Body Image and Me: Accepting Myself Even Though The Dress Doesn’t Fit Anymore

The dress is navy blue. Navy blue with cream color trim around the neck and armholes. It is a size small. I bought it to wear for an Easter Sunday; I don’t remember the year. The dress is one of the few pieces of clothing in my closet that doesn’t Read more

Had There Been Consequences

What if there had been consequences? What if there had been real, meaningful, painful consequences for that unspeakable act all those years ago? Would he still be alive today? What if he had been stripped of his fame, his fortune, his ego back then? What if he had been shunned Read more

Jillian Green DiGiacomo

Jillian Green DiGiacomo an American writer living in America. Sometimes she writes all the time. Sometimes not so much. Her award-winning novel, Codename Cupcake is a hilarious satire about motherhood, espionage, and the PTA. This work has been widely read by every member of her mother’s bridge club. In her free time, she pretends to be very busy so no one asks her to volunteer for anything.

When the Parent Becomes the Child: And Then There Was One

I’ve never minded solitude. For a writer, it’s a natural condition. But caring for a dementia sufferer leads to a particular kind of loneliness. —Laurie Graham My mother is leaving me. Her mind allows her to tell me about my favorite stuffed animal when I was three, my Effalunt, but Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

Ode to the Girl with the Mermaid Hair

That girl, She was young, caring, kind, but naive. She was shy, hair as long as a mermaid, eyes filled with hope for the future. She was fifteen, beginning the process of figuring herself out, the person she wants to be. He was one year older, Dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes, Read more

Sophie Winik

I was a writer for I Am That Girl, a place that helps empower young girls. A place that was so safe I knew I could write about personal things and feel safe in doing so. Not only that but a place where my words would make a difference. And that is something I continue to be passionate about. To share my truth, even if it means I have to show my own vulnerability, and make a difference. To use my voice as an outlook for others. To help inspire and encourage others to share their truth. If I have made a difference to one single person, I know I have done good.

Kissing the Patriarch Goodbye

It’s been over six years now, since I last spoke to my father: mid-summer, July 15th, 2014. I was in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he was lying on a gurney at a funeral home — dead as a doornail. To hide the incisions of his autopsy, the back Read more

Karin Swann-Rubenstein

Karin is a writer (poetry, essays, social commentary) entranced by the relationship between inner-work and social change. Inspired by the revelations in her own healing, she's come to see the de-humanizing impact of patriarchy on women, men and people of color. She envisions the emergence of more empowered women, more attuned, self-reflective men, and the dismantling, for the betterment of all, of the patriarchal gender binary. After decades of inquiry as a feminist, queer activist and encouraged by the growing movement of men 'wanting out' of the "Man Box," she ascribes to a humanism that re-awakens the deep feminine in us all, where the power in our all-too-human vulnerability connects us with greater sympathy and respect for all things inter-dependent and of this earth. She holds masters degrees in gender studies/communication, political philosophy, and psychotherapy and is a long-time student of The Diamond Approach. When not writing, she’s mom to twin, 10-year-old boys and works with her husband on their retreat center in the Anderson Valley, CA. She lives with her family in Berkeley, CA. Another world is not only possible. She is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. - Arundhati Roy

400 Cans to Lunch

I don’t whine about hunger the wayother kids do when they’re given an apple, or told to wait until dinner, or told to waitwhen they’re stomping their feet while mommy and daddy examine the Halloween candies for razor blades and cyanide:I fucking whine.  Everyday it’s deviled ham with mayonnaise—with mayonnaise, mayonnaise, mayonnaise—enough goddamn mayonnaise to make Read more

James Paraskevas

James is a former Bostonian who has been kidnapped by his nefarious wife, force-fed nutritional meals thrice daily, and lovingly coerced to live among the shire-folk in the land of Southern New Hampshire. He teaches English at the local high school when he's not petting his cat, eyeballing dusty books, or professing undying love to the aforementioned wife.

The Wrong James

I was about 21 years old when I began studying for a degree. Disinterested in furthering my education, it was not my wish, but my mother convinced me I would be a failure in life if I didn’t study. As I already believed I was a failure, going to university Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHILE WE WATCH THE HANDMAID’S TALE

What if my dystopia is your heaven, my utopia your hell?We’re not on the same page, darlingMay I still call you that?You said it could never happen hereIsn’t that what the Germans said of Hitler?Where did they think his anti-semantic rants would lead?Darling, I know in your heart the idea Read more

Anne Leigh Parrish

Award-winning writer Anne Leigh Parrish’s next novel, an open door, will be published in October 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Recent titles from Unsolicited Press are the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection, October 2021, and a winter night, a novel, released in March 2021. She is the author of seven other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram, Linked In, and Goodreads.