Latest Articles

The Folder on Marcus's Desktop

The handwriting on the oldest pages had gone gray where the steam hit it. He'd started using a pen with a finer tip...

The Forty-Tab Man

He'd started keeping the legal pad in the freezer bag after he spilled the coffee on the third one that month. The tabs...

The Weight of a Weekend

She replied to Derek's message without opening the thread, and the weekend never quite started. A story about work that keeps a thumb on your days off.

Home & Garden

What I Got Wrong About Backyard Garden Layouts for Small Properties

The grocery bag had a grease stain near the bottom that I drew around. I made the rectangle first, careful with the ruler, and then I drew the path down the mid...

Education & Careers

The Certificate on the Kitchen Table

The enrollment button glowed underneath a strip of yellowed packing tape that bisected the screen exactly in half. Marcus pressed his thumb against the peeling ...

Stories

Planting a Tree You May Never Sit Under: My Grandfather's Orchard and Time

He circled a peach in the catalog and wrote a year five years out, in the handwriting he saved for important things. He did not get the five years.

Stories

Using the good dishes on an ordinary Tuesday changed what I understood about waiting

I lifted the first plate out of its tissue the way I used to lift baby birds that had fallen into the yard - both hands, barely breathing. The paper had gone th...

Stories

The Watch Goes to Marcus

My father kept the pocket watch in the left breast pocket of his good coat, the charcoal one he wore to funerals and job interviews and once, memorably, to a

Stories

The Cooler in the Trunk

He had a thermos the color of old mustard wedged under one arm, and he set it on the Civic's roof while he worked the bungee cord over the cooler lid, hooking i...