Rust & Moth

The Rust & Moth Summer 2026 issue is live! Great distances, uncommon strength, and a changing world await within.

Featuring new work from K.M. Hanslik, Shannon K. Winston, Youtao Cao, Chad Rutter, and many others, we’ll be publishing new poems online every week and building toward a finalized print edition this June. Join us online as the issue unfolds!

Rust & Moth is delighted to announce that contributor Ziqr Peehu’s poem “Every Grave Starts as a Hole” has been selected for inclusion in the 2026 Best of the Net Anthology. We are always on the lookout for powerful last lines, and Ziqr’s volta echoes after the poem like thunder after brilliant lightning. Congratulations Ziqr!

With gratitude to Best of the Net poetry judge Cyrus Cassells, editors Shipra Agarwal, Darren C. Demaree, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Clayton Bradshaw-Mittal, Ariadne Alexis Macquarie, Chekwube Ozieh, Mohammed U. Yusuf, social media manager Caroline Majewski, poetry coordinators Sarah A. Chavez and Robin LaMer Rahija, and an impressive cast of assistant editors and readers.