Reckon Review

Tag: Creative Nonfiction

  • AITA: Am I the Asshole For Not Walking Away From Omelas

    Creative Nonfiction by Paul Crenshaw I, (51 M), was born and raised in Omelas, and have lived here all my life. It is a beautiful town, bright-towered by the sea. The Festival of Summer arrives and the bells ring and under the great avenues of trees the stately processions begin. There is music, dancing. Arts…

  • Those Little Rising Lights

    By Cathy Ulrich Every morning, it’s still dark when I wake. Even in the longest days of summer, I wake before the sun. In the dark, I can see the lights from town. The airport sits atop the horizon, all red and white blinking lights. Without my glasses, they are blur and shimmer, not quite…

  • TEXT ME BACK

    Creative Nonfiction by Sara Gerot He left during the beginning of the COVID lockdown.  I didn’t beg him to come back, which was the usual game wherein I would plead, apologize, and cajole.  Though, to be honest, I did for the first couple days, but gave up, which was new. Back when I played the…

  • Where My Words Come From

    By Damon McKinney Growing up on a reservation in central Oklahoma wasn’t inspiring, at least at the time. Having Sunday dinners at my grandparents simple two-bedroom home wasn’t either, nor were the late nights at the family honkytonk, or running the streets of my hometown. Yet, those core memories are the anchors of my work.…

  • I Know a Man

    CNF by Kevin Brennan I know a man who will do things for you. Things you don’t want to do. I know a man who will get down and dirty. He’ll gird up for it, he’ll suit himself in hazmat skin. He’ll strap on goggles. He’ll tape his pant legs to his rubber boots. He’ll…

  • Solving for X: Word Problems for Novelists

    By Tiffany Quay Tyson In elementary school, I sometimes[1] read novels behind my math book. The teacher would write multiplication tables on the chalkboard or drone on about common denominators while I was fully immersed in some story by Lois Duncan or Louise Fitzhugh or Judy Blume. What was the point of memorizing multiplication tables…

  • Adversity and Actuality: Finding the Right Shape For Your Truth

    By Barlow Adams “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”—David Foster Wallace When people ask me for advice on writing during difficult times, they are almost always asking me how much of the truth they should tell. I’m never sure how to answer. There is a strange, nebulous…

  • The Fractured Mirror: Tell Me the Biggest One You Know

    By Edward Karshner My day job is researching the intersection of time and folklore. I study how stories reveal an understanding of ourselves in time. Do we flounder in, what David Southwell calls, “the warped gravity” of nostalgia? Or do we founder under the crushing weight of fatalism? In folktales, I’m always looking for a…

  • Healthy Habits: A Parable

    By Valerie Peralta Once upon a time there was an ordinary woman who wanted two things. She longed for a body that mirrored the svelte images she saw clad in bikinis on Instagram. A flat stomach flanked by taut arms and legs. And she desired to pen poems and stories that captivated the hearts and…

  • Country Craft – Let’s talk: An Approach to Writing Conversations

    By Stuart Phillips Late summer we transplanted thirty hosta from our front walkway, wheeling barrowsful to more welcoming spots in the shade. As my wife and I planned the new plantings, we went round and round with competing combinations before we realized that what she really wanted was a lavender hedge, and what I really…