DEAR MUCHYOUNGER ME By Meredith Seung Mee Buse “You’ll face this in your life someday,” Jacqueline Woodson writes in Brown Girl Dreaming. “A moment when you walk into a room…
THE CHANGE I NEED By Susan Lynch "We don’t have to wait for the world to change for us." —Pam Cordano"You can’t always get what you want, but if you…
ARISTEO'S POCKET BY CARRIE ANNE TOCCI Aristeo folds light-filled particles like dough until a perfect slot machine takes shape. Smirking, he pulls an imagined token from a pretend pocket. Nearby…
THE BARBECUE BY Jessie Hunter “Hello!!! Who wants to bring what for our BBQ on Sunday?” my sister prompted in our sibling group chat. My parents were out of town…
HOLDING ME BY a.p. It’s past 11 pm. After my bedtime. I’m lying in bed. A wave of sadness tenderly washes over me. I follow it from the crown of…
TRUTH IN LYRICS BY Danielle Orr Recording songs onto cassette tape off the radio was a favorite hobby of mine during my adolescence. Poised and focused, ready to pounce like an…
Dispatches from the Matrix By Julian Washio-Collette LISTEN TO THE AUTHOR READING: “Why am I here?” “Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the…
One Branch of Our Ancestral Vine BY Marisol Kassis My body has known the loss of identityBut my mouth couldn’t speak it— my language was empty.My…
A HEART GUARDED BY WEEDS BY JENNIFER HILTEBEITEL Trigger Warning: This story alludes to sexual assault. At 17, I found my birth parents and was so hopeful that the fantasy…