-
Changing the Story of Rejection
Creative Nonfiction By Megan E. O’Laughlin Many years ago, I gave up on writing. I was only 25, floundering after years of travel post-college, and decided to get an MFA. After receiving a small pile of envelopes from various graduate schools, I quickly gave up. I shuffled the rejection letters into a little pile in…
-
Artful Academics: Ghosted
By Brandy Renee McCann In 7th grade I was in love with a boy named “Jimmy.” I still remember the heat of our kiss in a deserted hallway during a high school basketball game. Given that I was 12 years old, he should have been my first kiss, but he was my 2nd or maybe…
-
My Julie
Fiction by Abby Henry Evan’s girlfriend Julie moved into our house in the middle of September. Her parents had kicked her out for being a big fat sinner. That’s what Evan told me anyway. Sometimes she would wake up at the crack of dawn to make me eggs with the runny insides and two pieces…
-
Not Only Seen, but Also Desired
A Review of Jim Roberts’ Of Fathers & Gods By Nick Rees Gardner In an era that often favors micro- and very short fiction, the nine stories in Jim Roberts’ debut collection, Of Fathers & Gods, are more traditional in length, “long” short stories that range from about 8 to 30 pages. Rather than the…
-
The Fractured Mirror: Writing Out of the Dark Valley
By Edward Karshner I write because I like stories. I like reading old stories and finding new meaning in them. In my day job as a folklorist, I study how storytelling influences behavior. The fancy term for this is the study of “cognitive scripts,” how stories become the knowledge we use to understand and navigate…
-
Norbert Pearlroth Might Have Been a Lawyer
By Tony Woodlief Two days before he blisters Michael’s legs with a cigarette lighter, Ricky drives them all to Jupiter to see the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. Believe It or Not comics are Ricky’s chief reading material. While other men discuss newspaper headlines, Ricky recites oddities documented by Mr. Robert Ripley. “They went…
-
The Pie Was a Final Draft: Geologic Time
By Michaella Thornton A long time ago I dated a man whose brother described him as “moving in geologic time.” As someone who had majored in anthropology and also studied geology, I was both baffled and amused by this description because humanity is but a blip in the more enduring measures of time. What a…
-
Ten Minutes of Pride
Creative Nonfiction by Alina Zollfrank Saturday, 11:03 am: We could frame this moment. It’s the best humanity has to offer. A loud procession, planned and jumbled, approaches from downtown. On the sidelines, acquaintances hug and hand each other multicolored flags and homemade buttons. Strangers nod amiably, raise optimistic thumbs, smile gently with their eyes. A…
-
There Are Worse Things in The World Than Inappropriate Sex
A Review of Mary Rechner’s Marrying Friends By Olga Katsovskiy Mary Rechner’s Marrying Friends novel-in-stories invites the reader into the intimate lives of two sisters, whose friends and dysfunctional families come together at a funeral and a wedding – where time stands still. Unlike her debut short story collection, Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women,…
-
Healthy Habits: Reckoning with Fear
By Valerie Peralta My troubles melt away in water. Whether swimming laps in a pool, floating on my back in the Gulf of Mexico, or jumping waves in the Atlantic, I am mentally transported, simultaneously at peace and filled with joy. In fact, my love for the water is what drew me to triathlon. Little did I know…