Creative
Nonfiction
June Contributors
Bright Aboagye, Pete Bertlessen, David Capps, Sara Caskey, Kristen Field, Natalie Marino, Gail Andromeda Vanhart, and Melody Wordworker
May Highlights
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dear ivan pavlov,
CNF by Erica Anderson
“That little sh*t stop patch of land is permanently burned into my brain. Like Pavlov’s dogs, the sight alone makes my body remember unloading brunch onto very expensive dirt.”
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encounters
Micro CNF by Nicholas Schmidt
“We saw them from across the plain. We were up on a hill, green grass tufted around our ankles, walking a ridge. A big ole mama bear and her cub.”
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family reunion
Micro CNF by Ellen White
“My cousin and I have been looking for Bridget Reynold’s grave for twenty years. Lots of Reynolds. Just one Cornelius. On the headstone: Bridget, his Wife cut sharp beneath the date of death.”
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honey, spice, and spirit
CNF by Phaedra Saffron
“This drink is honey, spice, and spirit…I shall drink it in your honor, your ever-loving memory. Serenaded by her speeding cars, her homeless men playing all manner of instruments for spare change.”
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seals
Micro CNF by Rachel Liconln Sarnoff
“One day waves will break through the walls, rush up and over the prom, crash through the glass, and carry the seals back to the ocean. They will float on their backs and bark and clap, toss their balls into the air like confetti, celebrate the win of which their ancestors could only dream.
i only came in my dreams
by Kristy Money
“I didn’t have my first orgasm until I was 40. This was by design: In my adolescence and early adulthood, being able to hold myself back from orgasm was my ‘superpower.’”
hello stranger
by Molly Higgins
“‘I host S&M and sex parties in this apartment. Big community for it here in LA.”…“I bet.” I said, hoping I looked natural and cool, nonchalant, like someone who was more than at-home in a sex dungeon.”
sumo
by Scott Bethay
“Other hallway chats with [Mr. D] concerned my procrastination, my lackadaisical nature, his not infrequent dirty jokes, and his admonishment to “be careful” because the other teachers thought I was ‘thinking about sex all the time.’"
the monster wasn’t a mannequin
by Swapan Samanta
“The best horror shows us we've been the monster all along.”
three micro/flash
by Maxim Volk
“The pastor begins his weekly exegesis, and before he reaches the first mandate from the Most High, my teenage mind has slipped away, floating over the congregation of parishioners, each there for a service that I care little about.”
demimonde note taking
by Patrick Johnston
“I seem to spend half my time thinking thoughts on the back of motor scooters. Juddering past ancient Wats and Temples and Mosques and Cathedrals. And open front stores where wiry, tanned mechanics fix bikes.”
blue danube
by Danielle Rufrano
“I elbowed him in the stomach, rushed through the rows of students, cautious not to trip over my laces, the feet of other students, picked up my violin, tucked it under my chin, and played “Blue Danube”.
in the dark
by A. L. Smith
“Every part of my skin glistens with sweat from the unbearable heat of this summer night. The sticky discomfort tempts me to shed the covers, but I will not.”
jakarta jog
by Zary Fekete
“Every few blocks a mosque appears, immaculate and bright against the waking streets. Someone is sweeping the courtyard with slow deliberate strokes. The gates are open. They seem to remain open always, as if the building itself is quietly reminding the city that prayer is never very far away.”
prayer to our fallen matriarchs
by Dyre Copenhale
“Along the way, we collect moments, memories that made us feel alive, to remember that this is all temporary. Life is only transition.”
don’t tell god
by Tafara Gava
“The ease in my step wasn’t stoicism. It was acute cluelessness.”
the minotaur
by Lorette C. Luzajic
“In that moment, he had vowed to become the greatest artist who ever lived. Picasso, as epic and brutal as God.”
cabbage girl
by Ari Cordovero
“The cabbage on the cutting board. My grandmother’s knife. My father’s son. Every room where men startled at the sound of a girl wanting something.”
recipe for disaster
by Sara Hutchinson
“After enjoying the dish you may experience a nausea, anxiety and sleeplessness. However, if you make the dish and survive, you will feel better. Safety warning: this recipe may cause divorce.”
chosen descent
by Zary Fekete
“I think about how much of my life has been engineered for ease. How many ramps I’ve taken without noticing. How often I’ve mistaken friction for failure instead of proof of contact.”
the cult of self-work
by Daniel Bailey
“I finished the coffee even though it tasted terrible. The app still wanted data. I put the phone face down. For a second nothing happened. No lesson. No insight. Just me in the kitchen breathing like it still belonged to me.”
six
by Magda Lynne
“The danger, unmistakable. Without a word, I duck low. At six, it isn’t far. Another dinner plate breaks on the kitchen floor.”
plucking
by Chel Campbell
“A white egg cracks. Death’s indifferent eyes cloud over with the golden yolk of time.”
the box
by David Henson
“I’ve heard of people who eat in their box, curl up and sleep in it…almost never leave. Don’t let that happen. The box isn’t for living in. The box is for living out.”
the apple and the tree
by Lillian Taylor and Richard Leise
“Principal Morgan would be retired by the time their offspring were old enough for secondary school. So, Tucker was it. No more Nolans. No more Nolans, he said, melodically.”