Issue 13 / Spring 2018
SFWP Celebrates 20 Years
Part 2: Mission
Creative Nonfiction
The Bardo of Goodbye
“If he were truly dying, wouldn’t he be holed up under the bed, tucked up in the closet on top of the tennis shoes, focused on his own leavetaking?”
Love Note to the Date with Shrapnel in His Face
“You don’t tell him that veterans from Middle-Eastern wars who have post-traumatic stress can’t date women who look like you. You’d be a trigger. You know this from experience. But again, just because it’s true doesn’t mean you need to say it.”
In Which I Interview Myself After Watching Black Panther
“I stand with shoulders slouched before them & I am reminded to stand up straight?& pick?joy up like the weapon I’ve known it to be even when I do not want to be reminded of this & would rather wallow in my sad.”
Love Yodels
“It’s hard not to feel like there’s a reason why this happened. It’s hard not to look back and think that every single thing has led up to this.”
Fiction
Men in Trees
“It led him to imagine man returned—restored—to an earlier refuge, taking once more to the high green branches, and then to a fantasy of himself set loose in a pelt, with a club, to find food and shelter. This vision was followed by an image of men as green as pears dangling and ripening in the sun, each dreaming of the woman who would pluck him.”
A Public Service
“Even if Melissa told people, or showed them a drawing, it would only serve to further solidify their family as a bunch of social outcasts. Nothing more.”
The Way Forward
“Jonas explains: whenever he goes into the wilderness, part of the adventure is to navigate by the sun, by the trees, by his internal compass. She’s impressed; if she’d known this before she might have kept her panic levels down. ‘I told you I was a tracker in the army, right?’”
Leftovers
“When Suzy yelled, she hurled words at him. Though he backed away from the table, they followed him toward the door. They were sharp and pointy and when they reached him, they stung.”
Culture Rant
“How do you say that word?”: Choreopoems and Doing It For the Culture
“Knowing the stories are real changes the way we see art. We can dance to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar and know what they are saying is true—but at the end of the day, we see them as artists, highly successful and rich people who suffer but suffer less.”