Ever since I figured out there was a difference in color, I wanted to be the lightest, to be a pastel in a sea of primaries. I wanted to be the color of the clouds. I wanted to strip the brown from every inch of my body. Peel it off in sheets, scrub it away…
Read MoreDestabilizing Masculinity by Sally Smith
It doesn’t take too much awareness to realize that the world around us is shifting. Whether or not you are actively participating in that change, or if you prefer to look away, we are all here, and thus, we all have our own unique roles to play. Perhaps you are more conscious of your connection…
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Interesting Times: “Life in Toxicity” by Arsha Adarsh
Illustration by Divyakshi Kedia Interesting Times is a diary-style creative nonfiction series that brings together the writer’s experiences of this bizarre new world. Featuring a forest fire evacuation, police hypocrisy, surprisingly friendly preppers and so, so many baby rabbits, it fuses naked vulnerability, impotent rage, and the strange, offbeat humor to be found in our newest…
Read MoreSo I can know myself by Paulina Calistru
There came a time, at dinner with my mother, where I realized that she, too, would die. She would grow old and fragile, shrink and eventually wither away, just like her mother, and her mother’s mother. Just like all the mothers that came before her. It came in the form of a superimposition, a memory…
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Review: The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) by Annoushka Clear
Arundhati Roy has worn many hats in her time. She trained as an architect, worked as a production designer, an actor, has written screenplays and numerous political essays. Her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness was published a full twenty years after her first, during which time Roy devoted herself to political activism in…
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Books We Loved in 2020
2020 was a challenging year. When the world was forced to quarantine at home, many of us found solace in books, where we could escape to a different reality. I asked our editors to talk about one book that helped get them through 2020. Here is a collection of their selections, highlighting BIPOC titles that…
Read Moremariconcito V by Jose Useche
V. Just after Christmas Day, we met at Kava, a cafe on 40th and 9th, for a late dinner. In the far left booth, his cheap wool peacoat and large white knit circle scarf sat lifeless in a pile beside him as he calmly awaited my arrival. We both ordered soup, and when he walked…
Read MorePushed Out by Garrett D.G
“I love it up here.” She said as she gazed into the distance. Her legs dangled off the old brownstone’s roof edge. The air was stuffy. Usually, around this time, the neighborhood would be outside. The fresh smell of barbeque floating through the block, kids soaked under the sprinkling water bursting from the fire hydrant,…
Read MoreHAIRCUT by Damien Belliveau
[an excerpt from “hella”] CW: This piece includes racial slurs I’d heard rumors of incoming freshmen getting hazed at Westmoor—everything from being rolled down hills in trash cans, to getting tied to metal poles so upperclassmen could smash your nuts with tether-balls. My source for this information was my best friend, Edwin Garro. The rumors…
Read MoreChildhood Monsters by Matthew Marroquín
You’re laying alone in bed, and a chill consumes your body. You scan the room, fear creeping into your bones. A tingling sensation floods over your skin – as if you’re being watched by something, or someone. You can’t possibly fear the dark, no, it must be something else. You look across the room at…
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