It’s become a delicate balance, this being open to joy while not in denial of the harsh reality of the magnitude of fear and suffering and death.
(nonfiction)
Tag: acm
Why are they sitting next to one another enjoying warm, frothy cups of cappuccino?
(nonfiction)
Did I know them? No.
(nonfiction)
One of my students asked, “Is that your cat sleeping up there?”
(nonfiction)
I sighed, expecting a request to extend a deadline.
(nonfiction)
I drift through the Breakout Rooms like a digital ghost . . .
(nonfiction)
Easier to say, there / are too many poets and there aren’t enough rebels.
(poetry)
Reviewer Carol Haggas writes, “Meno has written a definitive and unnerving account of the myriad risks and meager rewards of seeking asylum.”
(review)
Unwrap four bundles of dry vermicelli. / Let their white locks dissolve
(nonfiction)
The abandoned garden cannot be reclaimed in a day.
(nonfiction)
In all the discussions I have been a part of over the last month, prisoners are a population that hasn’t been discussed.
(nonfiction)
The best part is, they never complained.
(nonfiction)
We’ll sleep on it before we make our final decision.
(nonfiction)
My boyfriend drank a Corona from the box in the fridge. We had bought two twelve packs back in January because it’s his favorite beer.
(nonfiction)
I tell my kids not to touch anything or anyone in the office and, immediately, my daughter touches the statue of the children, the fish tank, and is one inch away from a little girl with a mask on.
(nonfiction)
You notice she doesn’t have her usual mom smell; she smells like orange trees and flower fields.
(fiction)
Reviewer William Demaree writes: “These are not the typical ‘well-made’ short stories; teachers would have a bitch of a time using them to illustrate that old ‘exposition-rising action-climax-denouement’ paradigm.”
(review)
I never ever sent my kids to school hungry although they were a bit late sometimes.
(nonfiction)
We like our politicians to be bland technocrats, for obvious historical reasons, but that doesn’t mean they cannot occasionally inspire.
(nonfiction)
I found solace in that security guard’s enthusiasm, solace in Ayón’s work, and in the Chicago Cultural Center’s beauty.
(nonfiction)
“The process of reading the book took longer than usual for a variety of reasons, least of all a natural disaster and a pandemic,” writes reviewer Loie Rawding. “But I found myself returning each night to read a few pages and sink into a warm, if unsettling, darkness.”
(review)
Then I saw the effect the forced isolation was having on my wife.
(nonfiction)
We are talking about our lack of consistent showering, we are talking about our addictions and telling people our feelings.
(nonfiction)
For what do I need / this beautiful key? (poetry)
“Chicago has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison with New York.” (nonfiction)
“There is immense value in Ripatrazone’s book regardless of your faith,” writes reviewer S.T. Brant.
(review)
Downstairs, my grandparents argue over the TV’s low volume, their voices rising and falling like a muffled opera aria.
(nonfiction)
A visual counterpart to our Dispatches from a Pandemic series
Another Chicago Magazine 