Category: creative nonfiction
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“Maybe it’s the gap, the feeling that someone isn’t listening, doesn’t get it, has half heard us, that compels us to write and explain. That’s why we turn around and speak to our past, as if others can hear us now, as if we can finally hear ourselves and catch our fleeting lives.” —Natalie Goldberg…
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The inexpressible may be contained (inexpressibly!) in the expressed, but the older I get, the more fearful I become of this nothingness, this waxing lyrical about those I love the most. Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts The body doesn’t lie. But when we bring language to the body, isn’t it always already an act of fiction?…
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It is gray when you wake up. It is always gray. This is something you only recently noticed, and now you can’t unsee it. It is gray gray gray and then sharply turns black and then you wake up and it is wet cotton gray again. You have little sense of time in the grayness.…
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If you’ve spent time with me, you know that I love music. If you’ve spent a questionable amount of time with me, you know that I love listening to the same song over and over. I’ll find a song, instantly adore it, and then play it on repeat so many times that it generally isolates…
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“Main character energy” is a phrase that’s cropped up online recently. Wow, look at her! She has main character energy, someone will write. She is the fully realized protagonist at this point, another will chime in. It’s generally commented on videos where the person is especially enigmatic. Their energy radiates. You can’t stop watching them.…
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In no particular order: 1. Battleborn, Claire Vaye WatkinsThis is probably the best short story collection I’ve ever read, and perhaps one of my all-time favorite books. If you’ve ever driven out west, specifically the southwest, then you know what this book is about—those small towns situated in the middle of a vast and empty…
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I’m so unfinished. –Sufjan Stevens I started a new job recently. So what’s your story? Why are you here? A coworker asked me. I hesitated. What is my story? Why *am* I here? I didn’t know what to include, what elements of my life convey the realest parts of me. My interests? My jobs? My…
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“We didn’t matter, the consequences didn’t matter; the moment when we agreed to put our love into action did. It was not an act of courage. It was a statement of belief that the world can change if we are willing to risk our own change first.” —Terry Tempest Williams This past winter was my…
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Same Adirondack campsite, three different memories. I It is the final evening of our summer training hike. The previous night, we were deep in the Upper Works wilderness, camped out at a lean-to where we’d made too much fiesta rice and had to backpack it all out. It had drizzled the whole evening and because…
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“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up.…
