Creative Nonfiction

alt text: image is blurred, grayed screenshot of a government census form; title card for Jade Hilde's "Census"

Census by Jade Hidle

August 1, 2022

They always knock with questions and promises. They assure me that checking these boxes will only take a few. forward. minutes. But time winds serpentine when so many voices crescendo with each box that asks me to fit inside.…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a wood paneled apartment building; title card for the creative nonfiction piece "Deaf Rage" by Ross Showalter

Deaf Rage by Ross Showalter

July 27, 2022

Content Warnings—ableism, audism We corner our resident assistant right outside her dorm room. Her back presses flat against the door. Her hands come up. She is ready to escape, but she is also ready to give a reason. I…

Yield by Jolene McIlwain

July 13, 2022

Content Warnings—cesarean section, traumatic birth I could not milk. Was it due to upset levels of oxytocin, prolactin, beta-endorphin? May have been the morphine pump I kept firing like a trigger from my hospital bed in the postlabor/delivery room.…

alt text: image is a color photograph of baby turtles on a beach; title card for Gina DeMillo Wagner's Following Floodlights Instead of the Moon

Following Floodlights Instead of the Moon by Gina DeMillo Wagner

June 29, 2022

The nature center has five baby sea turtles, each in their own 20-gallon saltwater tank. When I see them for the first time, I have to fight the impulse to plunge my hand into the water and scoop one…

alt text: image is a color photograph of classroom chairs pushed up against a desk; title card for Amy Evan's creative nonfiction piece "The Stoics"

The Stoics by Amy Evans

June 22, 2022

Content Warnings—death by suicide, gun violence One morning a science teacher at the high school found the window of his lab smashed and a dead possum on the floor. In my memory, the teacher is all gray: gray pants…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a cockroach; title card for JT Baldassarre's creative nonfiction piece "Roach Farm"

Roach Farm by JT Baldassarre

June 15, 2022

We had gone to bed late, on usual terms: “Let’s just talk about this in the morning.” That night we did what we called “No Touch Sleep,” a nickname for exactly what it sounds like, lying next to each…

alt text: image is a color photograph of seedling plants; title card for Gilbert Arzola's creative nonfiction piece "Eight Months"

Eight Months by Gilbert Arzola

June 8, 2022

January Two old men used to live next to each other. One is dead and the other is dying. The one that is dead planted a garden. The one that is dying is my father. My father sits in…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a streak of car lights at night; title card for Myna Chang's creative nonfiction piece "We Were the Wild Hunt"

We Were the Wild Hunt by Myna Chang

June 6, 2022

Riding the night streets wrapped in our tight young skin, brave-stupid and untamed, magic bursting from our pores like new stars. We met under the sign of the flying horse, the vacant shell of an old gas station, our…

alt text: image is a black-and-white photograph of a board with mathematical equations; title card for Beth Gistrap's creative nonfiction piece "The Pythagorean Theorem: Three Micros"

The Pythagorean Theorem: Three Micros by Beth Gilstrap

May 25, 2022

The Pythagorean Theorem In a photo of her when she was eight months pregnant with me, my mother looks up at the camera. High sun. Her sweaty hair clinging to her jawline. A powder blue top swinging in the…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a weathered couch; title card for Beth Kephart's creative nonfiction piece "Thieves"

Thieves by Beth Kephart

May 11, 2022

Couch You could call the color of the upholstery rust, but it was rust chasing a pattern. Blanket Harshly fibered, it was never quite white. Arrangement She couldn’t arrange herself after what they’d done to her. Then It started…

CREATIVE NONFICTION