Lauren Rhoades I never liked the Solomon story. You know the one. Two women come to the wise King Solomon, both claiming to be the mother of the same baby. King Solomon tells the women that since...
Heidi Schulz I start in the Meet the Family Gallery. There, behind glass, are wax figures posed in life-sized dioramas. My dad, smaller than I remember, is reading a Louis Lamour western in his...
Kim Drew Wright In my earliest memory with my two older sisters, I’m toddling around a South Carolina backyard, past a metal playset with one of those face-to-face swings you have to pull and push...
Michael Hahn To little fanfare, in 2019, the Associated Press Stylebook abolished a hyphen. Stripped of the small dash, compound heritage terms such as Asian American and African American quietly...
Katie Bannon You find your father’s body by the kitchen sink. Hands clutching his heart, eyes shiny as marbles. Your mother’s scream cracks the quiet of the winter evening. Her mouth opens so...
Jessica Rapisarda Runner-up for the 2021 Spring Nonfiction Contest It begins, as it always does, with light. At 4:54 a.m., I open my eyes, and a constellation winks to life in my darkened bedroom....
Megan Falley VIII. Ace places his hand on the Bible in front of the judge and swears to tell the truth. But Ace is an atheist. Don’t you have anything more meaningful for him? I want to ask...
(Nine Alternatives to Reconciliation) Marne Litfin Winner of the 2021 Spring Nonfiction Contest “Is the Great American Novel you’re working on, the story of a young girl, who was emotionally...
Elizabeth Galoozis My first exposure to Honey Creek School was in second grade, when our class, like every other second grade class in the county, took a field trip there. Our teacher, Mrs. Stone,...
Jeff Ewing Bolinas, California isn’t quite there. Threads of fog drift across the middle distance, making the landscape insubstantial, the people half-formed. I can hear the thud of breakers...
