Creative
Nonfiction
August Contributors
Anne Dougherty, Clayton Eccard, Erik Fuhrer, Brandi George, Caroline Huckeba, Sam Moe, Michela Polito, Mugdhaa Ranade, Travis Turner, Chachee Valentine, and Bridget Verhaaren
because
by Jennifer Jenkins
“Because suddenly my dad. Because suddenly my dad died and my heart was consumed by a wailing, unending tornado of pain, I took my child and left.”
a hangover in the life
by Vincent Cellucci
“I’m probably fired. But might as well try. Hanging my head in mock shame, I throw the silver handle and glide in the back door two hours late. Times like these it’s best to avoid eye contact.”
trichotillomania, or every little girl learns how to be ashamed
by Sia Mehta
“I’m certain this moment of essential change is different for everyone. But the turning point for me was eyebrows.”
the dance
by Jen Bryant
“We pucker up to bathroom mirrors after showering, leaving ghostly lip prints in the steam. We French kiss the insides of our elbows because Kristi’s cousin swears it’s just like the real thing.”
sick
by Kristen Field
“Catherine O’Hara died four days before I went in for a partial colectomy to remove a malignant tumor that had cropped up in less than two years and already spread to my lymph nodes.”
what happens when machines learn to write poetry
by Natalie Marino
“By the 1980s quilt-making had become a multi-million dollar business. There are now a lot more people interested in making quilts than those interested in purchasing them. Places like the Iowa Quilt Museum promote appreciation for the history of quilts, before automation took over ingenuity.”
the five man band
by Gail Andromeda Vanhart
“In the typical five man band structure, The Heart is the glue that holds everyone together. Everyone’s best friend, the healer, the emotional support. These are all inaccurate terms to describe my brother…”
thanks for checking in
by Melody Wordworker
“After more than a month of tasting sawdust, seeing grey, and sleeping 12+ hours a day, I decided, once again, to call the psychiatric crisis line.”
every year it’s spring
by Sara Caskey
““Like a little deer.” There is nothing I like better than being bloodied, crawling beneath the couch, .waiting for some skinning knife to shave my legs.”
gay is a word for an afterthought
by Bright Aboagye
“As I write now, I recognize how often my life has been induced by recriminations that never occurred out loud. I anticipated them so thoroughly that they became unnecessary. I corrected myself in advance. I punished myself privately. I offered compliance as proof of gratitude.”
weekends at grandpa's
by Peter Bertlessen
“In perilous times such as these, I'm reminded of one of my Grandpa Jim's favorite sayings: nothing in life is guaranteed except death, taxes, and fascist regimes burning their country to the ground.”
deconstruction
by David Capps
“When a companion star dies it gives its partner all of its remaining matter, its body, not a mouthful of ashes, its sustenance, for the twins that shared an orbit will be come one, burning bright blue, for the rest of life.”
growing/dying
by Summer Griffin
“The flowers died on Monday. I chose yellow daisies because they remind me of little suns, and I’ve never trusted the real one to stay.”
seals
by Rachel Lincoln 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.”
honey, spice, and spirit
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.”
my star
by Amanda Parrack
“‘I’m frustrated because there are no words to describe what I feel for you, how much I love you...’ and then [she] hands me the rose I would dry on my apartment wall.”
family reunion
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.”
i should have known
by A. L. Smith
“I should have realized something was wrong when I saw the rag stuffed into the floor vent and heard her lingering on the other side of the door, barring my escape.”
second skin
by Shena Cavallo
“I had always imagined divorce was something that happened when you are betrayed, when you fight and scream and treat each other poorly..There is sometimes no terrible event, no great betrayal or revelation, but an itch that never ceases to irritate you.”
our last goodnight
by Honor Teoudoussia
“Now, she is tired of his attention. And his crises, and his ADHD, and his PTSD, and his weed smoking. Tired of all the attention on him.”