“Jones’ poetry often invokes a sense of intimate nostalgia — a warm thirst for a moment or a place that was, or that could have been. The verses change pace on a dime. They vibrate.” — Jairo Ramos at NPR: Code Switch.

“we tested our faith

in stories of birds

and bees

but

bees lied.” — Kima Jones from “Fresh.”

Who She Is

Kima Jones has received fellowships from PEN Center

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“You are the butter to my bread, and the breath to my life” ― Julia Child

First of course, Roxane breaks the terrible news: The Butter is saying good-bye.

HUGE, teary thanks to all you brilliant Butter writers, so much butter to our bread. It's been a joy to read and publish your work. And to you readers for loving it all as much as we did.

“I am a woman who shouts into the sea.” from “Women and the Global Imagination: The Isle of Exile” at Prairie Schooner.   Who She Is I found this bio online, but as usual, bios only tell you the facts: ‘Gabrielle Bellot, who has also written under J. Bellot, holds an MFA from Florida State University, where she is currently a PhD Candidate in fiction. She has contributed work to Prairie Schooner, The Missouri…

This week was the full feelings buffet. Remember, you can always come back for more:

Celeste Ng called How to Make Yogurt in Manila by Grace Talusan ‘beautiful and moving’ (on the Twitter machine) so you don’t have to take our word for its awesomeness.

“Things That Are Meant To Make You Feel Safe And Comfortable In A Psych Ward That Just Make You Feel Crazier.” Episode by Naadeyah Haseeb will tear

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Mmmmmm. A towering stack of Buttered goodness to ease you into the weekend. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll shake your head in wonder as you dig in to the deliciousness. We recommend the EVERYTHING:

“What people remembered her for were the pubic hair portraits.” Death, family, feminism, something like art.

Mensah on changing jobs, Dre’s latest, Meek vs Drake, and La Femme, a wild French band.

Infectious flash: “Still, maybe you should

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“She wore her body like a mistake she hoped to one day be forgiven for.” --The Star Side of Bird Hill “Once in a while, you’ll stumble onto a book like this, one so poetic in its descriptions and so alive with lovable, frustrating, painfully real characters, that your emotional response to it becomes almost physical…[A] wrenching debut…The dual coming-of-age story alone could melt the sternest of hearts, but Jackson’s exquisite prose is a marvel…

Top keywords for this week’s Buttered offerings: ‘Artisanal,’ ’Rich and creamy,’ ‘Hand-churned by our sleek, muscle-bound writers.’

I know, I know. So many incredible things to read, so little time. And the internet rolls by so fast it’s impossible to keep up. Especially when there’s the Drake/Meek Mill beef and ‘great’ white hunters poaching the lion king. So what did you miss at The Butter this week?

Roxane Gay talks real talk about serial rapist, Bill Cosby: “The faith I once had in Cosby angers and shames me.”

Ilana Masad’s

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Mari Naomi is and author and illustrator. Her work has appeared in over sixty print anthologies, and has been featured on such websites as The Rumpus, The Weeklings, LA Review of Books, XOJane, Buzzfeed and more. Her work for The Rumpus won a SPACE Prize and an honorable mention in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics 2013. MariNaomi toured with the literary roadshow Sister Spit and is the creator and curator of the kickass Cartoonists of…

“I’m getting ready for the Tongue Party like I always do when my father’s impatience erupts.”

—the first sentence of Little Thing at PANK and in her collection, Tongue Party, from Caketrain Press.

“[Etter is a] literary sniper—these brief fables are single shots to the dome. She needs no more than a page or two to bring you to your knees.” – Dawn West, PANK Magazine.

Who She Is

From…

“Your alphabet wraps itself
like a tourniquet
around my tongue.

Speak now, the static says.
A half-dressed woman named Truth
tells me she is a radio.”

--from "Dear America" at Four Way Review.

RION AMILCAR SCOTT (@ReeAmilcarScott on Twitter) has contributed to PANK, Fiction International, The Rumpus, and Confrontation, among others. He earned an MFA at George Mason University and presently teaches English at Bowie State University. That’s just some facts. Scott has many bios (he’s even made a story of his many bios). But bios are just stories. Scott lives in and writes about Cross River, Maryland, which is entirely Scott’s. You can read about the history…

“At Midnight we parked by Staples and tried some seriously dark fucking magic.” —the first line of “Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying.”

Who She Is

We know her name, we know she writes and possibly is an office manager in NYC, and I have seen her read so I know she’s real (I promise, she was wearing gold sneakers), but there isn’t a lot of info about Alice Sola Kim.

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“A mixture of Mary Gaitskill and Kelly Link, she isn’t afraid to write about sex, violence, loss, or desire—no matter how dark it gets, or how real it feels.” --Richard Thomas at The Rumpus. “She digs deep for those, into places that make her and the reader feel like monsters. She almost named the book I Am Not a Monster in part because she often feels like one. And that is it right there…

“With her bold books, Ortiz defies society to ignore her, to resist her. But we’re becoming more and more aware of her. Her dark blossoming is changing us.” — “THE SUNDAY RUMPUS BOOK REVIEW: THE AMAZING HEFT OF WENDY ORTIZ’S HOLLYWOOD NOTEBOOK” by Lesley Heiser, The Rumpus.