Selected Works

Excerpts from “The Dailies,” a series of crossword erasures in Quarterly West
On mothers, the ultimate puzzle

“Oncology,” a poem in Gulf Coast
On hearts frozen and broken

“Lightning Talk on I-90,” a multimedia essay in The Common
On speeding tickets, freefall, and other vicissitudes of grief-time travel

“Lonely Animals,” an essay in Memoir Land
On post-break up jealousy, disconnection, and very large snakes

“P as t s,” some erasures in Tupelo Quarterly
“Without you, I have no problem with time”

Excerpts from “Surgeons,” a queer comic melodrama in The Nashville Review
On pain, existential and physical

“Hard-Hearted Villanelle” and “Sonnet in Denial,” two poems in The Commuter
On being good at being bad, and being bad at French

“Superstition” and “The Beach,” more erasures in MQR Mixtape
On pleasure, per the theme of the issue

“My First Motorcycle,” a comic in The Offing
On impressing and horrifying men with a vintage classic

“Greetings from the Grand Void,” a comic-zine in the Quarantine Public Library
On a trip to the supposedly-Grand Canyon

“Would You Rather,” a zine-comic-collage-type-thing in Popula
On brain tumors and shitty choices

“The Radiant Present,” an illustrated essay in Prism
On presence, and brain tumors again

“Time Release,” a longish comic in Spiralbound
On the quantum physics of Adderall addiction

“Nows,” a shortish comic in The Offing
On the quantum physics of other stuff

“Ghost Alone” and “Ghost in the Tattoo Parlor,” some text-image hybrids in Muzzle
On ghosts, loneliness, and lonely Ghost

“Ghost in the Musuem” and “I Hid the Pills,” more text-image hybrids in Gertrude
On ghosts, addiction, and being both strangers

“Pittsburgh,” a poem in Rattle
On the risks and rewards of visiting Pittsburgh, at least in theory

“On Power,” a pantoum in Praire Schooner
On, well, power

“Hook,” a sonnet in Painted Bride Quarterly
On the Peter Pan-Captain Hook-Crocodile love triangle

“Dogs in Love,” a 300-word love story in Electric Literature
On dogs, familiarity, and opposites attracting

“If I Leave You Then Maybe I Won’t Have to Miss You So Much” and five other poems in Pank
On romantic ambivalence, semiotic dirty talk, and the strangeness of the fleshlight

“Neolithic Revolution,” a sonnet on Verse Daily
On animal passion and opposable thumbs

“Should I Write a Sonnet?” an info-comic in Ploughshares
A helpful flow chart to help you decide

“Poetic Analytics,” an info-comic in Ploughshares
The art of losing isn’t hard to master...with a line graph!

A review of Michael Dickman’s “The End of the West” in Make Magazine
Winner of an Electric Literature Critical Hit Award!

“Permanent Ink? Tattoos and Regrets in the Age of Lasers,” an essay in the Ann Arbor Current
On tattoos, tattoo removal, and the illusory allure of ‘forever’

“Prima Formas,” a crossword puzzle in The New York Times (kinda)
My dad and I made a crossword! Do it on the iOS app--it's the free sample puzzle in the "All New Mondays 7" pack--or click here for a .pdf

© 2026 Ali Shapiro

ALI SHAPIRO