By Brice Particelli Two friends, a leaky raft, and the Bronx River. We splurged on the raft. While the picture on the box clearly showed two young kids paddling a placid lake, it also boasted a “motor-mount fitting” for an engine. It was comforting to know that this raft at least pretended to be built for […]

By Lance Mason A suicide memoir, disrupted. While any high-speed “get-off” from a motorcycle is a brush with death, each one is unique. So here you are, zipping over the asphalt at sixty miles per, and the next moment your machine’s wheels depart the ground. Its normal exhaust note, a throaty, twin-cylinder rumble-and-thump, vanishes, immediately […]

by Bill Zarchy A remembrance I like to google people from my past. I never know what I’ll find. Once I googled Mr. Tavis, my elementary school principal, a huge man with a booming voice, and discovered that he had sung on Broadway in the late 40s. A month ago I googled Nancy, a producer […]

by Chris Epting Venturing into a valley with a badass name for a father-son camping trip, Dad wonders if it’s time to change the misleading moniker of America’s largest national park. I almost think that it’s time to rename Death Valley. Yes, know the moniker has all that great foreboding mystique. Yes, the name itself […]

by Luke Armstrong When it’s time to step up and attend a function for respectable people, an expatriate in Guatemala gets the bespoke suit treatment from an Antigua tailor. Starvation, lack of infrastructure, political corruption, bathrooms last cleaned when the Berlin Wall crumbled, and smooth salsa dancers named Rico Suave who steal your girlfriend with their […]

by Elizabeth Creely A hiking trip turns disastrous for two sisters in California’s Desolation Wilderness. Last July I went to Desolation Wilderness with my sister Emily to celebrate her fortieth birthday. I woke up at 5 a.m., kissed my husband goodbye, and walked to the nearest BART station with my backpack strapped to me. I […]

by Rick Steigelman At the risk of sounding like a scamp of a child, ungrateful towards the one whose generosity has provided him his first glimpse of London, England, part of my plan going into the trip was to ditch Mom as often as was possible and for periods of time as long as I […]

by Kevin McCaughey A blind date in a small bed.   In theory it seemed a pretty ideal proposition. The girl’s name was Dasha, a friend of Aylita’s.  Alyita was Warren’s girlfriend.  And Warren was my friend and teaching colleague.  The two girls planned to visit us in Samara, taking the overnight train from Kazan, 300 […]

by John M. Edwards IN ANTIGUA, A YOUNG JOHN M. EDWARDS RUBS ROLLIES WITH A REAL LIVE RASTAFARIANAND LIVES TO REGRET IT. “BOY! BOY!” I looked over at the sculpted resort hedge, illuminated by a Tikki torch, and stepped uncertainly off the porch, like a young adult waking up from a Frank W. Dixon Hardy […]

by Scott Crawford Rocks make a hollow sound when tumbled together underwater. I heard this now as the rushing torrent passed inches from my boots, throwing spray against my bare shins. And I began to question the wisdom of this outing. An aerial view, had it been possible through the clouds, would have revealed a […]