Rich H. Kenney, Jr. is the 3rd place winner of Streetlight Magazine’s 2017 Essay/Memoir contest.

In the summer of 1960, my father got high and I held the ladder. “All you have to do,” he told me, “is […]

At 7:40am, the streets of downtown Charlottesville are eerily quiet. If not for the barricades, it would be hard to believe these streets will soon teem with people: busloads of Nazis come for the Unite the Right […]

My second novel, Best Intentions, is a medical thriller that falls solidly between Write-What-You-Know, a form of untaxing research I heartily recommend, and Write-What-You-Worry-About, a selfless act of spreading […]

Joshua Trees
 
They are repetitive
across the hills for hours,
stillness in the space around them.
As for the sky, one dark cloud
drawn out as if between
two hands and me underneath,
held together by […]

Anne Carson is the 2nd place winner of Streetlight Magazine’s 2017 Essay/Memoir contest.

It had just snowed a heavy snow, and my mother picked us up early from school. The roads were not that scary or […]

Once a decade, the European cities of Venice, Kassel, and Munster form a trifecta for the contemporary art world. There’s the every-two-year Biennale in that glorious jewel on the Adriatic.

And a mammoth s […]

Horror is my favorite movie style by far. There are endless sub-genres, including supernatural, inbred/cannibalistic families on the prowl, suspense/thriller, cult related brainwashing activities, etc., etc. (they […]

Beatitude
 
It is winter. It is cold.
Meek sky offers no color.
Hardwood skeletons assemble
along the treeline. Roots knuckle up
through blizzard’s encumbrance, grasping at sunrise.

Rhododendrons sa […]

My favorite flower is an iris, inspired by Van Gogh’s painting, Irises. It’s a painting of blue irises with one white iris symbolizing his loneliness. I feel loneliest in a group so I strong […]

“While you’re not doing anything—again, today,” Manda said, “you can get estimates on having that tree cut down.”

Ben rolled over and propped himself against the mahogany headboard. He pushed a strand of g […]

Alex Joyner is the 1st place winner of Streetlight Magazine’s 2017 Essay/Memoir contest.

Robert E. flippin’ Lee’s church pew. Is there any more compromised bench in all of Christendom? It occupies some mid […]

Podcast: Try to laugh about it, but not even a personal crisis will cancel tonight’s dinner plan.

A short story performed by Jennifer Sims.

Read the story online: Tooth by Jennifer Coffeen

Whether nature, still lifes, intimate interiors or portraits, John Randall Younger aims for the sense of reality rather than an exact, perfect replica.

“I paint more illusion of reality,” says Youn […]

Time to break out the champagne! Streetlight Magazine’s second annual essay/memoir contest ended July first and the judging was completed yesterday. Whew!

Seriously, we’ve looked at a lot of great essays. Wri […]

The Bear’s Back
 
Last night I dreamt of a bear
who carries us through the forest on his back.
He goes through the mud,
we cling to his fur,
he wants to bury us
in a storyteller’s thro […]

by Mary Carroll-Hackett
 

I move too fast. Always have. I talk fast, walk fast, read quickly, even had to be taught as a child to slow down while eating, Mama saying things like It’s not a race, Mary, or You […]