Creative Nonfiction

Our First Reaction by Robin Parks

close up of man's hands giving himself a blood sugar test pricking finger

Sean tries to convince me that I have no idea what I’m getting into, and that as soon as I do, I will leave him. The diabetes that exploded his eyes and killed his kidneys is still ever-present. So I could see his point.
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How to Recover from a Hangover in Barcelona by Marla Lepore

glass of cola with ice and lots of bubbles

Soft, thumping mallets are now sledgehammers, trying to whack their way out of the cheap particleboard of your head. Some unseen battle rages on in your floaty, pickled brain, and another is duking it out in your gut.
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Confessions of a Nervous Child by Robert Weinberger

young robert weinberger with his kindergarten teacher

I am certain that my photo will end up on the front page of the New York Daily News ... with the tabloid headline, Sixth Grader, Slain. And underneath, a smaller headline, Body Found in Dryer.
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First Crossing: Nogales, 1971 by Robert Richter

a highway sign on border that says "mexico only - no usa return"

I was looking to get lost in a new and different land, abandoning my own country's chaos, and Redmond was a poet out to record the roadside scenes of American sorrow in the Seventies.
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October 20 by Margaret Ozmet

empty school hallway in older school building

Why are they whispering? Wait, why is he looking at me? They’re both looking at me. I didn’t do anything. I totally didn’t do anything. Stop looking at me.
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Easter Eggs: Spring 1977 by Shaila Kapoor

I was a mishmash of two worlds, a social experiment in a locale where “different” did not come up very often. My dark hair stood out in a sea of blonde.
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Roe v. Wade by Lois Bassen

boston south street station from distance at dusk

I crossed streets to find a grocery store, all the while imagining myself slipping in front of an oncoming truck. I wiped snow out of my eyes with tears, thinking at least that way my mother would never have to know about the forty days.
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