For those unfamiliar with cheribun (pronounced “Chair-ee-boon”), it’s a rare hybrid form of literature which combines lyrical prose with a micro-poem, the cherita. How rare is it? Well, if you ask Google, “What is cheribun?” the search engine assumes you made a typo and answers, “Showing results for What is cherubim?”—followed by, “The cherubim are the most frequently occurring heavenly creature in the Hebrew Bible...”

Intrigued, I rooted around online and found cherubim portrayed as an eye-popping hybrid in Ezekiel 1 (NAS Bible). Here’s a distilled description: they have four wings, human hands, cloven feet like calves, and the faces of four creatures—human, lion, ox, and eagle. Good heavens, downright fearsome! Nothing like the charming depictions of cherubim as chubby human babies with tiny wings commonly associated with Baroque art and popular culture. Which makes me laugh out loud.

Since my introduction to cheribun in November 2021, I’ve thought of the form as a heavenly hybrid, this melding of one or more cherita, which are six-line micro-poems with three stanzas, and one or more brief prose paragraphs, which may be prose poems and/or different forms of lyrical creative nonfiction, and may include elements of fiction and storytelling.

The cherita was invented in 1997 by ai li, a Malay poet and the editor of the monthly print anthology the cherita. Although she also coined the term “cheribun,” ai li doesn’t publish the form. But I’m delighted to do so in her stead.

My eternal thanks to poet Margaret Dornaus for sending me “The Writer’s Cabin” in November 2021, which became the first cheribun published in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 11, January 2022), and apparently the first to appear anywhere online. (For details, see MacQ’s First Cheribun!)

Which in turn inspired our first cheribun challenge. Submissions were open for two weeks in February 2022, and we received 70 pieces, representing 38 entries. Results included three winners and three finalists, published in Issue 12 (March 2022).

Fast forward two years, to the final week of July 2024:

Submissions for MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2 were open for seven days, and I received 48 cheribun, representing 30 entries.

Beforehand, I had hoped for at least a dozen cheribun I’d want to publish in Issue 24, and maybe half a dozen to appear in Issue 25. More than that seemed unlikely, given how few writers seem to be working in this form. But after my initial rounds of reading, I was stunned to find myself with a pool of thirty finalists—all of which I wanted to publish. Now that’s a L-O-N-G list! In fact, 62.5 percent of the cheribun submitted.

It touches me to tears that so many folks responded with such fine work. My heartfelt thanks to everyone. I deeply appreciate the support for MacQ, and the desire to help nurture a rare form.

When considering the entries, I looked for polished writing, for cheribun that resonate emotionally, and for those that illustrate a range of possibilities within the form. Such as length, sub-genre, and structure.

For instance, the shortest cheribun in Issue 24 is Dick Westheimer’s “What the Gods Have Decided” with 60 words, although the shortest in Issue 25 will be James Penha’s “Political, But Not a Screed” with only 45 words. The longest is Oz Hardwick’s “Last Ride in the Dead Zone” with 709 words. This surreal and lyrical prose poem/flash fiction includes four cherita which are stories in themselves.

Glad to see the variety of ways that authors presented the story they were telling, including memoir, CNF, found poetry, humor, and ekphrasis. Roy J. Beckemeyer wrote his ekphrastic cheribun, “The Gardener’s Caesura,” a lovely and poignant tribute to his wife, Patricia, just before she passed away in late July; they would have celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in November.

I’ve categorized three pieces as cheribun stories, as they include elements of fiction: Tina Barry’s “Three Lovers I Never Had” and Roberta Beary’s “A Narrator’s Qualms in Quest of They/Them Pronouns” (both of which make me laugh); and Hazel Hall’s nostalgic “Ghosts of Gershwin” (which will appear in MacQ-25).

Then there’s Tina Barry’s found cheribun composed of lines from a Facebook posting, “I am from Pennsylvania USA   my please   how about you!” (to appear in Issue 25).

Re variations of structure, Scott Wiggerman’s “Brothers by Blood” is a braided cheribun, where the stanzas of the cherita are woven into the spaces between prose paragraphs. The same is true for Kat Lehmann’s “Take Only Photos” (to appear in MacQ-25). And finally, Hazel Hall’s aforementioned “Ghosts of Gershwin” is unique with three groupings of cherita + prose, then two concluding cherita, rather than one.

Adding prizes:

This Cheribun Challenge #2 originally offered only one prize, to the winning piece, but it was agonizing to select only one winner. I had finally narrowed my choices to four remarkable pieces, but believed each should get a prize. After ruminating, and vacillating, and ruminating again, I remembered that the first Cheribun Challenge, in 2022, had three winners. Silly me, why not do the same with the second?

And given my fondness for Q words, why not add a special award for the whimsical cheribun by Roberta Beary—a timely story in which I was tickled to find 17 words that begin with the letter Q. Thank you, Roberta! 😃

And again, huge thanks to everyone who entered this challenge! For the majority, this was their first time writing cheribun, and I admire their adventurous and often playful spirit. Not to mention the impressive results. Nearly half of the 30 cheribun listed below are the first their authors have created, and I’m both thrilled and honored to publish them.

Much gratitude also to Gary S. Rosin, a MacQ Contributing Editor, for inspiring this happy event. I think MacQ has now earned the title he coined: Cheribun Central. And I hope our readers will agree...

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Winners:

1. First Place ($100 USD):
   Last Ride in the Dead Zone by Oz Hardwick
   
   
2. Second Place ($50 USD):
   The Gardener’s Caesura by Roy J. Beckemeyer
   
   
3. Third Place ($50 USD):
   Three Lovers I Never Had by Tina Barry
   
   
4. Special Mention: Q-whimsy Award:
   A Narrator’s Qualms in Quest of They/Them Pronouns by
   Roberta Beary
   
   

Short-Listed Finalists (unranked):

• So Many Days by Cynthia Anderson
  
  
• Cemetery, Castine, Maine by Tina Barry
  
  
• In Then Out by Peggy Bilbro
  
  
• Under the Flower Moon by Margaret Dornaus
  
  
• Unmended by Arvilla Fee
  
  
• Adopted by Maria M. Palumbo
  
  
• Cardinal by Garrett Stack
  
  
• What the Gods Have Decided by Dick Westheimer
  
  
• Quindaro, Kansas by Marceline White
  
  
• Brothers by Blood by Scott Wiggerman
  
  

Long-Listed Finalists (unranked):

The following 16 cheribun will appear in MacQ-25 in September:

• “What’s Left Behind” by Cynthia Anderson
  
  
• “I am from Pennsylvania USA   my please   how about you!” by Tina Barry
  
  
• “Inside Out” by Margaret Dornaus
  
  
• “The Way Back” by Arvilla Fee
  
  
• “The Plum Tree of My Childhood” by Linda Nemec Foster
  
  
• “Solfeggio” by Terri L. French
  
  
• “Ghosts of Gershwin” by Hazel Hall
  
  
• “Take Only Photos” by Kat Lehmann
  
  
• “In Her Footsteps” by Patience Mackarness
  
  
• “Political, But Not a Screed” by James Penha
  
  
• “The Permanence of Light” by Julie A. Sellers
  
  
• “Small Talk” by Garrett Stack
  
  
• “Look” by Erin Tuthill
  
  
• “Best Intentions” by Dick Westheimer
  
  
• “Summer in the city” by Marceline White
  
  
• “The Things I Do for Porn” by Scott Wiggerman
  
  

For details about contest guidelines, see MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2.