Genre: Nonfiction

Tremain Xenos

"I think of how they begin life straight and hale, over decades or centuries to weaken against the mosses that eat their bark and the beetles that bore through them until, toppled by a storm or gravity, they lie decomposing at the feet of their kin now enjoying a clearer view of the sky." 

Bubba Henson

"Thank you, she says and extends her arm across the tablecloth, offering her hand. I take it and we hold hands while they guzzle the second double. Less than 60 seconds."

Hannah Ford

"Healing was a combination of factors, among which were extended grace and awkward conversations and a desperate grasping to be seen as a person and not a frail, troubling burden."

AC Hart

"What miracle of nature makes something like an insect or a lizard sit perfectly still? In this frenetic society something such as a quiescent insect seems peculiar… almost magical."

Michael McGuire

But for the moment I was adrift. Whatever usual anchor holding me in place, keeping me tethered to whatever temporal geography I occupied had been pulled up and I’d been cast unto uncharted seas.

Garry Shore and Greig Parker

"Think of all those composite characters in the based-on-a-true-story movies you have watched on TV, people whose tireless efforts and selfless sacrifices to right injustices have been edited out for the sake of simplifying the truth in the name of entertainment. But memories have value. They are not things to discard, distort, or destroy without regard."

Brittany Ackerman

"How many labors until I can untangle these invisible threads of pain I cling to? I wish I wasn’t tied to them. I wish I could rid myself of this ordeal, find the road back, seize an elixir, be cast among the stars, no longer a burden but a shimmering glow above."

Amanda Bramley

"An imminent storm brewed foreboding clouds. They gathered in future skies. With Ethan’s small body curled on mine, I couldn’t see what was hovering in our horizon."

Gyaru

"One thing I also knew about the Aswang, is that it was able to experience the range of emotions all humans felt. When my father was angry, his Aswang, in spite of its search for blood, was experiencing a range of emotions that I had only come to acknowledge I, myself, had as an adult."

Zary Fekete

"My wife is fearless and, even though her Hungarian isn’t perfect, she will talk with anyone. I think it was this willingness which won her over to our neighbor who had initially seemed standoffish and confused as to why this American couple and their cat were in Hungary."