My father took a plastic bottle of motor-oil from the pantry and took me outside. “Go, and pour this under the tires,” he said (He sounded like the God of the Old Testament telling Moses “Go into Canaan, and slay all the men…”)… more
Category Archives: CREATIVE NONFICTION
To Have and To Hold
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Matt MuilenburgI was never the patient, never the one forced to grapple with what it means to lose a part of one’s body. I was never the survivor, just the placebo, the control in a world stripped of predictability.… more
Shining the Shoes of the Shoeshine Man
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Joseph S. HirschI am a fool and would prefer to remain one. It beats the alternative. … more
Sharon Tate Has Always Haunted My Dreams (On the Ending of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Steve AdamsFair warning: I’m giving away the ending. I am going there, because that’s what the movie’s all about, and you should’ve seen it by now anyway. Like me, Tarantino grew up on B movies, drive-in movies, low-budget films with directors desperate enough to take creative chances to pull in an audience, often through shock and… more
Two Essays
CREATIVE NONFICTION by David TromblayDad knows no other way to teach you Indians aren’t magical or mystical, despite what the T.V. and the teacher who made you read The Indian in the Cupboard has taught you.… more
Wild/Life
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Christopher LockeTraveling Mexico has its own challenges. So why do I always want to crank the danger up to 11?… more
Incompatible with Life
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Robert HelfstClementine died on November 22nd, 2017. She was born three days later on the 25th at 7:35 in the morning. She weighed 36 grams and was 6.5 inches long and I will spend every day of my life missing her and wondering about the person she may have become. … more
Stranger
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Kim MagowanAfter we had been dating nine months, Mark and I were in New Orleans visiting his friends. We were playing a game similar to that old television show The Newlyweds: to win, you accurately anticipated the other players’ answers, knowing how they would characterize themselves. One of the questions was. “How many people know you… more
Is it Really So Hard: Thoughts and Semi-Rants on Louis C.K., Toxic Masculinity, Art and Victoria Falls by James Hornor
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Ben TanzerWhat I kept thinking about as I read Victoria Falls, was that this is one thing artists, male artists especially, can do, they can listen, they can do better, and they can craft characters and story lines that map out different, more self-aware ways to be male: males that are responsive and grow, and fight against all the ways society convinces them, men, to suck.… more
Man on Pause
CREATIVE NONFICTION by John Oliver HodgesDown in the bathroom, in the private stall, I saw how the bowl was like splattered with bright red blood. Gave me a scare. Wow, I’m glad that’s not me, I thought, but had the nagging sensation that it was gonna be me in no time at all—yikes! Shit seemed like an omen.… more
