“Notebook Fragments: 2018-2022” by HLR
Content warnings: Mental illness, suicidality, self-harm, disordered eating, addiction, death, sexual assault. Notebook Fragments:...
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Nov 13, 20224 min read
"Reasons I Cried During Pregnancy Part I and II*" by Melissa Flores Anderson
Reasons I Cried During Pregnancy Part I and II* Written in 2017 Part I I tend to be a bit of a crybaby already so it shouldn't have come...
Oct 30, 20222 min read
"Not Knowing" by Maud Lavin
The Midwest is a small-talk, large-silences place. Growing up in one of its small towns meant often not knowing the secrets were there,...
Oct 20, 202214 min read
"Learning to See" by Carol Forgash
Suddenly, it was second grade and we were allowed to walk to school together without a parent. We had to cross at the corner. If we...
Oct 20, 202226 min read
"5 Stops on the Road to Ruin" by Joseph Lezza
George Frederic Handel Hotel If you happen to be staying at the George Frederic Handel Hotel during your time in Dublin, and you’ve made...
Oct 17, 20224 min read
“Drifting” by Rachel Laverdiere
As we hit our first bout of turbulence, drifting across the Pacific, you flutter kick within me. My life has become monumental, yet I am...
Oct 2, 20222 min read
"The Meeting" by Catherine Bourassa
She is spirited, they say, a kind word for difficult. She is easily frustrated and prone to tantrums. Her preschool teacher once...
Oct 2, 20223 min read
"Chex and Balances" by Melissa Wabnitz Pumayugra
I think of her when I enter my kitchen. I think of her when I see fresh beets, used ashtrays, gleaming Oldsmobiles, or bright red hair...
Sep 18, 20221 min read
"A Greek Odyssey" by Lorraine Murphy
We journeyed for three days and nights, o’er land and sea to the distant island of Crete, ignoring our parents’ concerns. We could have...
Sep 18, 20222 min read
"PRAYER OF INTERCESSION RE: ST. BRIGID" by Shelby Rice
prissing quietly mother's hair frizzing around own jawline—curse your nose unhooked as glasses slip down. you have been asked to watch...
Sep 18, 20224 min read
"Those Damned Birds" by Emmy Teague
We didn’t think anything of it when the chickens started dying. There were always problems with animals hunting our birds. We lived on a...
Aug 7, 20223 min read
“Phone Notes from Dizzying Heights” by Beth Mulcahy
Have you ever watched the sunset at cloud level? Watched it dip below the cloudline while you were right there with it, right there in...
Aug 7, 20223 min read
"There Was A Storm, and Then There Was Us" by Belle Gearhart
We are standing next to the car, and the sky is an open wound, misty and oozing, shades of pink beginning to interrupt the bruised gray....
Jun 12, 20222 min read
“Here’s a Picture of Me” by Patrick McNally
Here’s a picture of me, my parents, and my brother Chris, back in 1982. They are dressed nicely, perhaps for church or some event. I am...
Jun 12, 20221 min read
"Queen of Wrath" by Russell Hehn
My 27-year-old mother is forever blasting down the bubbling asphalt of late-summer Mississippi in a sky-blue 1978 Mercury Cougar—so wide...
Jun 12, 20223 min read
"Stranger in the City" by François Bereaud
Stranger in the City (Abijan, Ivory Coast, 1998) I was unable not to take a second look when I saw them walk through the hotel lobby to...
May 29, 20226 min read
"The Pickup Artist" by C. Ben Stevenson
Lana lit my hair on fire a couple weeks ago trying to light a stogie, so she crinkles her arm when we embrace to avoid a repeat singe....
May 29, 20223 min read
"Incident at Harlem Hospital" by Kendall Johnson
A word from the author: As a trauma therapist I was invited to Harlem Hospital to talk to the ER staff, ambulance crews, and doctors and...
May 1, 20222 min read
"When I Remember How it Felt to be Thirteen" by Beth Mulcahy
I think of the night I decided I couldn’t wait to not be thirteen anymore. It wasn’t a far drive; I only lived a few blocks up the...
May 1, 20222 min read
"Above the Canyon" by François Bereaud
From the sidewalk, my son and I watched the car in the opposite lane slow and execute a three-point turn, evoking a distant memory of...
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