By Suzanne Strempek Shea Thirty years ago, I ate my final meal as a carnivore. Long after everyone else cut into their T-bones barbecued on my cousin Richie’s gas grill, I stared at mine, the last one for 365 days. That was my original plan: […]
By Casey Lane What one-night stands have to teach us The walk of shame is a sobering act. It’s a moment of pure clarity in which we, for those few steps, that short drive, that time in the shower, are awakened, by euphoria or contrast, […]
By Andy Castillo I enter a world of burnt rubber and bumping tires. Rolling luggage and passersby whiz around me, tumbling toward their destinations in a frenzied hurry. Announcements in Russian come rapid-fire over the loudspeakers, reverberating through the crowded St. Petersburg train terminal in […]
By Judy Bolton-Fasman The first time I had to socially distance, I was six years old with a severe case of strep throat. “Look at those pustules,” the doctor muttered as he gagged me with a tongue depressor. To this day, I cannot stand eating […]
By Suellen Meyers Zelda Diaz-Blitzstein sent me a text. I’m so sorry to have to tell you your Dad passed away last night. Manny was my biological father, but he wasn’t my dad. Zelda knew him much better than I did. She’d been married to […]
By Heidi Fettig Parton Nick Flynn is telling this group of writing conference attendees how the French use the term recit in place of memoir, but I can’t focus on what he’s saying. I can’t because, if you don’t know, Flynn is rather swoon worthy. […]
By Maria Smith We’re at 30,000 feet. Terry is sitting in the window seat reading before he asks to get up to stretch. Less than a minute after standing, he’s having spasms in his diaphragm, his body is writhing. I need to quickly get him […]
By Erin Binney The proverbial blank page. I’ve been caught in a staring contest with it more times than I can shake a Paper Mate pen at. Except these days, rather than a page, it’s usually a blank screen. For me, the blank screen is […]
By Amy Stonestrom Get dressed Make the bed Do another load of laundry Disinfect the knobs Walk the dog Ask if the sun will finally shine today Plan dinner (or breakfast or lunch) Think about the time Dad slumped over his plate at the Sunday […]
By Christine Brooks Inside a drop of rain, in this place ofdrowned granite & smoothcobble looking out, from melancholy tearsblown infrom theIrish Seagolden Kings walk amongusas freely as those paleshadowsthat have most unwillinglygoneahead if only, to walk ushome not a mindful breathaway,like the coos from unseenbirdsin […]