MISCELLANEOUS GRIEVANCES by Ji Hyun Joo
My doppelgänger smells like wet fur and Old Spice. Even when we’re sitting in the dry air conditioning of my Jeep Cherokee, the scent — heavy with notes of yeast and nutmeg — is overpowering. It’s...
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Pulp Poems by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
pulp poem 2 Full text as PDF Pulp poem 7 Full text as PDF Nathaniel Lachenmeyer is an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Pulp Poem #2 and Pulp Poem #7 are part of a series of Pulp...
View ArticleThe Antipodal Point of Fear by David H Weinberger
Sitting still in a five feet deep hole is the opposite of what I planned. But I can’t get the dirt up out of the hole at this depth. As I toss dirt towards the top with my shovel, it spills back down,...
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A Normal Interview with Myriam Gurba
In Myriam Gurba’s essay collection, Creep: Accusations and Confessions, the author unpacks the complexities of a word that we often take for granted. Gurba describes her experiences with creepdom...
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Laurels by Tara A. Elliott
Laurels You who outpaced a God’s steady pursuit, arms now berry-covered branch —how awfully they must ache. Held ever outward in a stretch for the sun, feet rooted in darkest...
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Still Life With Chair by Jericho Parms
“A funny thing about a chair; You hardly ever think it’s there.”-Theodore RoethkeLately, going batty at the thought of stillness, I can’t help but wonder how sitting by a window feels like being in...
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The Smokers’ Daughter by Rosemary Harp
The drive to my elementary school was two cigarettes long, three if we hit red lights on Woodward Avenue. By the time my mother lit her second, the Volkswagen was foggy and acrid from the...
View ArticleMinor Lightning by Victoria Barrett
Once it gets dark I go out. Sometimes to Target or to an all-night grocery, if that’s what we need, but mostly I go to bars. First I tuck the baby in. I sing her three or four songs I used to sing at...
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The Velvet Air of Gaza: A Conversation with Three Palestinian Writers
Editor’s note: This Normal School roundtable discussion includes authors Susan Muaddi Darraj, Lena Mubsutina, and Deema K. Shehabi, as moderated by Samina Najmi.Najmi: A very warm welcome to each of...
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Missive for a Departed Soul by Haya Abu Nasser
Dear friend, I hope it is not cold above, and you rest on a blessed bed of silk.Everything binds me as a slaveto loathing after your unfair end. The bombs silenced your final words,and your wish...
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A Normal Interview with Éric Morales-Franceschini by Victoria Monsivaiz
Editor’s note: In this conversation, writer Victoria Monsivaiz talks with author Éric Morales-Franceschini, winner of the 2022 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for the collection “Syndrome,” selected by...
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Can Chimera Be Rescued? by Kristin Emanuel
Read multimedia description (alt text) Kristin Emanuel holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Kansas where she studied ecofabulism and the comics poetry movement. She is currently a PhD student...
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Turn Away by Stephanie La Rose
The Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist, took up an entire block of Kercheval Avenue on the eastside of Detroit. Across Kercheval, the rubble of crumbled buildings. Across Ashlund on the...
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Two Poems by Vikesh Kapoor
The Caterpillar Death is a funny thing I care to understand, upon the backs of mother’s hands who cradle the scars of eastern sunrise, or cooking oil, or prayer plumes burning for fathers of foreign...
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LGM-1 by Robert Paul Weston
Until a few weeks ago my brother had two hands. His name is Emre, which everyone mispronounces. They see it written down and say “Emir” when it’s properly pronounced EM-ray. I correct them and they...
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The Scorpion by Leila Khaleghi
She sat on a park bench, sipping a coke between drags of a cigarette. She felt peaceful in her anonymity, nearly invisible. The crowds did not notice her as she supervised their little dramas. No one...
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Three Poems by Risë Kevalshar Collins
rattleweed dayton ohio september 2021clifford owensby drives black / withhis three-year-old son / hears sirenssees blue shirt cops / pulls over / stopsTurn the car off your windows are too dark / he...
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The Opposite of Sorry by Gabe Montesanti
Image descriptions (alt text) Gabe Montesanti is the author of Brace for Impact: A Memoir, which chronicles her time skating for Arch Rival Roller Derby. Gabe earned her Bachelors in mathematics and...
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A Normal Interview with Alexandra Chang by Phoua Lee
Alexandra Chang’s latest short story collection, Tomb Sweeping, dives into many lives undergoing a transition or change, for the better or for worse, all acted upon by the same humane desire:...
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This land is by Bill Marsh
right here. By car there’s only one way in: Take the county road due north until it dead-ends in our gravel driveway. Simple as that, we say, but folks don’t believe us sometimes. There must...
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