David Attenborough is a Guide for a Different Earth, by Tasha Coryell
It’s unfair that I’ve projected my disposition onto the crabs of the earth.
The Serial, by J.D. Ho
My grandma fed me
things no proper mother would:
Tombstone pizza, Campbell’s soup, nachos,
cookies, and instant coffee.
Three Poems, by Ashleigh Lambert
When great slivers began to slough off the sun, Frog knew he’d have to break the news to Toad. Toad was in the house luxuriating in his breathing.
Two Poems, by Khaleel Gheba
It's all relative. My father had a mustache, but not the rapier. My mother had a face, but not the cinch, not the selective lighting. Every cousin, a mop.
Three Poems, by Daniel Nester
RESCUING BOBBY BRADY FROM A DISASTER MOVIE
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Kayfabe, by Brian Oliu
The first rule of professional wrestling is that if you see something, you are supposed to see it—there are plenty of secrets and slip-ups; a body falling to the floor a step early, a mistimed musical cue—yet the camera will always seem to cut away at the precise moment (cameras are everywhere these days) & it will never be spoken of again.
American Decency, by Sarah Einstein
It’s with a heavy heart that I join the din of people announcing that American Decency has died. Like Mark Twain, reports of Decency’s death have often been exaggerated, but this time, Decency is good and truly dead.
Optimism, by Ryan Rydzewski
As its longtime friend and occasional lover, it's with great sadness that I report the violent murder and dismemberment of Optimism during the early morning hours of last November the 9th.
Spyro Gyros and Salads, by Meghan Phillips
I think (I hope?) maybe everyone had a place like Spyro Gyros in their 20s. Small and sticky-boothed, it was the only place in walking distance of the bars in downtown Lancaster that was open after last call.
Pat Summitt, by Amorak Huey
True greatness is terrifying. You were terrifying.
The squared-shoulder, fist-pumping, finger-pointing, suffer-no-nonsense approach to the world.
Irony, by Heidi Czerwiec
While irony was first conceived by Socrates around 410 BCE, it sprang fully formed from the skull of Cleanth Brooks and the New Critics in 1949. Rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated after the release of “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette in 1995, but it appears to have been struck a mortal blow in 2016.
Leonard Cohen, by Kelly Sundberg
“Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing. Through the graves, the wind is blowing. Freedom soon will come.” – The Partisan
Dr. Henry Heimlich, by Karen Craigo
Subdiaphragmatic pressure, he called it. The Heimlich maneuver, though, was how it came to be known—given his name because in the two months after a description was published, dozens of lives were saved. This was in 1974.
Lovable Losers, by Sandra Marchetti
When the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, they ended the franchise’s 108-year streak of cruel futility. This year, the label of “lovable losers” died.
Fact, by Sonya Huber
Fact was downed in battle, but the details stutter in, contradictory and strange. With no body, they tell me, closure is a challenge.