Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Is it Ethical to Use Bookstores as a Showroom?
There is nothing quite like the joy of wandering around a bookstore. I love digging through the shelves and finding a hidden gem. I love the smell of the worn paper and the background noise of other customers flipping through pages.
By Kera Hollow2 months ago in BookClub
My Mental Health Journey in Map Pins. Runner-Up in Maps of the Self Challenge.
I’m getting on an airplane tomorrow to go to Thailand. It’s my first time going to a destination wedding. I’m tremendously excited, but the act of undertaking a long journey makes me introspective.
By Leigh Victoria Phan, MS, MFA2 months ago in Humans
Scorpio Pig.
When coming up with a title for this, I came to the brilliant realisation that I am a Scorpio Pig. A classic and undisputable Scorpio (though the horoscope vs reality debate lives on) and a 1995 year of the pig baby. I’ve always liked being a Scorpio, but the pig thing took a minute. A couple years ago my friend took me micro-pig walking for my birthday, did you know pigs have a hierarchy system? Seriously. They take rankings very seriously, and as my pig Mr Darcy was pushed out the way by his superior, I found out just how serious it was.
By Kirstyn Brook2 months ago in Humans
A Hate Letter to Personal Statements
I find myself once again writing personal statements for grad school applications. Why I would do such a thing to myself again after so many years of not doing that, I have no clue. Perhaps I have a sadistic streak, an echo of my Catholic upbringing which manifests the typical emotional self-flagellation into a desire to apply to and inevitably get rejected from grad school. I could put applications in all day, don’t get me wrong. I love going over checklists and reaching out to old professors asking them sweetly if they would be so kind as to say nice things about me on the official record for Miscellaneous University and their Obscure College of the Performing Arts. But good God, dude, why do I have to write a damn personal statement for each and every one of these programs?
By Steven Christopher McKnight2 months ago in Humans
The Healing Power of Publishing Memoirs
Over the last eight months, I took a break from publishing anything new — apart from the odd piece here and there for a handful of writing competitions. And to be honest, after wrapping up the competition submissions and these past couple of years, trying to make it as a writer, I felt totally wiped out.
By Chantal Christie Weiss2 months ago in Writers
Frost Queen. Runner-Up in The Sound of First Frost Challenge.
The corporeal chill stiffens as Fall fades and air thins, bowing to the first. I cower cross-legged in dampness, beneath her cadaverous snow-mounted stare, for she knows I. The tremulous temper of blitzkrieg blizzards is nigh on this horizon.
By Edward Swafford2 months ago in Poets
A Veteran Named Ruby
What do you get when you take a rough neck from the south and a wild child from the west and put them in the US Navy together? Technically you get me because the rough neck and the wild child are my parents. The wild child is my mother, Ruby Lee Spencer and it was because of her that I learned what impact the US military has on civilian life.
By Joe Patterson2 months ago in Confessions
Days of Indian Summer
Although the exact origins of the term are uncertain, Indian Summer was perhaps so-called because it was first noted in regions inhabited by Native Americans, or because the natives first described it to Europeans. Or, it had been based on the warm and hazy conditions in autumn when Native Americans hunted.
By Novel Allen2 months ago in Writers
