Tag: Essay
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Side A Hybrid: “shroud trick” by Amelia K
shroud trick Step 1. Start with a square sheet of paper with the white side facing up. Fold the paper in half horizontally. Crease it well and then unfold it.[1] Step 2. Fold the paper in half vertically. Crease it well and then unfold it.[2] Step 3. Fold the corner of the paper to the center. You’ll do…
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Essay: “The Box” by Diana Whitney
The Box The box was waiting on my porch when I came home from acupuncture. Cardboard, square, criss-crossed with blue tape, big enough to fit a toaster or a cat. A stranger had sent me a package in the mail. I do not know this man, although he’d written my name and address in sharpie…
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“Genre and Selfhood and Speculation, Endless”: Jeff Alessandrelli on writing And Yet
Genre and Selfhood and Speculation, Endless I recently published a book that, like thousands of books, is nebulous vis-à-vis genre. And Yet is a book-length fictional essay. It’s a long prose poem. It’s an experimental novel. It’s a commonplace book with a wavy, fragmented narrative. It’s a work of eclectic literary collage. It’s autofiction. It’s…
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“Distance and Memory,” a Side A Essay by Jason Zuzga
Distance and Memory My grandmom Victoria (Tomaro) Stracquadanio born in Boiano, Italy, immigrant to Bound Brook, New Jersey, subsequently married John of Modica, Sicily. At the age of 21, I visited both towns. She, widowed, is suffering, at 99-years old, from vascular dementia at a nursing home near my mom’s home. My grandmom is now…
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“Cordyceps,” a flash essay by Sher Ting
Cordyceps Did you know cordyceps colonizes the bodies of carpenter ants, chemically hypnotizing them to ascend to the highest point in the environment before releasing a mushroom cloud of spores? I have been told a hundred useless facts, with bread and a butter knife on the train to Oslo. The man next to me, knotted…
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From Vol. 9: “Dear Editor Who Sent Me a Rejection Letter on Christmas, or Essay That Ends in a Fugue” by Sean Thomas Dougherty
Dear Editor Who Sent Me a Rejection Letter on Christmas, or Essay That Ends in a Fugue At first I was like for real, man. Really? But then I immediately thought of my coworker Wayne, whose wife died a few years ago near Christmas, and what dismal days the holidays are for him, each colored…
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“The Human in Me”: A Haunted Passages Nonfiction Essay by Amanda Gaines
The Human in Me The room was stacked floor to ceiling with antique dolls. It was the summer of my senior year of high school. Outside, August summer heat dissipated like mist off the sidewalk. Elm trees kneeled over the back porch of the small mansion. Their leaves were tinged with red and orange, a…
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Flash Essay: “Pervert” by L Scully
Pervert I’ve been a pervert for Many Years he says, smiling at us in the backseat. He tells us his wife is with child and that’s why we had to stop for bananas. He wears a blue polyester polo and porn sunglasses to give us a ride. When we get to the sex party it’s…
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Flash Essay: “Land of Promise. Land of Opportunity. Land of Heroes. Land of Greatness” by Ron Burch
Land of Promise. Land of Opportunity. Land of Heroes. Land of Greatness Land of Promise. Land of Opportunity. Land of Heroes. Land of Greatness. Land of Freedom. Land of Landowners. Land of Religion. Land of Justice. Land of White Supremacy. Land of Racism. Land of Lies. Land of Intolerance. Land of Theft. Land of Law…
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“On ‘Starlings, Caravans’ by Kay Sage”: An Ekphrastic Essay by Nadia Arioli (nee Wolnisty) for Bad Survivalist
On “Starlings, Caravans” by Kay Sage Once, I broke my own heart. Listen. Miscarriage is normal, expected, considered fine. We get our hopes up. We say, Yes, yes, we can do this. Our bodies know what to do. Kay Sage is a painter with rules. I can’t quite figure them out when I’m awake, which…