creative nonfiction 3/5

Jul 9, 20233 min read

"The Pied Piper of Mediocre Cringelords" by Cody Sexton

Meet (insert name here) the latest sensation in the world of transgressive fiction. With his shocking, provocative, and downright...

Jul 9, 20235 min read

CNF

"Therapy" by Mather Schneider

I dreamed I was washing my hands and the skin started coming off my fingers until my finger-bones were exposed. I cried for my mother,...

"Me and my boy watching the dead comedian on the Channel 4 panel show" by Lucy Goldring

Jun 25, 20231 min read

CNF

"Me and my boy watching the dead comedian on the Channel 4 panel show" by Lucy Goldring

When the dead comedian does his bit, I always laugh too hard. Secretly I’m welling up, thinking of his wife and kids; thinking of myself....

"How to Be a Winsor Girl" by Tricia Elam Walker

May 28, 20239 min read

CNF

"How to Be a Winsor Girl" by Tricia Elam Walker

Some self-labeled “patriots” and other conservatives rage against truthful and complete history and access to books that explore and...

"Libations for the Metal Gods" by Steve Passey

Apr 30, 202317 min read

creative nonfiction

"Libations for the Metal Gods" by Steve Passey

The Gods of the Riff are inscrutable. They hear neither prayer nor plea. They brook no rebuke. They bestow their favor where they will,...

Apr 2, 202320 min read

CNF

"An American Study" by Anna Nguyen

1. I wore the same green, sleeveless jumpsuit two days in a row. We had landed in another temporary home, this time in a small rural town...

"Billy Made My Crotch Tingle" by Elaina Battista-Parsons

Apr 2, 20236 min read

CNF

"Billy Made My Crotch Tingle" by Elaina Battista-Parsons

A perfect storm happened in 1990 for the sensory-me. I was beginning to understand what being horny meant. There’s no need for me to be...

"Who Cares About Choi’s Tacos" by Jennifer Jeanne McArdle

Apr 2, 202313 min read

CNF

"Who Cares About Choi’s Tacos" by Jennifer Jeanne McArdle

In 2011, you couldn’t find many places in Seoul, South Korea selling Mexican food, authentic or Americanized. Choi’s Tacos, a small,...

Mar 5, 20231 min read

creative nonfiction

"Nagasaki Sky" by WA Hawkins

Despite the burns on his face and forearms, his ruptured eardrums, Tsutomu Yamaguchi navigated shattered buildings, melted flesh,...

Mar 5, 20235 min read

CNF

"Sick for Shakespeare" by Noah Good

The summer before my senior year of high school, I was in a youth production of Measure for Measure (one of the Shakespeare plays that...

"Safe spaces with sharp edges: lessons in fearing the worst" by Jane Ayres

Feb 19, 20236 min read

CNF

"Safe spaces with sharp edges: lessons in fearing the worst" by Jane Ayres

Dorothy, my paternal grandmother, was a worrier. I grew up in the ’60s and ’70 when folk who had anxious tendencies were simply called...

Feb 19, 202313 min read

CNF

"Reps" by Steve Passey

The gym I went to was old-school. No internet/wireless. No air-conditioning. It had racks and plates and bars and dumbbells that went to...

Feb 19, 20235 min read

CNF

"A Time Not Now" by Janet Clare

A month ago, I was in Los Angeles and my husband was in New York on his way home from Madrid and Paris. He’s a writer, fancied himself a...

"The Little Monster Inside Me" by Karen Browne

Feb 19, 202312 min read

CNF

"The Little Monster Inside Me" by Karen Browne

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner has a little secret that only those who’ve been scanned know about. The time spent waiting...

Feb 5, 20234 min read

CNF

"Visitor Centers" by Tyler Dempsey

In my fancy Park Service clothes. Stupid hat and everything. First day “opening” the Visitor Center. With COVID, this means unfolding...

Jan 22, 20232 min read

CNF

"Tundra" by Wendy Newbury

When it’s all said and done, and the wild flowers have bloomed, mother forgets. At the moment, she oozes with passion from the thrill of...

Jan 22, 20231 min read

CNF

"One True Sentence" by Sherry Cassells

Yesterday was one of those snow-stormy I’m-not-going-out Saturdays so I built a fire and started writing a letter, longhand, but it came...

Jan 22, 20232 min read

CNF

"Winter Pastoral" by Selena Langner

The gas station is holding a squirrel cooking contest (prize: a plaque and a taxidermied squirrel trophy). It’s wearing a little flannel...

Jan 22, 202312 min read

CNF

"Uphill, Both Ways" by Jay Parr

It’s like waking up in a goddamn freezer. I reach out from under my mound of blankets to shut off the alarm clock and the air spills in...

“Let’s Play Barbie” by Courtenay Schembri Gray

Dec 26, 20223 min read

creative nonfiction

“Let’s Play Barbie” by Courtenay Schembri Gray

“Poets are damned… but see with the eyes of angels.” — Allen Ginsberg I look down and see a smiling cut, layered like an onion; a red...