Tag: marriage

Leaving My Ex Sparked Decades of Unintended Consequences

Lizbeth Meredith

“My name is Precious, how can I help you?” “I think I need to go to your shelter,” I blurted. My daughters, still both in diapers, were wailing in the background. The battered women’s shelter. Never had I thought I would be a battered woman, or that I would live Read more

Lizbeth Meredith

Lizbeth Meredith's memoir Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters is a 2017 IPPY Award silver medalist. She blogs at www.lameredith.com, is a contributor to A Girls’ Guide To Travelling Alone by Gemma Thompson, and is the author of When Push Comes to Shove: How to Help When Someone You Love Is Being Abused. A former domestic violence advocate, Lizbeth has worked with at-risk teens for nearly two decades as a juvenile probation supervisor.

Shameless Confessions of the Anhedonic Housewife

Peter M. Olsen

I. Slowly biting the corner of her lower lip Running her fingers through her long, brown hair She walked across the darkened hotel room Wearing nothing but the goosebumps and glistening beads of sweat covering every inch of her soft skin. The film of last night runs through her mind Read more

Peter M. Olsen

After graduating from Washington State University with a B.A. in Humanities, Peter M. Olsen found his true passion and became a blogger. He is also a mental health advocate dedicated to helping people with mental illness. In his free time, Peter is in search for the greatest taco trucks in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. ​Peter is a raver and PLUR warrior, video game junkie, coffee snob, and an all-around pretty cool guy. Trance and house music keeps Peter a very happy guy. Peter lives in the greatest city on Planet Earth, the Emerald City...Seattle, Washington.

Day 356: A Love Letter to My 30’s

Amye Archer

You were the decade that made me a wife. Again. A better wife this time. This time I knew better than to throw the dishes against the wall. This time I knew better than to demand answers, honesty, attention. This time I knew what a good man looked like. He Read more

Amye Archer

Amye Archer holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Her memoir, Fat Girl, Skinny, was named runner-up for the Red Hen Press Nonfiction Manuscript Award, and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has two poetry collections: BANGS and A Shotgun Life, both published by Big Table Publishing. Amye’s work has appeared in Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Hippocampus, Mothers Always Write, Nailed Magazine, PMS: Poem Memoir Story, PANK, and Provincetown Arts. She is the creator of The Fat Girl Blog.

Dear Sir

Erin Wilburn

“There was a flower in her heart, it just needed more room to bloom, and when she let it free, she showed the world that sometimes the most beautiful things can grow in the darkest of places without the need of light.” —R.M.Drake   Dear Sir, I prayed for you Read more

Erin Wilburn

Erin Wilburn is 32 years old, now living in the heart of the New River Gorge in beautiful Fayetteville, West Virginia. She loves exploring the outdoors whether it's on her mountain bike through the trails or in her kayak through the rapids. She moved to the Appalachian mountains a few months after losing her husband and best friend, John, in a tragic kayaking accident in Northern California on March 9, 2014. John was only 30 years old. Erin and John lived in Southern Oregon at the time and had a wonderful, adventurous life together. Shortly after his death, Erin began to write. Writing has been an outlet for her pain and experience so far with this huge loss. Her hope is that by being honest with herself and others about what it is like to walk through deep grief, it may help others as well. You can read more about her experiences and perspective on her blog. Erin has also recently put together the John Duncan Wilburn Adventure Scholarship that is associated the Shenandoah Community Foundation, in honor of her beloved husband. The scholarship is open to applicants and donors alike.

Marriage

Christina Strigas

I sit alone in my bedroom you sit alone on the couch. You go to work I stay home. You never call. I never text. Our wedding portrait is on the wall to remind us of who we were in case we forget. We still have sex but we are Read more

Christina Strigas

Christina Strigas is an author and poet, raised by Greek immigrants, who has written four poetry books. Her poetry book LOVE & VODKA was featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you.” Her most recent poetry book, LOVE & METAXA, has garnered positive reviews, including Pank Magazine. Strigas’s poems have appeared in Montreal Writes, Feminine Collective, Neon Mariposa Magazine, Pink Plastic House Journal, BlazeVOX, Thimble Lit Magazine, Twist in Time Literary Magazine, The Temz Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, among others. Her poem, “Dead Wife” was nominated for best of the net 2020. In Spring 2022, she will be releasing her fifth poetry book by Free Lines Press, a French indie magazine that publishes experimental poetry. Twitter: @christinastriga Instagram : @c.strigas_sexyasspoet Facebook: Christina Strigas Author

Right Here

Ann Klotz

The April Mom died, I resisted going East, believing that if I didn’t go, she wouldn’t die. I did not want her spry, wise, funny light extinguished. But my second daughter, then fifteen, looked at me with scorn and said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m going to Read more

Ann Klotz

I am a writer and mother, living in Shaker Heights, OH, where I am the Head of Laurel School, a girls' school. Our house is full of books and tiny rescue dogs. My work has appeared in Literary Mama, Mothers Always Write, the Brevity Blog, Mutha, Mamlode, The Grief Diaries, Manifest Station and elsewhere. My essay about becoming a teacher was recently published in Creative Nonfiction's anthology What I Didn't Know. I blog semi-regularly for the Huffington Post.

Free Bird

Kim Sisto Robinson

He had already locked the front door so she couldn’t escape, couldn’t open her cage.
Perhaps he uttered a prayer to whomever murderers utter prayers too. Perhaps he gave last rights to himself, took communion, had a last meal, said goodbye to his mother, brother, sister, children, the cats.

Kim Sisto Robinson

Kim Sisto Robinson is a mother, lover, poet, writer, educator, obsessive blogger, lover of cats, cheese puffs, chocolate chips cookies, Sylvia Plath, addicted to books, women’s stories, walking with audio books ( Lolita was off the charts!), and powerful, transformative words. Her work has appeared in Scary Mommy, Bella On Line, Glass Woman, Migrations, Rebelle Society, and Feminine Collective. She created her blog, My Inner Chick, to honor her sister, Kay, whom was murdered by her estranged husband in 2010. Her mission is to give “Voice” to all women without one. She was honored the "Men As Peacemaker's Award" in 2015 for her work with domestic violence.