Category Archives: Essay

THREE ESSAYS

{Sep 19, 2023}

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, 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

Essay by Matthew Thomas Meade

{Sep 5, 2023}

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

Essay by S.E. Daniels

{Jul 9, 2023}

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

Essay by Neil Connelly

{May 17, 2023}

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

Essay by David Barker

{Apr 23, 2023}

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

Waiting for It

Essay by Joseph Bardin

{Feb 28, 2023}

The 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