fbpx
>

Exploring the art of prose

Menu

LONGFORM CREATIVE NONFICTION

Image shows the interior of the Bobst Library in New York City, a series of gold stairwells and library stories; title card for the 2022 CNFA editors' choice selection, "All the Pretty Little Lies," by Amy V. Borg.

All the Pretty Little Lies by Amy V. Borg

June 9, 2023

  Content Warning—suicidal ideation   The story I tell goes something like this: Did you know I once helped a boy escape from a mental hospital? When I tell it that way, people start imagining things: guns blazing, alarms blaring,…

Read More
Image shows a red film reel coming unspooled on a white background; title card for the new creative nonfiction essay, "My Anesthesiologist," by Cynthia Adam Prochaska.

My Anesthesiologist by Cynthia Adam Prochaska

May 17, 2023

  Content Warning—miscarriage   I see my anesthesiologist at the movies and it surprises me in the way that seeing someone outside the setting you know them does. There is a prick of recognition and then my mind scrambles to…

Read More
Image displays a crowded kitchen with a window view of another apartment building; title card for the new creative nonfiction essay, "Imagining Mother, an American Exorcism," by A. Sandosharaj.

Imagining Mother, an American Exorcism by A. Sandosharaj

March 15, 2023

  1. When my mother first came to the United States in the 1970s, she was disappointed by the treeless tenements my father brought her to. She had grown up on a bustling island beach in what was then called…

Read More
Photograph depicts a wooden spiral staircase framed by a white banister; title card for the new creative nonfiction essay, "Intrinsic Spin: A Story of Vertigo," by Anna Leahy.

Intrinsic Spin: A Story of Vertigo by Anna Leahy

February 22, 2023

  Here’s a secret about movement: speed cares only about distance, but velocity is aware of direction. Here’s another secret about movement: every living creature on this planet is moving fast. But the body tricks us into not noticing the…

Read More
Image is a photograph of four lit beeswax candles in the dark; title card for the new creative nonfiction essay, "Omnipresence," by Justine Teu.

Omnipresence by Justine Teu

January 25, 2023

  1. The first ghost I ever learn about is God, circa 1998, in a kindergarten classroom in Queens, New York. My parents have sent me to Catholic school not out of religious devotion, or some need for strictness, but…

Read More
Image is a photograph of transparent pages with sketches of parts of the human skeleton; title card for the flash essay "Even Though He Fell" by Maxwell Suzuki.

Even Though He Fell by Maxwell Suzuki

November 16, 2022

  My father, after slipping backward on a stretch of rooted Alaskan ice and hitting his head, miraculously walks the three miles to get back home—heavily concussed and alone—with our two unleashed labs directing him in the winter dark. He…

Read More
alt image: image is a color photograph of an orange origami flower; title card for a new essay, "Paper Flowers" by Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez

Paper Flowers by Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez

September 21, 2022

  1. I’m on the 7 train on my way to Manhattan from Queens. My AirPods blast Cardi B’s “I Like It” as I squeeze my way through the crowded car, not liking the pushing and the pulling as I…

Read More
alt text: image is a color photograph of several dilapidated doors open in a hallway; title card for the new creative nonfiction piece, "The Writer," by Matthew Raymond

The Writer by Matthew Raymond

August 24, 2022

  I never met Paul Bowles, but he was still alive when I passed through Morocco in the summer of 1998. He died the following year, and it is one of my great regrets, these twenty years later, that I…

Read More
alt text: image is a color drawing of plants with red accents; title card for "Weeds" by Chelsea Biondolillo

Weeds by Chelsea Biondolillo

August 22, 2022

  January 2021 Today is a day when I hate my house, I hate it for all the things it will never be. For ceilings that are too high for lights in one room and too low for lights in…

Read More
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…

Read More