders: “One whistle to go after”

Savannah Williams: “Cell”

Poetry: January 2026

Sarah Carleton: “Point of Reference”

Nada Faris: “The Way Forward”

Cal Freeman: “Essay On Whistler”

John Grey: “Relationships, Your Argument”

Kristen Keckler: “Woman and Sewing Machine”

Garth Pavell: “Cascade Loop”

Jason Ryberg: “Garden of Guilt”

Dudley Stone: “Bad Roommates”

Poetry: December 2025

R. A. Allen: “Bluing”

James Benger: “pep talk”

Bonnie Demerjian: “A Lesson Not Taught in Supermarket School”

Adele Evershed: “loopy”

Hedy Habra: “Whatever Remains of What We Once Knew So Well?”

Madison Woodle: “Worms”

Robin Wright: “Rough Waters”

Poetry: November 2025

Ruth Bavetta: “My Father’s Shirts”

Jacob Butlett: “Feeding Time at the Zoo”

John Compton: “the musical of the bell jar”

A.M. Hayden: “Ghost Leg”

Joshua Lillie: “What Becomes A Tumbleweed”

Joseph Mills: “Retinue”

J.R. Solonche: “The Ceiling”

Alicia Wright: “She doesn’t wish me dead”

Poetry: October 2025

Sam Culotta: “A Winter Coat”

Paul Ilechko: “Memories of a Memory”

Madison Isbell: “corpus christi, early march”

Lindsay McLeod: “Sleeping Dogs”

Andrew Mulvania: “Self Portrait As The Grasshopper Trapped Inside Van Gogh’s Olive Trees”

Abner Oakes: “Floating Teeth”

Sterling Warner: “Slap Shot”

Poetry: September 2025

Susan Cossette: “Five Things I Will Do in Aegina”

Tony DeGenaro: “Flight Path”

John Grey: “On a Funeral Pyre”

Jeremy Jusek: “Prescriptions Written in Calligraphy”

Cindy Rinne: “Ghost Turkey”

Patricia Russo: “The Dead Time Traveler”