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At Daybreak
Alabama. 1984. Mami is very pregnant. Open your eyes and breathe life into your belly still swollen with pain pills from the night before. Papi is working the night shift as a guard on base and...
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Excerpt of Be Cool—a memoir (sort of)
Split Screen We are hunkered down around the little white television we use to have. The television was my then girlfriend Debbie’s when we were in college, and it fits our current surroundings: a...
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Ben Tanzer: The TNB Self-Interview
Welcome. Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here, and I appreciate the chance to talk with you about my new essay collection Be Cool—a memoir (sort of) from Dock Street press. Well, great,...
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Writing in Birdsong
For an environmental writing conference, no one’s smoking pot. Not to my knowledge. Not to my discerning nose. Instead, participants, maybe seventy in total, are skipping the evening barn pubs to...
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The Tragic but Common History of Zoo Cage Jumpers
Over the weekend of June 25, 2016 at the Bronx zoo, two separate individuals were arrested for trespassing after they crossed posted boundaries and entered two exhibits separately—the snow leopard...
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We’ve decided, in light of recent events, to feature more political writing on TNB, and more content generally. The election and its aftermath have underscored the value and importance of great writing...
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Marked
“Wear your heart on your skin in this life.” ― Sylvia Plath, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams The springtime Mississippi air was making my hair frizz and my bangs curl, and I looked younger—felt...
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Junk Drawer
You’ve been sitting in front of the dreaded blank screen for hours because everything you think you could write about sounds damn depressing, probably because you just returned from burying your...
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Dis/comfort
I don’t know what’s inside me, but I’ve got ideas. Discomfort is not a word I’d thought to associate with the egg-sized lump in my guts, but after the lump arrived, it made me uncomfortable to...
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Crafting the Rape Story
My friend gave my pages back to me. He said, “If you’re saying this is rape, you need to make the scene clearer. You need to make us hate this guy and feel shit for this chick.” I attempted to...
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Playground and Politics
“Nobody would pass me the ball. Even friends who I thought were my friends wouldn’t pass me the ball.” These words from my nine-year-old after another round of recess Darwinism style bounced around...
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Love to Cynthia
On behalf of the entire TNB community, I want to send love and appreciation to Cynthia Hawkins, our longtime Arts & Culture editor, who is battling cancer with uncommon grace and determination....
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Dear God
Are you there, God? It’s me, Allyson. They never came. The boobs. You know the ones. Aunt Emma has them. Hers are bigger than avocados but similar in shape. And I know—you already know that. You...
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Cynthia Hawkins
We’re so sad to report that Cynthia Hawkins, our Arts & Culture editor, has lost her long battle with cancer. We send our deepest condolences to her husband and two daughters, and all of her family...
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Making Space, Holding Space: #90X90 and Literature as Resistance
There haven’t been many weeks since the summer of 2014 ended in which I haven’t thought about or someone hasn’t reminded me of #90for90, that time we did 90 events over 90 days in a train station bar....
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Shout Outs
Late for class again, late and permanently disorganized, wearing my jeans jacket despite the chill. I could cut class and what difference would it make, but for a brief feeling of regret? Who was I...
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Mother Could Be You
A year ago I was pretty, people noticed me in the train. I had this way of not looking. That’s the trick, isn’t it? You present yourself, your perfumed body, soft at the right places, a straight...
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When Your Best White Male Friend (Allegedly) Becomes a Radical Islamic...
In Memory of Scott Von Lanken Joshua Cummings, 2017 1. Do nothing after you find out from a mutual friend via Facebook messenger that your once-best friend, Joshua Cummings, just allegedly shot and...
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Things He Said
Damn, you’re sexy. For a work convention. What do you mean uh-oh? Not everyone in Vegas is doing coke and getting blowjobs from hookers. It was great talking to you…I don’t want the...
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Jenny Forrester: The TNB Self-Interview
Who do you think you are? I mean, what makes you so special? I ask myself these questions all the time. I imagine people asking these questions about me behind my back. So, I wanted to include them...
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