Streetlight Magazine | Elizabeth Howard | Friends Activity

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:00:49 -0400

Distances by Barbara Baer I’d already missed two periods before I went to Planned Parenthood in Berkeley. I knew the result before a woman asked if I wanted counseling. She h […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:00:19 -0400

Deconstructing Unicorns and Mermaids by Deborah M. Prum My four-year-old granddaughter, “Zoe”, lives out-of-state. We often meet via Zoom. She and I share a screen and explore her burning questions by […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:00:53 -0500

Adrienne by Lisa Ben-Shoshan She is a large woman. In another place or circumstance, she would have been the woman in the flowery housedress with fluffy mules on her feet. […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:00:04 -0500

After the Blizzard by Trudy Hale We had warning. A dangerous blizzard sweeps across the eastern United States. Be prepared. The young man stacks firewood on my porch and in the […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:00:33 -0500

Holding Onto The Past Through Fiction by Virginia Pye What happens to the homes where we once lived? Homes we left behind, in childhood when it wasn’t a choice, as an adult when it was necessary for w […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:00:14 -0500

So Be It by Tyler Scott Spring. Finally. After several snowstorms, ice, and being stuck in the house for days on end, Louise couldn’t wait to get in her yard. The daffodils h […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:00:14 -0500

By Shirley's Side by Peter Wallace The sixty-year-old woman is sleeping at the moment, so I sit on a worn brown couch in the family waiting room down the hall from Shirley. It’s not t […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 07:00:59 -0500

Cheesecake by Con Chapman Mark didn’t want to go to Jackie and Jonathan’s—he had too much studying to do before the end of the semester—but Marci insisted. “You can’t stu […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:00:50 -0500

Ho Ho Streetlight by Trudy Hale The season of Christmas swoops in, ahead of me and my best intentions. I’ll never be a person who has all the family and friends crossed off the l […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 13:00:43 -0500

Puppet and Master by Karris Rae X/@/20X÷ Today the puppeteer cut my strings. Then he left without a word. It feels strange to move my arms on my own. I opened every plastic p […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:30:51 -0500

Complicity—A True Fiction Of Now by Erika Raskin Lissy is already dressed, her dolls arranged next to the bed in the space that is sometimes a boat, sometimes a park, and often a doctor’s office. T […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:00:44 -0500

Grater by Debby Mayer “There’s something you should know,” was how he would put it. He would say this while she was doing something else—years later, in a Solana B […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:00:43 -0500

With a Little Help From My Friends by Trudy Hale In the pre-dawn morning, thirty-six hours before my daughter’s wedding, she enters my bedroom. Her flashlight beam wakes me. Good heavens. Half awake, […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 13:00:23 -0400

The Taste of Copper Pennies by Tim Collyer Flash Fiction Tim Collyer is the 2nd place winner of Streetlight’s 2025 Flash Fiction Contest Career Day smells of bleach and gravy. Wrong and familiar at […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 11:00:18 -0400

Night, Night Sleepy Heathen by Erika Raskin So, pretty much every old saw about old age is 100% true. There’s crepitus (the medical onomatopoeia-ous description of creaky joints), and the i […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 12:00:38 -0400

A Special Place in Hell by Christine Wilcox Christine Wilcox is the 1st place winner of Streetlight’s 2025 Flash Fiction Contest “I’m not doubting you,” the Angel said to the Demon. “But wh […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:00:59 -0400

The Wrong Turn On My Career Path, From Which I'm Still Recovering A Quarter Century Later by Erika Raskin Years ago, before I decided to bite the bullet and embrace the soul crushing rejection that often goes with Being A Writer, I decided to try my hand […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 12:00:24 -0400

The Wedding Dress by Trudy Hale Weddings create their own weather. I had no idea. I did not have a big wedding myself. It was spontaneous and the only white article of clothing I had […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 11:00:07 -0400

The Secret Garden by Irina Moga I am back in Seoul after a fourteen-hour flight, fresh off the airport shuttle and into the city center, at the Nine Tree Hotel check-in desk. It’s a […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 13:00:20 -0400

It’s Fall (ish) And The Flash Fiction Results Are In! by Erika Raskin and Mary Esselman The school bus is squeaking past again, there’s a pumpkin/watermelon cage match in the produce aisle and — most critically — the annual influx […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 07:00:48 -0400

What Do Dogs Do All Day? by Erika Raskin Trixie Dougan Bijou Bellman was my mom’s dachshound when she was a kid. Though extremely short, Trixie had a rich and independent life. She […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:00:16 -0400

We All Have Our Problems E. H. Jacobs You and your wife are sitting in your therapist’s waiting room. You look at the door, paranoid that someone you know will come in and you’ll atte […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 12:00:51 -0400

To See the Universe in Cinderblock by Alex Joyner With all due respect, Mr. William Carlos Williams, it’s not the red wheelbarrow on which so much depends. It’s the cinder block car was […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:00:21 -0400

HWY 20 at 30 Bottles a Minute by M. R. Whitt I’d thank the heavens my shift is over but I can’t think straight long enough to do it. I don’t even remember pulling past the gates of the […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:00:28 -0400

