Jianqing Zheng: Site Visit
The Valley Store in Avalon, Mississippi, long abandoned, still holds its worn-out sign above the locked double doors. Many years ago, John Hurt lived nearby.
Dr. Noor Abdalla: Letter to My Husband, Mahmoud Khalil
As she prepares to welcome her first child with husband Mahmoud Khalil, Dr. Noor Abdalla writes to her husband one month after he was unlawfully detained for exercising his free speech rights.
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: Cleaning Lady
The war had already overrun the entire country of Liberia even as we awaited our evacuation in March of 1991. Charles Taylor was making his on and off comeback to kidnap residents in the city suburbs, And missiles were still landing in our backyard soon after the ceasefire agreement.
Patricia A. Nugent: Scenes from a Tesla Takedown
When I first heard about it, I knew I’d go. I’ve been showing up for more than fifty years, starting with the Vietnam war.
Desne A. Crossley: Something I Came Across
Yesterday, I was culling through papers to throw out and came across a letter from my mother to her father. She’s trying to cushion the news that no one will tell him. He’s dying of cancer.
Rebecca Gordon: Trump Rages to Snuff Out Democracy’s Candle
Allow me to stipulate that I do not wish to die. In fact, had anyone consulted me about the construction of the universe, I would have made my views on … Continue reading
William Trowbridge: Gun Crazy, 1955
My father, despite the possibility of a court martial, plus a ban against shipping firearms from overseas, managed to get his service pistol and an assortment of souvenir German firearms shipped to our home in his Army foot locker
Matthew J. Parker: Pardon Me
The reason for the assault was absurd – an imagined slight over a game of cutthroat pinochle we had played earlier that day.
Alexis Rhone Fancher: Out of Order
Promise me, my sister says. That you’ll be there if something happens to me. I know she worries about the fate of her children if she becomes injured, succumbs to a virus or is killed in a crash. Anything’s possible, she says. For better or worse, her sperm donor’s out of the picture.
Rebecca Gordon: King Donald
Facing the Rise of Fascism Like Fools for Freedom
Philip Terman: Too Much Already
Among the ruins, Nasser, dark in the shadows, hands gesturing in all directions. He speaks in a measured Arabic to the backdrop of rifles and bombs.
Mike Vargo: System Failure, from the Bronze Age to the Age of Trump
Did a long-ago collapse of civilizations portend our future?
Sydney Lea: Hush
Does it make any sense to say I heard dead silence? No matter. I’ll simply declare that I’ve never known such quiet in the sixty years I’ve roamed these woods and hills.
Hildegard von Bingen: Vision 7, The Devil
Then I saw a burning light, as large and as high as a mountain, divided at its summit as if into many tongues.
