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Category Archives: CREATIVE NONFICTION

CREATIVE NONFICTION (1000 WORDS OR MORE)

Brian Comes Alive

Brian Comes Alive

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

We’ve all chuckled at the theatrics of the stiff-legged subhumans in a zombie film. Brian was fried in a way that no Hollywood pathos I know of has successfully evoked.more

Hole

Hole

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The day my father called to ask if I could help him bury Casey, his golden retriever, I said no, and maybe if I had answered differently this story would be over, but instead he still steps out of his garage with a shovel to dig the hole alone.more

Clove Cigarettes Are the Fountain of Youth (If they Don’t Kill You First)

Clove Cigarettes Are the Fountain of Youth (If they Don’t Kill You First)

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

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

Dad’s Can

Dad’s Can

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

Dad 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

THREE ESSAYS

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He 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

Buster and Buddy

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

Buster 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

Child of the Fox King

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

A 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

Acoustics of Loss

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

No 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

Three Essays

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

Six 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

My Father’s Son

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

I’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