This is a true story.

After my husband Billy died in June of 2020, his ‘step daughter’ Zoe, a beautiful and vivacious woman of fifty offered her home in Santa Barbara to hold his memorial. We waited until the […]

She was a day past presence, riding
the jagged breath below the surface
of consciousness, and I was running
to make the next plane to Arkansas.
My footsteps parted the ear-splitting
everyday […]

One of the most surprising things I’ve discovered about writing is that while putting words on the page can be a solitary act, “being a writer” can’t be.

Mind The Gap
There is a gap between what peo […]

“I’m going to tweet about this, and I need every single English-speaking celebrity on the planet to retweet my tweet. This is monstrous.”

We are stopped at a red light. Devon, my husband of ten ye […]

Michael Snyder has traveled the world, camera in hand, documenting the stories of those concerned with environmental change and sustainability and the spaces they inhabit.

“I want to be very inte […]

I am in the middle of writing an essay that spans a full twenty-nine of my thirty-two years of life. It hinges on an event that happened three Thanksgivings ago, but reaches as far back as my third birthday […]

Carole Duff has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Essay/Memoir Contest

“I love a piano, I love a piano, I love to hear somebody play . . .”
From Irving Berlin’s Stop! Look! Listen […]

Once again we have had the good fortune to be invited into other worlds, each unfurled in just 500 words. The skill involved in presenting backstory and insight—with minimal description—is great.

And, as […]

In the quarantined Covid year of 2020, I returned to exploring the figure in my mixed media paintings. Even though it’s been years since I’ve used the human figure as a subject, I’ve always consi […]

I mix up the names of common furniture pieces
like cupboards and cabinets, closets and shelves

And bureaus. And Ursas, both major and minor

Armoires. To know only of […]

My summer reading list (and Spring) centers around the writings of Thomas Merton. After sifting through his prose and poetry I think the most amazing thing about him is how many people lay claim to him and find a […]

There’s this Tree. It’s a Cottonwood. It’s been there longer than forever, a gentle, generous tower on the long green lawn in front of the dorms. Three decades ago, when I was still teaching at the colle […]

Naomi Raquel Enright has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Essay/Memoir Contest
I am the brown-skinned, biological mother of a son presumed to be white. My mother is Ecuadorian and my father was […]

Hunting Gems

I don’t comprehend the chemistry of how geodes form
but their creation makes enough sense for my layman mind
to teach an abridged version to my daughter:
Some rocks may look dull, b […]

I’m amazed and delighted every time we hold Streetlight’s Essay/Memoir contest to see how many wonderful submissions we get. The only sorrow is that we can’t give out more than three cash awards. But, we can offer […]

Little Betrayals

I was six
I knew he had a quarter in his pocket
I knew it was mine if when he roared
who is the greatest grandpapa of all
and the silver and Wedgewood china on table shook
and the Irish […]

Streetlight Voices: Short Fiction & Memoir · Erebus by Patrick Christie
 

Podcast: The threat is getting closer.

A fictional story performed by Joe Guay.

Read the story online: Erebus by Patrick C […]

Monday for Mom was splat day. She was working on splats up until her last few days. We talked about the splatforms a lot in her last few months. About a week ago she asked if I would write a splat about what […]