In the Care of Things

Scratch scratch. Scratch scratch. It is 6 a.m., and CeCe knows I am sleeping in the guestroom. Scratch, scratch, scratch. The room is grey in the predawn. It is too early even for birds. CeCe’s scratching is the only sound, and now me, rising at 6 a.m., already feeling sorry Read more

Melissa Ann Sweat

Melissa Ann Sweat is a writer, artist, and singer-songwriter whose music project Lady Lazarus has been featured at the New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Interview, and many more. Her writing has been published at Impose Magazine, Dangerous Minds, and Skirt! magazine, among others. Melissa lives by the beach in Aptos, CA and is currently finishing up her first novel and writing new songs. Find her at www.melissannsweat.com

Nest

Even in her sleep, the girl knew the wasps were back. She felt one land on her bare leg. I must wake up, I must wake up, I must wake up. Her fingertips grazed her eyelids. They refused to open. She thrashed and kicked and yelled until she willed her Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

Today is the Day

Today is the last day of my life. It was inevitable, and I had accepted it. In fact, I had embraced it. I was almost looking forward it. I expected – well – I hoped, that it would provide the release that I wanted. The relief that I needed. But Read more

Michelle Dinnick

I am a contributing author in the most recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada, and a quarter finalist in the ScreenCraft Short Screenplay contest. My writing has won several awards, and appeared in The Globe and Mail and a number of local magazines and newspapers in Alliston, including The Briar Crier, Total Sports, Voice of the Farmer, and Focus 50 Plus. Last summer, my short story “Lightning Strikers” was made into a series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper because fans asked for more! You can find me online at www.commuterlit.com; www.fiftywordstories.com and www.michelledinnick.com.

Emotional Odyssey at the Department of Motor Vehicles

I always see at least one handsome man at the DMV. It’s never one of the workers (bitter civil servants who never give you adequate time to prepare for that little picture they take of you because it is the one joy they have left) but some other poor, unfortunate Read more

Maddie Swenson

Maddie is a full-time college student with dreams of becoming a librarian. She likes books more than people sometimes, demonstrating a nearly sacrilegious affinity for books written by Shirley Jackson and Sylvia Plath. Her writing appears in secret diary entries and in letters to friends and on her personal website: https://msweny.wixsite.com/write

In a Laundry Room on Virgin Gorda

I was on Virgin Gorda, ashore at 8:00 a.m. doing my last loads of laundry before the trip south. Out of the wash and into the dryers, I was waiting to start folding. In came the cleaning lady, an older black woman, local, probably in her late sixties. “Good morning,” Read more

Jennifer M. Smith

Jennifer M. Smith is an author and an adventurer. Together with her husband, she has sailed over 40,000 miles around the world on their sailboat Green Ghost and she has plenty of stories to tell. She is working on a book about her ocean voyages but she is frequently distracted by other creative non-fiction short stories and micro-fiction stories that pop into her head and make a lot of noise until they are released through her pen or her keyboard.

Checkmate

Johnson’s eyes darted across the room. He spotted a middle-aged blonde, a teenager wearing bright, purple lipstick and a black young man who appeared to be her boyfriend. He approached them. They were huddled together weeping and comforting one another.

Ola Majekodunmi

Ola is a 20-year-old student and music show host from Dublin, Ireland, of Nigerian origin. She is interested in social and political issues. Ola also loves dancing, singing and acting. She aims to share writings on Feminine Collective that bring voice to the unheard, particularly women of color, who are underrepresented in main stream media.

Rocks and Cameras

Then, in a wine soaked haze, I realize what the worst part about this is.We are always on guard against the men in the streets. The ones who whistle while we walk. We guard against the men at the bars, whose smiles turn to snarls upon rejection. We guard against the men online whose thumbs could spell “slut” without help from their eyes. We are almost always on guard. We almost never feel safe.

Cassandra Cervi

Cassandra Cervi is a student entering her fourth year of an Honors Specialization in Creative Writing and English Language at the University of Western Ontario. Her work has been featured in Beautiful Losers Magazine and Pip Magazine. She is also the Assistant Book Editor at the Drunken Boat.

Rebecca

The landing at the top of the stairs sounded the loudest lament. Her fingers traced the expansion and contraction lines on the white-washed plaster walls as she took the first steps slowly, navigating the bowed and weakened wood on the stairs. The house and her family were accustomed to her. Read more

Alicia Gatto Petersen

Alicia Gatto Petersen’s life revolves around the shores of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Her poems have previously appeared in Mothers Always Write. This is her first flash fiction publication and her first in the Feminine Collective. She is honored to be part of the collective.