During the fall of my daughter’s sophomore year at the most difficult and impossibly demanding public high school in New York City, Sandra, our cleaning lady, came rushing into my room wearing a pained look…
Bad Mother by Kaylie Jones
Category: Essays
An archive of all of the personal essays we’ve published at Hippocampus Magazine over the years.
The State of Elvis in 2016 by Jim Breslin
In this sweltering summer of discontent, the Elvis impersonator is wedged into a rhinestone-encrusted royal-blue jumpsuit. Our pores sweat like Corona bottles under the blistering sun.
The Birth of Fear by Leanne Sowul
We’ve just finished telling my in-laws that according to a recent consult with my doctor, it will be difficult, if not downright dangerous, for us to have a baby.
Bike Scars by Melissa Coss Aquino
My father whistled for me from outside–a whistle all four of his children growing up in three different households knew and answered…
The Makeup of Things by Chelsea Ardle
Crows line up like racecars at the grand prix, one after the other, pushing their way forward.
Circle Where it Hurts by Leslie Kendall Dye
I care for my mother, who was—is?—very beautiful, very brilliant, very talented. She was a champion ice-skater at Rockefeller Plaza in the 1940s…
The Psychologists by Marianna Pogosyan
My husband kisses my painted lips and hands me a bouquet of orange tulips that he has bought for another woman.
And Then There Was Dad: A Supplement for the Baby Boomer Guidebooks by Marsh Rose
He’d had a few rocky years after Mom died but, prior to his death, he’d been leading the high life in Las Vegas, active and independent…
On Smoking by William Thompson
We were gathered one afternoon in the Coopers’ tiny living room. The second oldest, who couldn’t have been much more than sixteen, offered me a puff on his cigarette.
Wild Things by Laura B. Johnsrude
We peered into tidal pools, kneeling to get our noses up close, to watch creeping snails and huddled mussels, skimming our fingers over carpets of barnacles, stuck like superglue to the rocks.
