Reckon Review

Tag: Creative Nonfiction

  • DUDE, WORST TITLE EVER | Nonfiction by Jim Roberts

    “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” That quote is attributed to W. Somerset Maugham, although no one seems to know for sure if he wrote it. Deciding which advice to accept and which to reject is, for me, the most difficult part of writing fiction. There’s…

  • MOTHERING, 21ST CENTURY EDITION | Creative Nonfiction by Alina Zollfrank

    Because I held them after; Because I felt them before they clawed their way into the dim of the delivery room; Because I channeled our dead when I lifted my firstborn to the heavens and said, Look, she’s here and cried tears of relief because the new life lived; Because I spilled over when baby…

  • SEASONS | Nonfiction by Laurel Hightower

    It’s mid-winter in Kentucky and the ground is frozen solid, the trees bare and gray. It’s twenty degrees outside, so for this rare holiday weekend we’re hunkered down and making use of the black marble fireplace, my pitbull curled up under multiple blankets, occasionally knocking my laptop out of her way or adding her input…

  • H.O.M.E. | Creative Nonfiction by Mireya Gonzalez-Looby

    The foundation was a raised structure, typical of 1920s California bungalows, designed to float just above the earth to protect it from creeping moisture. Decades of poor drainage had defeated that intention. The soil, parched and cracked in some places, swollen and waterlogged in others, had shifted beneath the house, pushing and pulling the foundation…

  • Closing Time (inspired by a Semisonic song we aren’t quoting for copyright reasons)

    By Stuart Phillips Editor’s note: It’s been 5 years and just over a week since I published the first story here at Reckon, “Country Roads” by Stuart Phillips, so it feels particularly fitting that Stuart is sharing his thoughts with us this week. Back then I wasn’t sure that anyone wanted to read stories about…

  • ARTFUL ACADEMICS: The Bees’ Needs

    By Brandy Renee McCann Have you closely watched bees working summer flowers? In my backyard, tiny, fragrant goldenrod flowers unfold in clusters along arched stems, swaying and bending amongst tall burgundy-tinged mugwort and a rainbow of zinnias. Pollinators—little bees, big bees, and butterflies of all kinds—blossom hop amongst the golden florets, sometimes pausing to nap,…

  • THE FIRST TRAIN OUT | Creative Nonfiction by Cindy Sams

    A girl rides west toward a new stepfather, a yellow bedroom, and a life she hadn’t asked for. June 1972 The train pulled out of the station in New Orleans at dawn and headed west over Lake Pontchartrain on a long stretch of track that led to Benson, Arizona. Our new home. At least for…

  • I THINK I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE | Creative Nonfiction by Katrina Ralbag

    It was 98 degrees with 90% humidity, and my thighs were sweating through a beige knee-length pencil skirt. He had to choose yesterday to kill himself, in the middle of summer, during a pandemic. It felt like a final fuck you. One last gag from a man who’d always had a dark sense of timing.…

  • MUSINGS FROM NATURE: Learning to Breathe | by Susan Schirl Smith

    The woods have a unique quiet. A silence, almost, but for the sounds of the whispering leaves as the wind caresses their surfaces. An occasional birdsong creates melody with the sounds of the breeze. My feet crunching softly on the dirt path are rhythmic, patterned, meditative. The light— chiaroscuro, a fractal sun dancing on leaves…

  • UNEARTHING OUR ANCESTORS: An Interview with Jeremy B. Jones |  by Jessica Cory

    Jeremy B. Jones’ most recent work Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries will come out in September 2025 with Blair Publishers. Cipher follows Jeremy’s fourth great-grandfather’s encoded writings while simultaneously grappling with the author’s own role in his family, particularly as a parent. This book offers a raw, honest look at the role of…