Sunshine at last, & the woodland walks dappled with it.
On a patch-speckled side-path skirting a pond,
an immense tortoise, sunning itself.
Sshh, she said, as if they had been talking too loudly, or at all,
& […]

Body painted women. Haitian orphans. Black Elvis. Models for hip-hop and Votre Nom. The homeless. A budding coquette in the summer sun.

These are but a few of the fascinating faces caught in telling […]

By and large, the biggest problem I run into with struggling authors is the challenge they have around marketing themselves. I hear a lot of different reasons for this: “I’m too introverted.” “I hate anythin […]

If a piece of artwork could express itself in words, what would it say? This was the question I pondered while visiting Time Lapse, an art faculty show at Chadron State College (CSC) in Chadron, Nebraska several […]

My Bride Face
Families from far apart met in Sengen Shrine.

I didn’t know the ritual;
reciting words, in heavy gold
kimono, geisha-face and geta.
I wore a wooden wig.

Later, in ivory and tiara, I sang k […]

Writing Small When There Is No Time to Write Big: The Goldilocks Approach to Getting Writing Done
I was back from the James River Writers Conference in Richmond when I realized I was dealing with an uncomfortable […]

Sometimes I wonder whether tomatoes feel the slice of my blade,
whether carrots feel ignored as they languish in the fridge.
I plan a pot roast to make them feel useful, then wonder
whether they fear the slow […]

The Story & Clark piano with its warm, reddish brown finish looked nice in the living room and probably improved the appearance of our home. The problem was that none of us played the piano. So my parents decided […]

Tired of bars and discos where I met men who drank and were in search of easy women, horrified by the scary men I met at church singles groups, I decided to be bold and placed a personal ad in the newspaper. […]

CHECK UP OR CHECK OUT

Friday is library day for Ray who picked Friday because it kinda rhymes with library and other days don’t so much and becoming well-read and new worldly is high up on the list in Ray’s […]

Podcast: Exit in a blaze of glory.

A short story performed by Jennifer Sims.

Read the story online: Tips and Guidelines for Becoming a Shooting Star by Ashley Morrow

It was a sticky, overcast August day in the Connecticut River Valley, and it was going to be a heavy one.

Already, at 9:00 in the morning, Ed was poking his head into a series of little rooms upstairs in […]

Shoes is the story of the artist’s aging father who needed to give up a good pair of shoes because they no longer offered enough support. Harris inked the soles of these shoes and walked in them to make p […]

The oranges are all shaved. Rind showing—not undressed or peeled open, mind you, just
stripped for garnish. This is another way of saying you threw a cocktail party—which is another
way of saying you got you […]

The quarterly meeting of Streetlight’s editorial staff had just ended. It was a particularly uplifting one. It’s incredibly gratifying to be part of a team that is committed to ushering art into the world. We tac […]

If I had to pick a color to write about, it would be green. Leafy green, bold green, hunter’s green, the way it washes over the landscape after days and days of rain. Months of green from the beginning of May w […]