My father was possessed by a trailer. … My Mom was obsessed with doing paint-by-numbers and would get trapped in magenta jungles for days …
Things in the Shape of Trailers by John Yu Branscum
Category: Memoir
Our archive of past pieces that are part of a larger work of creative nonfiction. Note that as of 2021 we no longer categorize pieces as “memoir.” We use only “essay” and flash” now. We kept this in our menu for historical purposes.
Briggs Avenue by Trace Ramsey
Mid-summer and the rain approaches without much warning. The wind comes up first, sucks a bit of the humidity from the air, and cools things down.
Going Through Your Things/Superhero by Lisa Romeo
I am going through your things, Dad, and there is the black and white Kodak picture with the curly edges, me on Thunder…
A Bittersweet Remembrance: A US Navy Dad by Anne Campbell Gruner
When I try to remember Daddy, who died prematurely from lung cancer…it’s difficult. … What I do remember is just missing him all the time.
The Hot and Cold of It by Kaylen Mallard
Outside my car window, southwest Georgia’s leafless trees flushed black against a night sky the color of burnt sugar. I knew that sky.
Scar by Peter Stavros
The scar was like someone had been in a hurry to get a scoop of ice cream out of the container, like those high school kids who worked behind the counter at Graeter’s on a busy August afternoon…
Johnny Quits by Rachael Marks
You’ve found a job in a liquor store. This is your vocation, now: selling half-pints of budget vodka to the neighborhood end-of-the-liners…
Forgotten by Mary Ann Cooper
People were all around, and the air smelled of Coppertone and cigarette smoke, chased by a salty, fishy breeze.
Grullo by Jocelyn Heaney
He came to my father’s New Hampshire farm in the summer of 1986 from Nevada, part of the mustang adoption program.
Korea, 1952 by Carl Tiktin
The only trouble with switchboard duty was that it’s a pivotal function in an artillery battery. I didn’t take any of that stuff seriously—everything was just army BS to me.
