A coming-out is kind of like a reverse surprise party: the invitation is an ambush, and once you receive it, you’re at the party. … more
Tag Archives: fatherhood
My Daughter, Myself
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Andrew BertainaIt has been a hard year, or so your new therapist likes to say, filling the silence in her small office, two padded chairs facing one another over a small table, after you’ve spilled some new petty frustration about the kids, your girlfriend, your life. She sips her water and peers over at you kindly.… more
Real Men Don’t Hit Their Wives
FICTION by Phillip Scott MandelLewis relishes, slightly and mischievously, the young couple’s naïve discourse about bridesmaids and flower centerpieces, as if it all means something. They are blissfully unaware of the inevitable mutual loathing that plagues all marriages.
She’s your problem now, Benny-boy. Enjoy paying for Amazon deliveries the rest of your life.… more
Alternate Route Suggested
FICTION by AnnElise HatjakesKenny was twenty-one when his son was born, and now at twenty-two, he regularly revised the last several months, envisioning himself as an author of the choose your own adventure books he read when he was younger.… more
Trot Trot to Boston
FICTION by Hugh BurkhartMy wife’s mother has been with us for nearly a week. Our first few days home with our son were tough and we asked if she would fly in from the east. The request, we both agreed days before her arrival, was premature, erupting out of the seething stress following two nights in hospital after… more
The Bass
FICTION by Ashleigh Bryant PhillipsI know I can get better if I want to. Everybody can get better if they want to. At the Duck Thru the black ladies are talking ‘bout the Bradley man that used to be sheriff in Halifax County. He killed himself yesterday. Melissa’s rescue squad was called out to it. They say he… more
One Hundred Twenty Sunny Nights
FICTION by Justin HerrmannBefore I left Illinois, I told Julie I needed to do this once, meaning Antarctica, not adultery. More and more I don’t know what I want in this world.… more
Peter
FICTION by Rob RoenschI don’t believe what they said happened in that Burger King, in that motel room. Whatever was, there must have been a moment when a word, a breath’s work, would have mattered.… more
Learning the Pig
FICTION by Martin Reed“He twisted and rolled the pebble between his fingers, staring straight ahead at the black pig, lying tied to a post sunk in bone grey dirt in the middle of the field… more
