Nonfiction

Nonfiction Issue #7: Mental Health April 15th, 2021 April 15th, 2021 Nonfiction Inexplicable | Mickey Greaves Feeling of Impending Doom | Michael P. Moran COVID Helped Me Grow My Garden | Catherine Kenwell Embracing Hope Through Six-Foot Balloons | Shannon Heath Parkin Can Helping You Help Me? | Haven Fyfe Kiernan Rising Above | Martina Kontos

When Our Hearts Become the Sky—Michael Riordan

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 When Our Hearts Become the Sky by Michael Riordan thought I was a poet. Teaching was to be temporary before I became a full-time writer. What the world needed from me most, I thought, was my poetry—a mix of jagged angst and lyrical melancholy. I sent off fragments of my soul, and I always included a self-addressed stamped return envelope. This proved handy because it became ...

Erosion—Susan Hall

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 Erosion by Susan Hall o you think our boy’s losing some things?” my husband asks. His casual tone belies the gravity of the question. After a 13-year remission, our son’s seizures had returned. This—whether or not he was slipping cognitively—had been the rarely-spoken-of yardstick against which we’d measured the seriousness of these now frequent movements, these long moments when all time stops and when my husband and ...

Epistemic Injustice Is the Problem We’ve Been Overlooking

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 Epistemic Injustice Is the Problem We’ve Been Overlooking by Leah Rosen pistemic injustice. You may not recognize the term, but trust me when I say you have experienced it. Essentially, epistemic injustice is the force which renders someone’s voice—or, more broadly, his or her declared experience—either more or less credible than someone else’s. If we break down the term into its two constituents, “epistemic” is derived ...

A Woman’s Pain—Karen Mann

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 A Woman’s Pain by Karen Mann Dr. Clay sat looking at this his computer screen. He was not my favorite of the two doctors at my primary care office, but Dr. Baylor was not available and I needed to see someone quickly. My cluster headaches had returned after several years of remission. I needed to start some preventative meds before they spiraled out of control. I ...

A Letter to Aunt C About Depression—Jeanine DeHoney

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 A Letter to Aunt C About Depression by Jeanine DeHoney “We must bring the issue of mental illness out into the sunlight, out of the shadow, out of the closet, deal with it, treat people, have centers where people can get the necessary help.” —John Lewis will always remember sitting with my late Aunt C when I was a little girl, talking about anything and everything. Sometimes, ...

Nonfiction

Nonfiction Issue #6: Bias November 20th, 2020 November 20th, 2020 Nonfiction A Letter to Aunt C About Depression | Jeanine DeHoney Epistemic Injustice Is the Problem We’ve Been Overlooking | Leah Rosen A Woman’s Pain | Karen Mann When Our Hearts Become the Sky | Michael Riordan Erosion | Susan Hall

A Perspective—Ruth Ticktin

Nonfiction Issue #5: Heroes July 28th, 2020 July 28th, 2020 A Perspective by Ruth Ticktin ere we all are practicing social distancing, staying at home, and trying to reduce the extent of the plague. Suggestions for quarantine activities like art, music, dance, and writing are everywhere. Considering the reckoning in the streets today, I’m well aware of my privilege: I can work from home, I’m not alone, and we’re safe in our cozy apartment. I can ...

RN Thoughts on a COVID Mother’s Day Brunch—Rebecca Pelton

Nonfiction Issue #5: Heroes July 28th, 2020 July 28th, 2020 RN Thoughts on a COVID Mother's Day Brunch by Rebecca Pelton am a nurse at an acute care psychiatric hospital. Quarantine or not, patients and staff are at work every day, and because of my job, my family is socially distancing like we’re trying to win a prize. It’s painful. Our two kids are so outgoing that the people they regularly engage—at parks, in grocery ...

Happy Hour—Jeffrey Allen Mays

Nonfiction Issue #5: Heroes July 28th, 2020 July 28th, 2020 Happy Hour by Jeffrey Allen Mays t was early—the first days of social distancing. Shelter-at-home in our city was still three days away. One by one, restaurants were starting to close their dining rooms, and the roads were seeing less and less traffic. At the time we weren’t wearing masks, but the reality of the pandemic was growing. My son, who is in college, was realizing ...