Every year it gets harder to choose only six of the pieces we’ve published here at Pizza Pi Press to nominate for Pushcarts (Pizzacarts, if you will), which is really the best kind of problem to have: too many essential & vibrant poems. Here are the six we sent out this year, including FOUR from the upcoming issue of Maps for Teeth:

“Black Girl Magic” by Taylor Steele, from Dirty.Mouth.Kiss

“AKA TOP SHELF PERVERTS” by Melissa Lozada-Oliva, from RUDE GIRL IS LONELY GIRL

“A Tale of 2 Bloodz” (After J. Cole) by Julian Randall, from Maps for Teeth Winter 2016

“ars poetica” by Sophia Holtz, from Maps for Teeth Winter 2016

“my cousin asks me about home” by JR Mahung, from Maps for Teeth Winter 2016

“The Bomba Man Talks Shit To Malcolm” by Malcolm Friend, from Maps for Teeth Winter 2016

❤ pizza pi