The boxes, stacked in the garage, seem new to me, plastic with clip-lock lids, but we’ve had them for years. They’re dusty and drizzled by Floridian garage-fawna. They don’t look like the […]
A Few Thoughts on Taking Down the Tree
Lisa Lanser Rose
I'm Trick Dog Trainer and the author two books, the memoir, For the Love of a Dog, (Harmony Books), and the novel, Body Sharers (Rutgers University Press). My work is represented by Birch Literary Agency. Body Sharers placed among the finalists for the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for Best First Novel. Recent honors include finalist for the 2017 Frank McCourt Memoir Prize, winner of the 2016 Briar Cliff Review Nonfiction Award, winner of the 2013 Florida Review Editor’s Award, and a Best American Essays 2015 Notable Essay. My dogs moonwalk throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Just Because a Man Identifies as a Liberal Feminist, That Doesn’t Mean He Can’t Be Abusive
by Vanessa Blakeslee I spent the first week of October with my father, side-by-side in the Florida condo where I’ve long resided. Pieces to a board game lay scattered throughout the house, the […]
Everything is Broken
by Sharon Kessler —from Rattle #44, Summer 2014 [download audio] Seems like every time you turn around, something else just hit the ground. —Bob Dylan, “Everything Is Broken” I have woven a parachute […]
Raising an Invisible Man: A Mother’s Lament
by Angela Jackson-Brown I see you. I SEE you. I remember the first time my family and I went to see the movie, Avatar, and after we heard the Naʼvi characters say […]
December–You Can’t Take This From Me
by Suzannah Gilman, Susan Lilley, and Lisa Lanser Rose One night at the “Other Words” conference a few weeks ago, we three sipped nightcaps together in the hotel bar. We talked long […]
Run Towards Each Other by Katherine Riegel
Originally posted on The Brevity Blog:
Another winning entry in Brevity‘s Holiday Smile contest: It is Thanksgiving, again. My smile is a weapon cutting off access to my grief-treasure. Or perhaps my smile…
Pura Vida, or Reflections on “The Good Life”
by Vanessa Blakeslee Since 2008, the year I originally wrote this essay as part of my application for the Gift of Freedom Award, the conversation about the challenges women writers face in […]
“When I Heard About the Gunman”
In light of last night’s shooting at my daughter’s school, this poem reminds me that despite the undertow of fear, peace reigns for us, and for that, I’m grateful. Be safe.“When I […]
Meet a Real Siren Tomorrow at Florida Bookstore Day!
Originally posted on Lisa Lanser Rose:
For Florida Bookstore Day, I’ll be reading with my wild, awarding-winning Science Fiction friend Nick DiChario at Wilson’t Book World! Come crack up and buy presents…
Dogs and the Dead
Here’s a little overachiever story about Halloween in Pennsylvania, raising a daughter alongside two dogs, sewing the perfect costume, carving the perfect pumpkins (that’s right–plural!), and wondering what it all means. It’s […]
The Gloria Sirens 