Welcome to Issue #4 of The Big Ugly Review, the Hidden Agendas Issue!

Apparently our readers have lots to hide, because we got hundreds of great submissions for The Hidden Agendas Issue. We're very excited about what we have for you inside. new music from local hero and international superstar Chuck Prophet, an unreleased song from soon-to-be-huge Sean Hayes, foot-stomping bluegrass from the Stairwell Sisters, and more in our music section; blasphemy from memoirist Joe Loya; wonderful new poems from Valerie Coulton, Diana Der-Hovanessian and others; flash fiction about the end of time served with tortillas con mantequilla; and great new short stories about paranoid bunker building, broken-hearted environmentalists, and La La's Guthriecrucian Songbook, a Bildungsroman that speaks for itself. Please take a look and enjoy!

And then head over to our Submissions page to read about our next issue, The Contest Issue. The theme for Issue #5 is a free-for-all - and there are prizes to be won. Each section will have a different judge: Michelle Richmond, Edie Meidav and Tom Barbash in Fiction; Julia Scheeres in Creative Nonfiction; Maxine Chernoff in Poetry; Kerri Stephens in Photo-Essay, and Rosalie Howarth in Music. We also have a new short film section. Please read the guidelines carefully as they are different this time! We even have a new mailing address.

Click here to see photos from the release party, held on January 15 at the Club Deluxe in San Francisco.

– Editors