By Teri Underhill, Norwalk In the summer of 2022, I went with my halau (hula group) to the Big Island of Hawai’i. During this trip, we chanted, danced, hiked, cried, laughed and more. We went to the top of Mauna […]
Essay: I am not strong by choice
creative writing
“The Caretaker”: A Christmas story by Tom Gingerich
Story by Tom Gingerich, Kalona The old man was on his knees busily mulching one of Oakland’s expansive flower beds when he noticed the SUV approaching in the brisk, early November air. Slowly negotiating the narrow, winding roads traversing the […]
Sacraments
As an annoyingly inquisitive child with parents who encouraged critical thinking, I struggled to believe in God. We still went to church on Church holidays, though — not out of a sense of obligation, but out of an appreciation of […]
The Black Angel and Ana Mendieta
“I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette). I believe this has been a direct result of my having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence. I […]
‘Song of Myself’: An essay on running
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun. We let technology guide us in many facets of our lives. We wake up to our smartphone alarms and go to bed […]
No writing style is off limits in The Writers’ Rooms
When Erin Casey and Alex Penland started The Writers’ Rooms, the idea was to create supportive environments for writers who worked in one of several specific genres. As the organization’s website puts it: “The Writers’ Rooms endeavors to help all […]
En Español: Minestrone
Trasladaron a mi tía, que ya es coronel, de los páramos a la jungla. Un pueblo a tres horas de Bogotá. Tres horas lejos de nosotros, en un lugar donde se pega la ropa del sudor y las piernas se […]
En Español: Campos de maíz
Es de noche y camino por el campo de Cathy y Ralph. Algo de luna se refleja en los silos, en las escaleras que suben a los techos, en el camión que lleva al maíz cuando ya está listo para […]
Hot Tin Roof: Before Planting
Leave the screams, the unspoken fights — / “I can’t take it all, I ain’t gonna take it all, I don’t want none of it, I just want” — / to roll naked across a gravel road while the dust kicks up and the blood is drawn / like a goddamned roadmap across ass and knees and chest. […]
Hot Tin Roof: grows in the garden
Sometimes, when she’s bored,
she goes into the garden, covers herself
with earth and pretends that she is a carrot. […]
Hot Tin Roof: Gratitude
So I’m like eight, and my hair is slicked with Vitalis, and I’m riding in the back seat of our old Ford station wagon, surrounded by my brothers and my sister, my parents up front, my old man smoking Tareytons. He’s rolled the windows up tight to seal in the goodness like Tupperware, and we’re rolling down the Mass Pike to GG’s funeral. […]
Hot Tin Roof: That Snow Day
hibernates inside his heart
for more than a month before
cautiously emerging on a bitterly
cold January evening as he rests
his forehead against the upstairs
bedroom window & watches
those first hesitant snowflakes […]
