Non-Fiction
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27 Objects You Need to Have a Baby
by Helen Raica-Klotz Helen Raica-Klotz is the winner of the 2025 Michigan Writers Cooperative Press Chapbook contest for Superior Stories, a collection of short fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications, including The MacGuffin, The Great Lakes Review, and MER; two of her nonfiction essays were nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2026. Helen… Continue reading
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A Moment With Jesse
by Cal Harris On June 24, 2023, I drove down I‑94 to Chicago with my son to visit friends—brothers, really—who had seen me grow from a precocious teen with too much ambition into a father of a precocious toddler. One of my buddies lived in a beautiful Hyde Park apartment, with a doorman and real… Continue reading
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Elementary Divination
by Amanda Ashworth In fifth grade, I got in trouble for reading palms at school. I read about it in a book my mom brought home from Goodwill, The Mysteries of the Universe. It was a big hardback book, the cover flecked with stars. Inside: pyramids, ley lines, haunted castles, the meanings of dreams, and—most… Continue reading
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In Indiana
by Amy L Cornell I have checked out at Kroger and realized I had forgotten something. I double back to grab what I need so I can head home. I leave my cart full of paid groceries at the front of the store and wend my way back to the aisles. I pause at the… Continue reading
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We Had Tea
by Tracie Adams I once had lunch with royalty, but what mattered most wasn’t the crown. It was the moment a young woman in a royal-blue dress lifted her head, met my eyes, and made me feel visible at a time when I thought I might disappear. It was 1983, long before Charles became King.… Continue reading
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Me or You
by Allison Palmer I remember you from time to time, when I sharpen a pencil and press its new tip to the pad of my thumb to test the sharpness. Ideally, fine enough to leave a mark on the skin for a few moments, but dull enough not to break it. In second grade, I… Continue reading
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Roping Steers with Milton Erickson
by Bruce D Snyder Twenty third-graders, six parents, and a teacher all piled into four or five vehicles and headed for Decorah, Iowa. The class camping trip circa 1981. Once there, we got the tents up, the spaghetti cooking, the s’mores at standby alert. The kids were into it and the parents, adrift in a… Continue reading
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The Last Umrah
by Aaqilah Mangarun The darkness of the night blanketed the sandy terrain outside my bus window. I was already bored beyond my mind with the desert view during daylight, and the night didn’t do it any better. My eyelids threatened to shut close—it was around 8 PM, I think—but I didn’t want to fall asleep.… Continue reading
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Your Fictional Life
by David Raney I’ll admit it: I’m a word nerd. Books lean from stacks on my floor and bedside table; I read at coffee shops, on elevators, at red lights. Years ago a new neighbor mused, “I’m gonna have to get some books for all these shelves,” articulating a problem I’m not familiar with. Reading… Continue reading
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Getting By
by Daniel Acosta All Texans and even Aggies know when someone says that they graduated from “The University” it means the University of Texas. After going two years at Texas Western College from 1963 to 1965 for my pre-pharmacy courses, I boarded an airplane for the first time in my life. I was so naïve… Continue reading
January House Literary Journal 