When you’re battling addiction, they teach you not to share war stories—to not live in those because they feed the worst parts of ourselves. I’ve never walked the twelve steps so it became easier to live in the worst of it than work the shovel to get out of it. It became so easy to hate.… more
Category Archives: CREATIVE NONFICTION
Boys in the Hall
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Kristy BellThat morning, we all nodded and chuckled, smug in our assessment that the pilot of that first airplane screwed up. Tragic, but not much different than a navigational error that ran a ship aground. It was unfortunate, certainly, as lives were undoubtedly lost. But heads would roll, and we’d move on.… more
Contemporary Parenting
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Andrew BertainaThe father preferred to talk about nature, about ideas, but neither of his kids were old enough for that now, so he found himself talking about overdoses.… more
Jimmy
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Stephanie YoungJimmy was not a person I would have considered having sex with. We had a symbiotic relationship in which all parties benefited except everyone else in the class. I can only imagine how cringy it was to witness, but in a room full of mirrors, it’s easy to trust no one else is looking at you.… more
Uncle Alberto Hates His Job
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Rina PalumboI like driving; he once told me you can go anywhere. He still had curly hair, mostly grey, and a mustache, which I think he dyed. He wore pointy shoes but no shiny clothing anymore. Just the dullness, the creases in his face hardening. The loathing of everything and everyone dampened only by the hard ache of time.… more
August comes to city and country
CREATIVE NONFICTION by James ShapiroYou are bound for the neighbor’s horse barn where we can talk about artificial knees and hips and dropping dead and the dog sleeps with fluttering hunt eyes and the cat blinks watchfully from the little window ledge looking wise about nothing at all.… more
Ghost Disco
CREATIVE NONFICTION by C.G. DominguezAfter the fact, I think it’s normal to catalog the things I didn’t have time to say to you. This kind of thinking forms a common self-soothing refrain: oh, yes, everyone must feel this way. Move along, rubberneckers. No tragedy here. … more
Song as Epitaph
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Ian C SmithHe came to know home was about time, not place. Before saying goodbye, his slippage stark, The Thinker with Rodin’s muscle wasted, eyes sad when not closed, close to warm blood and nerves’ end, he hoarsely spoke of that girl.… more
The Tumor
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Ned GulleyIt was never part of the plan to have dinner with the tumor. But eventually it seemed like the only thing left to try. It didn’t go well.… more
Collage of Sport as Self, Self as Sport
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Michael CoppermanI loved the old room, though it was dim and ugly and old, stank of the pungent antiseptic soap we used to mop the mats and the brininess of sweat that couldn’t really be scrubbed away. It smelled like what it was: a box of straining bodies on a soft floor, blocked in by padded walls, a training ground that contained as much of yourself as you were willing to release.… more
