Tag: religion

Fat Tuesday

Emily Nelson

Layla tells us that she was down to 500 calories a day when she saw God. We’re all at Bri’s house, the four of us knee to knee and shivering because her mom turns off the heat at nine. The basement TV is paused in the middle of an episode Read more

Emily Nelson

Emily Nelson is a writer and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her writing has been featured in The Rumpus, Ayaskala, Drizzle Review, and elsewhere. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA in Fiction at the University of Montana, and is the fiction editor for CutBank Magazine.

A Storm in Milton, Georgia

Elizabeth Markley

Emma had been kicked out of her house. This was a first, for Emma or for her siblings, and it really did not strike her as fair. She had not actually done anything, as in, performed an action or committed a crime. All she did was remind her mother of Read more

Elizabeth Markley

Elizabeth Markley is a writer living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been previously published in The Write Launch, The Mighty Line, Cleaning Up Glitter, Haunted Waters Press, and Castabout Literary Magazine. When she is not writing she is kept busy by her children, two rambunctious boys under the age of four.

The Hypatia State

Jen Rouse

My father said, “You will be a perfect human.” And I wondered, as a child, if I was not human, was I serpent, perhaps? perhaps circle, eclipse, or parabola? the curve of a flat plane cutting through a cone? Was I, at all, beautiful? Women, they said, were not human. Read more

Jen Rouse

Jen Rouse’s poems have appeared in Poetry, Poet Lore, Midwestern Gothic, Wicked Alice, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, Yes Poetry, Crab Fat Magazine, Up the Staircase, and elsewhere. She was named a finalist for the Mississippi Review 2018 Prize Issue and was the winner of the 2017 Gulf Stream Summer Contest Issue. Rouse’s chapbook, Acid and Tender, was published in 2016 by Headmistress Press. Find her at jen-rouse.com and on Twitter @jrouse.

Billy Graham is Dead

Lydia A. Cyrus

I sit in my mother’s lap and she cries, my father is enraged, my younger brother promises he would never ever treat a woman badly. He would never try to violate someone. My family members were not evangelicals— they were parishioners of a different kind, Baptists. When I read the Read more

Lydia A. Cyrus

Lydia A. Cyrus is a creative writer from Huntington, West Virginia. She has non-fiction work featured in several journals, including Luna Luna Magazine where she serves as a staff writer. Her poems can found in places like Quail Bell Magazine and Moonchild Mag. She is a proud Mountain Woman and loves her dog.

Things Fall Apart

Merima Trako

Things are falling apart branches give in to the wind tree trunks thump to the ground twisters graze the barren land and houses fly unmoving sand resembles a curtain and seas collide taking earthly wonders into its swarming depts. Things fall apart like love and courage we no longer stand Read more

Merima Trako

Merima was born and raised in Bosnia-Herzegovina (former Yugoslavia). Sudden nationalistic divide in the early nineties, leads to a bloody war where a three percent of Bosnian population (mainly Muslims) is killed. Merima and her family escape ethnic cleansing in Banja Luka (where she was born) and settle in Travnik. Her story continues with her move to the USA to study engineering and mathematics, her “other love”, where she lives now. She is a mother, a refugee, an engineer and a woman passionate about creating literary awareness about world issues, social injustices and her life experiences, consisting of complex topics, from religion to non-spiritual events. Her work is available for readers on her website www.worldaccordingtoblam.com. Most recently she published two short stories and two poems in the collection of prose and poetry of the No Name Writing Group from Washington Depot, CT in their anthology titled “This One Has No Name”.

Laughing with the Sinners: My Life as a Jehovah’s Witness

Dave Pasquel

By the world’s standards, I was a good kid: I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs, and I didn’t get into trouble with the law. In fact, I was so squeaky-clean I was still a virgin. Without delay, however, I was counseled by church elders and advised I wasn’t a good kid by Jehovah’s Witnesses standards: I had shoulder-length hair, I attended rock concerts, I had worldly girlfriends, and I possessed a questionable record collection that included music by Stevie Nicks and Led Zeppelin.

The Cult That Is Religion

Stephanie Ortez

There was a time in my life when I would rise with the sun every morning to usher in the new day. The flawless serenity of the new day’s light channeled the physical energy and spiritual fortitude I would need to meet every challenge and seize every chance to make Read more

Stephanie Ortez

Stephanie is a highly caffeinated mother of two wonderful boys. She is hopelessly addicted to non-fiction books and literature that moves her to tears. She is an admissions advisor for George Washington University online where she assists homeschooled students internationally. Stephanie lives with Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She is a passionate mental health advocate, member of Stigma Fighters. Her writing has been featured on The Elephant Journal, The Mighty, The Organic Coffee Haphazardly and Feminine Collective.

I Hear You

Laurie Hiatt

Last night I had a dream that I was home with my children, and we heard a ruckus outside. The kids looked out the screen door to see what it was, and a huge, angry dog came thrashing at them, viciously barking and jumping up to tear at the screen. Read more

Laurie Hiatt

Laurie Hiatt is an adventure traveler, avid reader, music lover, mother, and chocolate connoisseur who gets to make her living by making a difference in her community. A community organizer and health educator for 28 years, she loves to get down in the trenches with all types of people to make positive changes in their neighborhoods. It’s taken her a while, but she’s finally figuring out how to find a healthy balance of the magic that chaos brings to life and the centering of herself. She is currently throwing a dart at a map to decide where to travel next.