My father whistled for me from outside–a whistle all four of his children growing up in three different households knew and answered…
Bike Scars by Melissa Coss Aquino
Category: Issues
Wings by Callie Reitfors
I am 16, holding my breath as I wait for the needle to resume etching the delicate wings of the swallowtail into the tender skin of my right hip.
REVIEW: Now for the Disappointing Part: A Pseudo-Adult’s Decade of Short-Term Jobs, Long-Term Relationships, and Holding Out for Something Better by Steven Barker
Steven Barker’s debut book is a compilation of essays about what it’s like working as a temporary employee, joining the nearly “17 million contract workers in the U.S.”
What Writer and Teacher Can Tell You About Craft by Kristin Weller
Two beers, four turns around the first floor with a vacuum cleaner, and the first nine episodes of Shameless on Netflix. That’s what it took to work out the Teacher and wake up the Writer between Friday night and Saturday morning, today. After all, carving creative time from the expansive collage of responsibilities and distractions…
REVIEW — Kingpin: Prisoner of the War on Drugs by Richard Stratton
It’s hard to fathom, reading this book in 2017, that Richard Stratton would have to do time at all for his offense–smuggling hashish and marijuana into the United States.
REVIEW: Valencia by James Nulick
Review by Rachel NewcombeDeath is a library with all the lights turned off. –Valencia, James Nulick An unnamed male protagonist is going to die. But before he dies, we follow him to Valencia, Spain, where he checks into the Hotel Valencia for one week. He brings just a few articles of clothing and some…
REVIEW — We’re in America Now: A Survivor’s Stories by Fred Amram
The delight of Fred Amram’s memoir, We’re In America Now, about growing up as an immigrant to America, arriving at age six in 1939, comes entirely from his verve.
I Take It Back by Warren Merkel
We make eye contact. What looks like raw fear is slicked across your face. I want to say, It’s okay, I won’t hurt you…
Scissors by Jane Marcellus
My mother called her brother’s scissors “the scissors” because they were the only ones we had.
The Makeup of Things by Chelsea Ardle
Crows line up like racecars at the grand prix, one after the other, pushing their way forward.