Talk To Strangers by Bree Luck Two years ago, in the pocket of time between Thanksgiving and the onslaught of holiday chaos, I spent a week with my grandmother, Mimi, at her home on […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:00:24 -0400

Mulioo Tebe by Clare Rolens In June of 2007, I watched the movie Once with you. We’d rented the DVD from Blockbuster, the way people did then. We were twenty-one, so dinner m […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:00:50 -0400

Don't Arrive Before You Get There by Deborah M. Prum My writing mantra used to be, Fine is good enough. I made sure whatever I sent out was the best it could be. However, I worked fulltime and was the […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 12:00:51 -0400

On Writing A Condolence Letter by Trudy Hale I find it hard to write a condolence letter, not a note, but a letter. And three condolence letters wait for me. They sit like black crows on a fence, […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:20 -0400

The Spirit Room by Claire Massey The spirit room is cold, not morgue-cold but goosebump chilly from October on. Maddie zips her hoodie and pulls the under-desk heater dangerously […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 12 May 2025 11:00:19 -0400

Ars Poetica by Trudy Hale The forsythia outside my window has given up the brilliant citrus yellow and is fading back to the sticky green leaves. I am trying to hold a dull […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 09 May 2025 08:00:24 -0400

The Art of the Dealer by Eric Lande After lunch, Donald’s art dealer, Regina Slabokoff, entered his office in a state of agitated grace. Donald’s office had a style—a Mojo s […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 13:00:17 -0400

Hard Water by S. E. Wilson The appointment was made for five-thirty so my wife Polly and I could both be there. She worked in an office in town and I was working from h […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 12:52:24 -0400

Father's Day in Bujumbura by Alex Joyner She said she knew that it was Father’s Day in the U.S. and she began to tell me a story from the back seat as we bounced down rough dirt roads on t […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Lily is Safe by Elisa Wood Coming down from the redwood forest, where majestic trees defy rusted Coke signs and dead gas stations, we drive, curve after curve, in daylight […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:00:48 -0500

Ground Zero by Lynn Bushell 9 a.m. ‘M’ comes out of his flat. I see his head first, coming up the basement steps. He needs a haircut. And he’s wearing the same shirt he had […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:00:22 -0500

Wild Fires by Trudy Hale Tuesday, Januay 7th. My son Charlie called. He was breathless. He had barely escaped the Palisades. The sky had been clear, he said when he took […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:00:23 -0500

Fragments From Returning to the Suburban Neighborhood of My Youth by Sharon Gelman Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash. I. a. This morning, I saw a creature standing in the road. The size of a small dog with rust-colored fur. […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 13:00:20 -0500

Krenshaw and the Tale of Memphis by Karys Rhea The fear of losing you torments me. Krenshaw’s roommate, Annie Alessandra, was dating Tommy Stalwart. Krenshaw had introduced them a few months ba […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 13:00:36 -0500

Don’t Let Anyone Break Your Creative Heart by Deborah M. Prum My vocation is writing, but my avocation is painting, mostly portraits. I belong to a Facebook group dedicated to showing the work of artists who are […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:54 -0500

The New House by Dawn Abeita It rained the day before so burying the cat wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be. She found a shovel in the shed, and wrapped her pet in an old t […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 11:00:39 -0500

New Cut Hay by Lawrence F. Farrar Immigration Service Camp, Kenedy, Texas – May 1944 Nearly two years had passed since a Peruvian policeman pointed a pistol at him and declared T […]

Trudy wrote a new post

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 12:00:44 -0500

On the Edge by Trudy Hale When have you been convinced to change your mind? How did it happen? By negotiation? By beauty? By lament? By shock or threat? By what? The […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:00:54 -0500

Fountains by Amy Foster Myer They were back at the fountain as she had promised, Nicky’s sweet round belly against the marble ledge as he tried to reach for the p […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 13:00:29 -0500

Scumbling by Thomas Mampalam Beginning a painting was the hardest part. Each time, there was an anxious confrontation with the blank white canvas as he stood before the […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:00:33 -0500

The Art Of Unconventional Wit — With An AI Assist by Erika Raskin Photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash . My website recently asked if I’d like some assistance composing a blog post. As I’m hopelessly […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:40 -0500

Fast Art by Kate Bennis As writers, artists, creators, we can sometimes lose sight of our purpose in the struggle to generate our work. Our culture, certainly, adds to the […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:00:26 -0400

Midnight by Cyndy Muscatel Cyndy Muscatel is the 1st place winner of Streetlight’s 2024 Flash Fiction Contest Dressed only in her pajamas and Ugg slippers, Rebecca […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:00:16 -0400

Holidays by Dominik Slusarczyk Dominik Slusarczyk is the 2nd place winner of Streetlight’s 2024 Flash Fiction Contest We stay up all night drinking. When we eventually […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:00:30 -0400

5 Writing Pitfalls To Avoid by Erika Raskin 1. Losing The Plot Think of being unable to tell someone what your work-in-progress is about as a seriously suspicious mole; a flashing warning […]

Erika Raskin wrote a new post

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:00:55 -0400

A Matter Of Time by Janis Jaquith Fiction is the lie that tells the truth. The truth is that there was a fire, six people died, and it was intentionally set. The spirit of Lisa […]