Announcing Half Mystic’s Nominees for the 2025 Pushcart Prize

2024, marked though it was by the glint of floodwater, was also a reach toward an open door—a call for redemption, dry land, song through the dark. As Half Mystic continues to champion marginalised voices & build a resistance of joy in the echoes of grief, it’s been an honour this year to publish the most melodic & necessary work in our history. That, of course, is because of you. In alphabetic order from Half Mystic Journal Opus II, Issue I: Presto, here are our editorial team’s nominees for the 2025 Pushcart Prize:

• “Hind Sight (Dark Space): By James Turrell: 1984” by xochi quetzali cartland

• “Vantablack” by Grace Kwan

• “Patsy” by Aurora Shimshak

• “The Toads Have Convinced Me” by Maggie Warren

• “A Leopard Leaps, Deep in Love” by Suzannah Watchorn

To our 2025 Pushcart Prize nominees, thank you. To every writer, musician, & artist who entrusted us with your work this year, thank you. Half Mystic has long been an experiment in championing work living between literature & song, hope & rage, seascape & horizon. These pieces pull us into sharp-eyed focus, remind us why we’re here & who we’re becoming. Best of luck to our nominees. Here’s to possibility.