By Alexandra Ronn You save meWhen I am a new kid in schoolShy, awkward, four-eyes, tinsel-teethBlushing all shades of pink and redEighth grade lab partner, note-passer, new best friendYou say we’re two peas in a podI smileYou lead, I follow High school together, we laugh […]

By Jerome Berglund Artist Statement: Richfield, Minnesota photographer Jerome Berglund has explored a variety of themes, figuratively following a principle of fatalistic discovery within the chaos of natural elements spiraling through his daily experience and environment to seek out and construct—via a scavenger hunt of […]

By Kara Noble “I’m going to break your arm!” The old man slams her to the emergency room floor, wrenches her arm behind her, wedges his knee in her back. His fingernails gouge her wrist, then jerk up and away. She pinches her eyes shut […]

By Amy Jordan Cronin My fortieth birthday is imminent. I tell myself that age is just a number and that 40 is a glorious age to reach, a milestone denied to many.  Yet this birthday symbolizes so much more.  While I exalt the virtues of […]

By Catherine Palmer You might think your personal essay is complete, but wait until you try this twist! I’m going to show (not tell) you how to deconstruct, reduce, remix, and shape your essay so that it feels like you’re writing a new one from […]

By Allison Landa You wanted it to be a miscarriage and so it was. It was just some blood. You’d seen worse. It was a little bit of cramping. Nothing you couldn’t handle. An interruption in an otherwise stultifying and ordinary day. Under most circumstances […]

By Erin Binney Swatches of sand, nuggets of gravel, and shreds of skin cling to my right forearm, held in place by fresh blood. This is what happens when you’re nearing the end of your run on the bike path, can barely lift your feet, […]

By Loree Griffin Burns haiku on spring snowthe neighborhood mice were outbefore me, scribbling spring loneliness—clutching one warm chicken eggin each cold hand direct from the cloudsor waylaid by a pin oaktwo types of spring rain the fancy brick houseis empty now; the tulipsdon’t seem […]

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, […]