@ Literary Mama
The past three weeks have been full of creative works. Read the most recent pieces at Literary Mama…
COLUMNS
The Price of Cool by Ona Gritz from Doing it Differently
It’s the night of Ethan’s junior prom and, weeks earlier, he’d volunteered me to sign the paperwork for the after-hours joyride he and ten of his friends have arranged for.
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Sailors by Susan Ito
Through the double glass doors I see my father lying motionless in cubicle five. His head is like a giant, immobile pumpkin, an unnatural orange color. He is swollen with fluid, unrecognizable but for the lima-bean-shaped birthmark above his eyebrow. I remember when I was a child, trying to peel it off like a puffy sticker. During his two weeks of coma, of touch, of go, of whispering into the swollen curve of his ear, “Daddy. It’s Susan. Right here,” that fleshy bean had been my landmark, my touchstone, my way in to him.
Dad’s Army Tricks by Robin Sloane Seibert
I stood at the foot of my father’s open grave, struggling to muster a few words to say. Dad’s contradictory life had left me with a heap of unresolved feelings, and judging by my brothers’ blank stares, I guessed that they were in the same quandary.
Father Tongue by Rhena Tantisunthorn
We are in Bangkok at the end of a two-week visit to my father’s country of birth. I have been here many times before, including one three-year-long stay during which I learned Thai, a language that haunted the surface of my childhood without ever sinking into my linguistic neurons.
FICTION
Assorted by Randall Brown
Ever since we watched Forrest Gump my daughter likens everything to a box of chocolates: bookstores, her sixth-grade classroom, our house. You, I tell her, would be the nutty one; you, she counters, would be the one that people crack open and say, “Yuck!”
LITERARY REFLECTIONS
Essential Reading: Father’s Day by Libby Maxey
Our Father’s Day reading list features books that may remind us of fathers in general, but definitely remind us of our fathers in particular.
POETRY
The News by Timothy Kercher
One day and one week ago, we were happy-go-lucky. Just out of school. My poems actually being published. The two of us off to a new country next year. Then
Labor by Mark Bennion
She pops her head through canal and seal of blood and sweetened sac, arriving on the maternal hinge
Closet Skeleton by Herbert Woodward Martin
When my father was old enough to know better He flipped out his dick publicly, but not his Stones, and in doing so, embarrassed Muh Dear And her mother, Auntie, so badly, they asked my Mother and me to get a place of your own to live.
After the Divorce by Dayna Patterson
The porcelain dolls at Christmas that you set, painted, and sewed were saying, I’m sorry.
Contraction by Kate Benchoff
I don’t think very often on you. I can’t feel the bristle of your mustache, or remember the way your jaw clenched when you needed to get the belt.
Compliment by Larry Bauer
this morning olivia told our waitress that she was fast,
Hunger by Sarah Bartlett
Six days before he died, my dad slumped in the gloom of the common room where they park food trays before the reluctant.
Simple Gifts by Sarah Bartlett
The King and I, 1961 At Christmas, we caroled with neighbors, assorted instruments and all ages welcome. Each year
The Shower by Sarah Bartlett
Dad slipped slowly into the shower arms braced for support.
Geodes by Julie Stuckey
Some mornings, although we wake weary, the birds bring blessings.
PROFILES
A Conversation with Mystery Writer Art Taylor by Colleen Kearney Rich
Award-winning mystery writer Art Taylor has been “riding the rails” a lot these days, thanks to his toddler son’s fascination with trains, especially the miniature one in a park near their Virginia home, outside Washington, D.C.
REVIEWS
A Review of The “Backwards” Research Guide for Writers: Part of Our Mini-Series on the Craft of Writing by Alizabeth Rasmussen
For many people, the word “research” conjures memories of having to write boring high school and college papers — stacks of books, notecards strewn about, a feeling of overwhelm at the seeming impossible task of organizing data into a cohesive whole. Yet, research is something that writers in any genre need to be comfortable with, and that is Sonya Huber’s main goal in her book The ‘Backwards’ Research Guide for Writers: Using Your Life for Reflection, Connection, and Inspiration.
Superdads: A Review of Glad to Be Dad by Joe Schuster
Recently, a friend posted on her Facebook page a photograph of a form she filled out when she was in grade school in 1974. Headed “When I Grow Up I Want to Be,” it features side-by-side checklists for boys and for girls. The boys’ list offers fireman, policeman, cowboy, astronaut, soldier and baseball player. Girls could choose mother, nurse, schoolteacher, airline hostess, model and secretary.