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The Spirits Talk Back
A Review of Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend By Wes Byers It started with a few drops of rain. As my wife and I, along with a friend, waited in the packed audience in the courtyard of Baldwin Books in New Orleans for Jesmyn Ward to take the stage, we saw one or two umbrellas…
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The Fractured Mirror: Fishing for Metaphors
By Edward Karshner Maybe it was the forty-eight days without sunshine in Northeast Ohio, but I woke up fitful that morning questioning those stories we tell ourselves about the act of love. That was just the intellectual puzzle I needed to pull myself out of my “bleak mid-winter.” When I was younger, my dad tried…
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Six of Clubs
Fiction by Benjamin Bradley The harsh fluorescent lights stabbed Maddox’s eyeballs. He tugged down the forest green knit cap so it blocked his eyes, but the lights bled through. “Can you see shit through that?” Jane asked. “Lights are gonna give me a migraine.” “Future problems, Mad. Keep your eyes on the prize.” Jane flicked…
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Healthy Habits: Enjoy the Journey
By Valerie Peralta The year I turned 41 I completed my first half marathon. I didn’t do it alone. A handful of women I knew from the church I was attending at the time had accomplished the feat previously, so they gathered a bunch of women who wanted to do the same but thought there…
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Things to Consider & In the Event Of
CREATIVE NONFICTION BY WENDY NEWBURY Home > Policy Manual > Volume 2 – Nonimmigrants > Part A – Nonimmigrant Polices and Procedures Things to Consider Creative NonFiction by Wendy Newbury Volume 2 – Non-Immigrants Part F – Students (F) Chapter 1 – History and Background Chapter 1 A. The F non-immigrant visa is…
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Country Craft: Hey, jealousy.
By Stuart Phillips Many Southerners of my generation have learned that reverence for history is a double-edged sword. I cringe when I remember our field trip to Flowood, a “working plantation” where smiling white women taught us how to dip candles and card cotton with no mention of how the cotton was chopped and harvested. …
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Soap ‘n Suds
Fiction by Sheree Shatsky 1. Margaret wears a pink robe in the laundromat. A car in a rush shouting a too loud radio splattered her filthy on the street. She ran inside the Soap ’n Suds, stripped down quick and tossed her muddied dress into a washer. The manager hurried over with the robe someone…
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The Pie Was a Final Draft: On Bourbon Pecan Pie & Rediscovering Love
By Michaella Thornton Bourbon pecan pie is one of my love languages. A language I express maybe once a year at Thanksgiving, but last November I was recovering from walking pneumonia and traveling by train with my 6-year-old daughter to visit my mother, her grandmother. I was in no space to pack pecans, bourbon, dark…
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Of Curry and Men
Creative Nonfiction by Charmaine Arjoonlal Each country has its own interpretation of curry, the spicy vegetable and meat dish which originated in India. Curry has a strong odor which lingers long after the meal is finished. Memories that are brought on by smells are called scent memories. “Teach me to make your curry?” my son…
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Artful Academics: The Contour Lines of an Idea
By Brandy Renee McCann My partner observed me struggling through a tutorial on botanical drawing and asked, “Why draw when you can take a picture?”. I looked at the potted aloe plant in front of me and compared it to my drawing. There was a resemblance, but it is safe to say that sketching isn’t…