Reckon Review

Tag: Creative Nonfiction

  • Soundscapes: Radio Lessons

    by Erin Calabria The first time I heard the world through a field recorder, it was like falling into a parallel dimension. Here was another universe rubbing shoulders with ours, where everything looked the same but sounded completely different. Ears cocooned in heavy foam headphones, I slowly rotated the levels to pull this alternate reality…

  • Artful Academics: On Methods

    by Brandy Renee McCann Among other hobbies, my stepdad, a teacher in our small community in West Virginia, had a side gig as a flea market entrepreneur—think Billy Ray Cyrus t-shirts and clip-on fans. For a number of years flea market paraphernalia was stored in the Book Room. When it was not needed as a…

  • Parental Reckonings: At the Intersection of Motherhood and Writing

    by Amy Cipolla Barnes I live in a house of people that love science and math and Venn diagrams. They’re always telling me how this and this meet here. I’m always trying to find that small life intersection of parenting and writing. I’ve honestly struggled writing this column by the deadline because it is that…

  • Not Everything is Gone Forever

    by Gabino Iglesias I love many things about writing, and one of them is that, once something is done, you can always go back and reread a line, a paragraph, a chapter. Life moves at breakneck speed and everything—life, love, happiness, depression, friendship, pleasure—is ephemeral, but once a book is in print, once it’s a…

  • WHY I AM NOT (and am)

    by Jane Hammons Decades ago, when I was earning a teaching credential at UC Berkeley, I was assigned a class of graduating high school seniors who were not going to graduate unless they passed a writing proficiency exam. Students from many backgrounds and dispositions filled this classroom: the school bully; depressed students unable to complete…

  • Throwing Pennies

    Creative Nonfiction by Cassie Mannes Murray When the ultrasound technician adjusted the wand and said, “oop, it’s a boy” my first thought, the first thing I said to my partner in the deliberately shadowed room was, “how do we raise a non-toxic white boy in the South?” It was my immediate and most primary concern.…

  • If It Plays in Peoria: A Glossary of Midwestern Survival

    Creative Nonfiction by Megan Cannella saying, I used to date a lot of managers of strip clubs for a while             verb             meaning to have tried too much             meaning to have cowered in ways that surprised you             meaning to have smelled like fried food more frequently than             is comfortable             meaning…

  • Sedona

    Creative Nonfiction by Hannah Grieco After Elane Johnson After I found his index card on the activities board of the youth hostel. After I hitchhiked to an ATM machine to get two hundred dollars. After I packed for a four-day trip and locked up the rest of my stuff. After I got into his rusting…

  • The Theseus Paradox for Exhausted Parents

    Creative Nonfiction by Shannon Frost Greenstein 1. Imagine you have a steaming hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning. You drink the first sip and hail Jesus. Before you can take a second, Child #1 needs juice and Child #2 is walloping Child #1 for whining about juice. You put down the coffee,…

  • The Curse of Clumsy

    Creative Nonfiction by Brandy Renee McCann I break things. The handle off my favorite coffee mug. The zipper of my fancy purse. I have broken the hearts of people who care about me.  Just last week, while finishing a cup of sleepy tea, I knocked the teapot with my mug. Tink! I looked down and…