Tag: women’s issues

Weapons of War

Elisabeth Horan

I wonder about fistulas and how a pocket of flesh is made from violence / how a coin purse of feces and urine and discharge holds the effluence of rape / who holds the run-off of soldier’s semen’s  war-crimes / who holds girls’ hands’ tremors when the fingernails are gone Read more

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a poet mother student lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She writes to survive and survives to write - We are all battling something. Let's support each other. Elisabeth enjoys riding horses and caring for her cats, chickens, goats and children (not necessarily in that order). She teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

Good Girl

Shannon Williams

“Why are you so quiet over there?” a relative asked in my general direction at a family gathering. I was around 10 or 12 years old and lost in thought. An older relative fully snapped me out of my reverie when she replied, “Shannon’s a good girl. She’s always quiet.” Read more

Shannon Williams

Shannon is an interior designer turned stay-at-home mom who had three kids in two years (boy-girl twins + another little guy). She lives for coffee, reading, pedicures, and a good beer. She is a regular contributor to the Twin Cities Moms Blog and has also had her work featured on Coffee + Crumbs. You can find her working to use her voice by writing her thoughts on motherhood and life over at shannonscribbles.net.

The Truths We Keep Hidden

Sara Ohlin

Barefoot, I stood on the edge of the bluff, leaning out towards the great Pacific Ocean. The wind – dry and hot against my face – tethered me to the land. I stood in awe, surrounded by the beauty of the madrone tree. A sacred tree, revered for the strength Read more

Sara Ohlin

Sara Ohlin lives and writes in Bangor, Maine. Her essays can be found at Anderbo.com (as Sara Mitchell), Trillium Literary Journal, Mothers Always Write, The Good Mother Project and the anthology, Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak About Health Care in America. She’s a contributor to Her View from Home and currently writes about life, food, grief, and motherhood at www.lemonsandroses.com

Learning to Thrive

Dana Boyer

In July 2014, in Okinawa, Japan, I got pregnant with our second boy. Fresh off a miscarriage and two months before we were due to move eastward across the Pacific, this little one was anything but planned. I know the trend today is to say ‘We are pregnant’, emphasizing the Read more

Dana Boyer

Since graduating with an MA in Creative Writing form the University of Nebraska, Dana Boyer has been writing and traveling her way around the world. Her work appears in The Tishman Review, A Clean, Well Lighted Place and the anthology My Body, My Words. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and two sons.

Leakage: A Minor Problem

Julene Tripp Weaver

women leak: we do not talk about our leaks: not acceptable dinner conversation: in youth I did not need extra protection, Depends, I had strong elastic muscle: now I’m told, do Kegels: surgery is an option: can we get more extreme? scientific? Pharmaceutical? when all the heart wants is a Read more

Julene Tripp Weaver

Julene Tripp Weaver is a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, WA. Her three poetry books are: truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, (Finishing Line Press, 2017), No Father Can Save Her (Plain View Press, 2011), and a chapbook, Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues (Finishing Line Press, 2007). Julene worked for 21 years in AIDS services. She is widely published in journals and anthologies. Her poems can be found online at Anti-Heroin Chic, Riverbabble, River & South Review, The Seattle Review of Books, HIV Here & Now, and Writing in a Woman's Voice. Find more of her writing at www.julenetrippweaver.com and @trippweavepoet on Twitter.

The Hair There

Eris Gentle

The hair there keeps coming back, pushing through, endlessly, as if there is a message they have been trying to get to you, years now. But you’re good at your job of pulling out and cutting down. Wouldn’t it be a shame to quit? Suppose in some strange rebellious moment Read more

Eris Gentle

Eris Gentle is a writer, mother, visual artist, and activist living in a windy valley near Austin, Texas, where nature is her muse and meditation is her medicine. She received her BA in creative writing from Louisiana State University. You can glimpse her life on Instagram or her website Erisgentle.com.

Judy.

Emelie Samuelson

I named my uterus Judy a few years ago. It made sense at the time. Calling it “Judy” gave me the freedom to air my bodily grievances while surrounded by strangers. Those closest to me knew who Judy was, and the general public, who tend to be grossed out by Read more

Emelie Samuelson

Emelie Samuelson is a girl in her twenties who is just trying her best. She spends her days reading, writing, and talking about books, playing games, and snuggling with dogs. She is the creator of the humor blog, Awkwardly Alive and Pleasantly Peculiar. Her work has also appeared on HelloGiggles, Catalyst Wedding Co., and in the anthology, This One Has No Name by The No Name Writing Group.

Organics

Paakhi Bhatnagar

There is something indecent in the way she covers her body. Veins are sliding against the thick undertones of her pale skin, a bone on her elbow and peeks of hair unnecessary but unshaved, all are paving to her chest, filled with oxidants from things not inhaled. There, sitting on Read more

Paakhi Bhatnagar

Paakhi Bhatnagar is a student from India and an avid reader of historical fiction. She is a passionate feminist and blogs about current politics and feminist issues. She also possess the uncanny ability of turning everything into a debate.