If I remember correctly (and who can remember anything anymore) I smoked my first cigarette on the lawn of a church down the street from the school gym, after escaping the insufferable first dance of 9th grade, when I decided that school dances were lame and I’d rather be doing cool shit.… more
Category Archives: CREATIVE NONFICTION
Clove Cigarettes Are the Fountain of Youth (If they Don’t Kill You First)
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Mary Senter
Dad’s Can
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Booz UllreyDad has to pee right now. He can’t pee directly into the toilet, he needs to pee into the can and then pour it. How dare you touch his can? Well, it’s hard to tell which of the things in the bathroom are “trash.” He also objected to us removing the orange juice containers that were filled with yellow pee, the 2-liter generic Mountain Dew bottle that was filled with black pee, and the floss collection that spun out from the towel rack like God’s pubes.… more
THREE ESSAYS
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Brendan TodtHe has so much knowledge, and also he has none of it. He drives backcountry Minnesota where his father once lived. Because his father once lived—before he killed himself.… more
Buster and Buddy
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Bob OstertagBuster and Buddy, the inseparable pair. “Look,” people would say, “There goes Buster and Buddy.” At least that was how whoever gave them their nicknames imagined it at the outset, when they were still too young for the outlines of who they would be to come into focus.… more
Child of the Fox King
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Matthew Thomas MeadeA due date is like the first day of school. Waiting for it so long. Stuck dull on the end of summer, looming.… more
Acoustics of Loss
CREATIVE NONFICTION by S.E. DanielsNo whisper goes unheard. Not the apologetic late arrival nor the chattering of children. We fidget in creaks. We remove and replace hymnals in scrapes and thunks. We stumble down pews with muttered condolences.… more
Three Essays
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Neil ConnellySix weeks after giving birth, one morning Beth lacked the strength to lift a hair dryer. Soon tugging a diaper tab spiked piercing pain. Her immune system assaulted her muscles. A drug cocktail restored her somewhat but with cruel side effects. Meanwhile, a book about the disease offered this on page two: “A good carpenter can extend the doorways in your house to accommodate the wheelchair.”… more
My Father’s Son
CREATIVE NONFICTION by David BarkerI’ve written it a thousand times and never gotten any further. My father is a murderer. My father is a murderer. We haven’t seen each other in two decades but it repeats in my head like a mantra I cannot shake. If half of me is him and he is a murderer, what did I inherit? Who am I if I am some of him?… more
Waiting for It
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Joseph BardinThe speaker says something about are you doing what you want in your life, or are you believing in yourself, or something along those lines, and I may as well have been struck by lightning, because the answer, I realize, in no uncertain terms is no, I’m not.… more
My Father, My Uncle
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Maud LavinSomething other than forgiveness for a con man… more
