NonFiction - Year V - Number 29 - October 2019

NELS NORMANN'S LAST PROBLEMBy Kimm Brockett Stammen It was on a remote Northern California trout stream in August, 1920, that Nels Normann encountered his first problem. “At 18 months of age, I became dissatisfied with...

REAL IS THE RARER THINGby Roger Topp “It’s near checkout time and I need to escape the hotel without paying.” Imogen has abandoned me, never returning to the room last night. I send the text...

NUOVO MONDOBy Michela Valmori Grasping the sodden wood with both hands, I pushed the shutters wide apart. An overwhelming light filled the damp room. As my eyes adjusted a spring breeze followed suit, freeing the...

SWALLOWING By Rachel Cavell Exactly one week after I almost died from choking on a piece of steak, my daughter sent me a link to a dress she wanted to buy for her law school summer...

PENNY IN APRILby Marlena Baraf  We are putting the grandkids to bed in the pretty room we call the grandkids room, two white beds and a periwinkle-blue chest in the middle. I’d asked the girls...

IN THE DAYS WHEN THE SKY WAS COBALT By Deborah Paes de Barros The giant earthmovers—the backhoe and the bulldozer and other machines I couldn’t identify—had been gone for three days. There was a gaping hole...

FROM THERE TO HEREby Donald Zagardo  My head doesn’t hurt so much anymore, not like it did back in Iraq or where the hell we were. Maybe I’m getting better, yeah maybe, yeah.It was very...

BYEby Kimberly McElreath Other parents would beam with pride over their child’s first word and argue lovingly about the loyalty of the child whether he or she identified with “mama” or “dada.”  My first communication...

OTHERNESSUnpacking and questioning the ethics of passing versus publicizingby Isabel Armiento As a science-fiction fanatic, I am fascinated by the way appearance can be so instantly othering. The “other” is often synonymous with the “grotesque” –...