Category: Uncategorized

  • LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back

    Separate but equal is not equal, nor is it just. It is past time to acknowledge that gender is variable, that my lived experience is no more or less valid than yours, that each and every person deserves the space and safety to live her/his/their authentic self. I am a cis straight woman married to…

  • Best Laid Plans (the more things change. . .)

    Long ago, when I was a department head, I kept my sanity (more or less) by writing satire in the early mornings, as a way to inoculate myself against the day ahead. One result was BEST LAID PLANS, which some of you may have read when The Fantasist published it a few years ago. I had thoughts…

  • Recording of “Misdirection” from The Common

    The cover’s scrambled cassette tape is the perfect lead in, as I remember so many bus rides listening to so many tapes mixed by other passengers, bus drivers, hangers on. Come along on a family hiking trip in the páramo, the upland spanning the Colombian border, in my Issue 21 story “Misdirection.” Click to hear a new…

  • Resolution

     I don’t know if I’m afraid of heights, or afraid of getting down from heights–of not getting down–but when the guide said, it looks like rain, let’s start on the roof, I followed her up. Not wanting to miss anything, ready to add to my photo collection, eager to take in every nook and cranny…

  • Snowmelt Drum Kit

    Barely snow, just enough for a two-hour school delay, ice encasing twigs and needles, smooth and clear and full around as if dipped, as even as a candy-maker’s dream, no Achilles’ heel or naked shortbread where anyone held on, only light, a sense of depth and sparkle, even on a dark day. The lowest branch…

  • Walking the West Highland Way

    Having enjoyed and endured twenty-five years of each other’s company in marriage, we thought it was time for a treat and rewarded ourselves with a trip to Scotland and a walk on the West Highland Way with our kids. I wanted one of those luxurious hikes where you spend the night at a cozy inn…

  • Exchange Visits

    My mother and my daughter left this week on a two-week trip to Germany, which has me remembering my own trip to Germany with my Oma. I was a year younger than my daughter is now, a high school junior rather than a recent graduate. The first part of the trip was a school trip–our…

  • What I’m reading (January)

    La Virgen Cabeza, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (what a great name, no?). One of the writers who leapt to mind for her when I asked Angélica Gorodsicher last October, “who else should I read?” A striking, unexpected voice, just enough left unexplained, left for the reader to assemble. Fast moving, abrasive yet sympathetic. And having…

  • Summer Reading (I)

     Not stacked in order. But summer’s just started, so I’ve just started reading. First Tumba de jaguares. This is my next translation, so this is a re-read. Here are the first two sentences: “Soñé que estaba en el cielo. No en El Cielo paraíso de almas bienaventuradas sino en el cielo, ese ¿élitro? azul celeste que oficialmente nos cubre, tanto para religiones…

  • Cardinal Reflections

    It’s a firebird, or maybe a flower. I was out cutting flowers early this morning, six a.m. and muggy in a way it seldom is in Oregon, or maybe my hurry just made it seem warm. And then I was looking for pictures of cardinals, and found instead reflected light on wood. Of course, there…