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My Mother, My Father, My Pen
By Sacha Bissonnette I’m one of those writers who needs to nail down a title before moving forward with a piece. I know that there are many better writers out there who have left their masterpieces untitled until they’ve penned the last sentence. It’s a mental thing, a hang up thing, but without a title,…
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Destin: Fiction by Joe Kapitan
Ryan is always too far. Today he swims out past the second line of sandbars and breakers, fading from view, his head a black dot amidst the silver sunspots dancing on the waves. Ellie is different. Deliberate. Ellie’s pale skin flares red in the fierce June sun of northern Florida. The wrinkled, orange-haired woman who…
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Embracing the Absurd
A Review of Anna Dickson James’ Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down By Alex Carrigan In her short story collection Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down, Anna Dickson James brings together 18 stories that examine the mental, emotional, and social oddities of gender roles in the traditional and speculative…
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American Girl Doll: Fiction by Mary Thorson
“What American Girl Doll do you have?” She asks me, with her hands behind her back and her chest stuck out. Her hair is washed and perfect. Her dress is expensive even though it’s only for play. I want that dress. I want to cut that hair. I have the one with no money and…
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Fire to Tend To
I started writing because I wanted to cut out the pain that had been festering in my chest and put it on the table where all could see it clearly. I had just moved off to college and had left home for the first time in my life. My mother was struggling with opioid addiction,…
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The Nitty Gritty Interview with Elaine Chiew
By Charlotte Hamrick The Light Between Us, published by Neem Tree Press,is a work of speculative fiction that explores Singapore’s turbulent past through a supernatural connection between Wang Tian Wei, a 1920’s photographer, and Charlie Sze-Toh, a 21st century archivist. The story intrigued me from the first page and took me on an adventure through…
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Ball
Creative Nonfiction by Zach Benak The first night of August I sat in the back of my mom’s Honda, heading home from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. The setting sun reflected onto Papillion’s muddy creek and white stadium lights warmed the surrounding soccer and baseball fields busy with late-season games. I opened my phone…
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A World Hidden in Plain Sight
A Review of Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers by BettyJoyce Nash Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder’s latest nonfiction book, Rough Sleepers, introduces readers to Boston’s homeless people through Dr. James O’Connell and his street team of medical professionals. Dr. Jim and his team make “house” calls. They travel in a supply-stocked van to parks, underpasses,…
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The Pie Was a Final Draft: A Short Ode to Joy
By Michaella Thornton Charlotte Brontë wrote in Jane Eyre, “I would always rather be happy than dignified.” There’s something particularly moving to me about this line spoken by the somber and thoughtful Jane, a character who wasn’t treated gently or kindly in most of her sad, constricted Victorian life. Even Jane knew “joy is not…