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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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Looking Skyward
Creative Nonfiction by Blake Johnson It was a blameless summer afternoon, and perhaps overhead faint cloud wisps intertwined like phantasmal fingers, drifted like angels at play. This was the day your mother gave you a few dollars to spend at the ice cream truck, to buy whatever you wanted. You sprint up the street as…
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Reincarnation
Creative Nonfiction by Rae Theodore Mom found this little mutt in the street with tan and white fur that stuck out this way and that Ziggy Stardust all lightning bolts who we called Max. Mom swore Max was her old beagle Peaches reincarnated as if god didn’t have more important things to do than take…