VII. How do you deny patience? How do you dismiss respect? How do you reject unconditional love? I will tell you how. You like yourself so little that you find anyone who will give you those things a fool. Only a delusional, misguided pushover would voluntarily nurture you. That is how it was being with … Read moremariconcito VII by Jose Useche
Photo by Jacob Boll I first became familiar with Chris L. Terry when his novel, Zero Fade, and mine, Don’t Start Me Talkin’, were being published in 2013 and 2014 by a hip, indie press, Curbside Splendor. So rare has it been to encounter not only another mixed writer, but one with similar parentage and … Read moreAn Interview with Author Chris L. Terry by Tom Williams
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 moreColorless by Erin Powell
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 … Read moreDestabilizing Masculinity by Sally Smith
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 moreInteresting Times: “Life in Toxicity” by Arsha Adarsh
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 … Read moreSo I can know myself by Paulina Calistru
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 … Read moreReview: The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) by Annoushka Clear
In the Sequoia National Forest, fires are sometimes set on purpose. Park Rangers will set off controlled fires throughout the park. The seeds from the world’s tallest trees cannot grow without the heat of the fire. The sirens are escalators of sound on this side of St. Paul, just east of the Mississippi. Panicked police … Read moreThe Heat of Breath by Camille E. Colpitts
VI. PB was a place rife with inconveniences: a narrow, creaky bed provided by the theater where one couldn’t even sit up without careening into the top bunk; sunburnt noses and shoulders; and sand that finagled its way onto and into every surface imaginable – toes, teeth, eyelashes and even my luggage, which I discovered … Read moremariconcito VI by Jose Useche
Like most, I’ve always enjoyed receiving flowers. My first boyfriend used to pluck hibiscus and plumeria from the neighborhood hedges and place them behind my ear, causing seventeen year old me to swoon. When we broke up, I continued to buy myself flowers as a sweet gesture— tangible proof that I could make myself feel loved in this … Read moreHealing Spaces and Places by Maya Mathur