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Excerpt of Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir, by Jenny Forrester
The Minnesota relatives visited. Our grandfather had visited us. He walked among the thistles and goats and chickens while we showed him where the events of our lives happened – the place where I...
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How to Be Funnier Than the Funniest Man in the Room
A man you don’t know makes a joke online of which you are the brunt, you know the one—woman, kitchen, sandwich—that old droopy-eyed dog of a joke still rattling around under the stoop, its bark long...
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Sing
Sing of despair, of days, this song the abyss in you. The ocean is deep but Lake Vostok is deeper still. A person can’t float in it, can’t taste it. A person can’t even see it but only imagine with...
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What Doesn’t Go Away
She researches genealogy. Collects. Organizes. Obsesses. Discovers distant relatives all along the Adriatic Coast. Roots stretching across continents and seas. But don’t ask her about cells or...
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O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A: an acrostic
Oklahoma, he said in his mind, two long os, two short as, and wanted to know if there would be anyone to whom he could disclose, ever, the tenderness of his feelings, in all their callowness, when he...
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The Fifth W
In journalism, we’re taught to ask the Five Ws and the Sixth H: 1. What happened? 2. Who was involved? 3. Where did it take place? 4. When did it take place? 5. Why did that happen? 6. How did it...
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Richard Ramirez Taught Me to Pray
It all began with a visit from a woman. She rang our doorbell. Diiiiiiiiing Dooooong. My widowed Bengali immigrant mother opened our large wooden door. It let out a small creak. Maybe a warning, like...
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Sharon Harrigan: The TNB Self-Interview
You just published a book called Playing with Dynamite: A Memoir. Why did you decide to write a book about yourself? Did you do jail time or recover from addiction or walk on the moon or something?...
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Excerpt of Playing with Dynamite: A Memoir, by Sharon Harrigan
It was All Saints’ Day. A perfect time to visit our local legend, Thomas Jefferson. People talk about Jefferson in Charlottesville, anchored by the university he founded, as if he were alive....
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Last Night I Had a Dream: On Sorrow, Seizures, and Song Lyrics
Last night I had a dream that my mother and I went shopping. We were at an outdoor mall and it seemed to be wintry; I sensed the glow of holiday lights. We were having a nice time together and I...
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The Effects of Silence: Unheard Outcries of Child Sexual Abuse
“I have a secret,” David said. Then, silence. No secret spilled. Not for another three months. Next, his outbursts, explosions of anger. Throwing glass on the floor, acting up at home, punches...
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Excerpt of Mean, by Myriam Gurba
Capital Murder I got picked to go to Washington, DC. I went with a bunch of other teachers from around the country to learn about the Supreme Court. This was supposed to make us better history...
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Myriam Gurba: The TNB Self-Interview
Do you remember when your father used to say that talking to yourself was a sign of intelligence? Yes. Lol. Do you want to talk about your book? Not really, but I will. Tell what your latest book...
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Excerpt of The Wrong Way To Save Your Life, by Megan Stielstra
The Blogger’s Wife 1) I have an idea. 2) It’s called The Blogger’s Wife. 3) I’m not sure if it’s a story or an essay. 4) It’s about a woman who’s married to a blogger and if someone leaves a shitty...
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Megan Stielstra: The TNB Self-Interview
I’m not sure what to ask myself right now besides do you want some more wine? So for the purposes of this self-interview, I will answer the top ten questions people have asked me about The Wrong Way...
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Pluto in the Twelfth House
Mark Frechette, movie actor and bank robber, believed in astrology. His interest in it started before he joined an astrology-obsessed commune, based in the Fort Hill district of Boston, that called...
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Whining and Dining
I can be a difficult guy to dine out with. Just ask my long-suffering wife. I’ve run restaurants my entire adult life so I know how the sausage is made. Literally. I’ve held every position in the...
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Excerpt from The First Church of What’s Happening, by Miah Jeffra
To An Ex-Lover, after A Natural History of the Senses When I was sixteen, I saw an alien. True story. My mama and I were watching television in our narrow low-rent Baltimore rowhouse when we heard our...
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Miah Jeffra: The TNB Self-Interview
Why do you bite your nails during interviews? I’m nervous. Actually, I’m terrified that someone will think I’m narcissistic. Or maybe that they will recognize that I am a bit narcissistic. Either way,...
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Unspoken Words that Begin with N (even when they don’t)
I am watching a dance segment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, three black males in their late teens or early 20s, performing physical feats that leave me breathless with amazement. They explain that...
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