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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 9 months ago
As a Tuskegee Airman, the late Leon “Woodie” Spears was one of fewer than 1,000 African-Americans pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was among the last cadets to be trained on the gro […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 9 months ago
Melissa Sinclair is the 2nd place winner in Streetlight’s 2021 Essay/Memoir Contest
“Can u go to the parler with me today if u don’t have any plans?”
This text is from my friend Nighat, who is gettin […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 10 months ago
Kate Sheridan is the 1st place winner in Streetlight’s 2021 Essay/Memoir Contest
I wasn’t always a thief. But some losses demand rebalancing. Redistribution. Retribution?
In hindsight, I should have as […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 11 months ago
Each week, my husband completes the New York Times Sunday Magazine crossword puzzle in about thirty minutes, leaving no square unfilled. He writes in pen and never crosses anything out. Starting at 1 Across, and […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 11 months ago
Yes, champagne, please. It’s a red letter day here at the essay/memoir neighborhood of Streetlight: time to announce (appropriate fanfare) the outcome of our sixth essay/memoir contest. It’s a time of hop […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 2 years, 12 months ago
There was small marble sculpture of an aged figure on an unpretentious pedestal near the eastern end of St. Donatus Park, a leafy space in the old city of Louvain, Belgium. The figure was that of a seated […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years ago
There are audiobooks enhanced by the author’s voice reading their own words (Becoming by Michele Obama), and those where an otherwise terrific book in print is hindered by the author’s out-loud read (Kamala Har […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years ago
On a windy day in December, just after the sun had set, I stepped out to go to the grocery store for milk. The wind whipped my hair across my glasses, and I didn’t see the uneven sidewalk by the Greek r […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 1 month ago
Rebecca leaned into the driver’s-side window while I let the engine idle. Her brown hair had lengthened over the summer, and some strands fluttered into the car. The constellations in the ink-black sky and two l […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 2 months ago
Ten years after graduation, at seven a.m., Sunday morning, I round the corner to my office and nearly stumble into a distraught family in prayer. Six adults, seated with their heads bowed, listen as a Catholic […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 2 months ago
My study may be a mess, but, on one wall, I have meticulously created a shrine of sorts. My “Air Force Wall” is—like my connections to its theme—a mixture of the authentic and inauthentic. The shrine came togethe […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 2 months ago
Marinara stains blotted my white hoodie’s waist hem like blood droplets. Posters of fighter jets lined the grey walls of the recruiter’s office. A Dodgers baseball cap squeezed straight brown hair over my ears and […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 3 months ago
I have a scar under my chin, right at the end where it meets the jaw. You can’t see it unless I’m hanging upside down, which is a rare occurrence these days. I’d forgotten about it—hadn’t seen or touched its rough […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 4 months ago
The sound of rustling leaves, like old fashioned petticoats, soothed the cold lodged like a stone above my brow. Compliant for once to the vagaries of my body, I stretched out on the floor letting my mind […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 5 months ago
Genevra Levinson is an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2020 Essay/Memoir Contest
It is autumn. I think of Mary Oliver’s river of loss as I watch the trees burn fragrantly and allow themselves to be naked in t […] -
Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 5 months ago
Vicky Oliver is an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2020 Essay/Memoir Contest
It was an orgy of silk and satin and velvet. Twenty cocktail dresses sprawled on my floor, all temptresses still in their peak, […] -
Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 6 months ago
J Brooke is an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2020 Essay/Memoir Contest
There were many reasons I didn’t play with Barbie dolls. Besides being gender-nonconforming before the term existed, besides not l […] -
Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 6 months ago
When I was a toddler, I named my hands “Turner” and “Bobby.” Turner was my dominant right hand, the one used to access closed doors and cupboards. My parents say I blamed “Turner” when I spilled a glass of mi […]
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Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 7 months ago
Carol Jeffers is an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2020 Essay/Memoir Contest
“Stephanie wanted you to have her eyes,” her sister Susie said. “Please say you’ll take them.” That was in 2018, the second ti […] -
Susan Shafarzek wrote a new post 3 years, 7 months ago
The following is a conversation with Karin Cecile Davidson, whose first novel, Sybelia Drive, is being published this fall by Braddock Avenue Books (October 6th).
Sybelia Drive is a Vietnam-era novel that tells […] - Load More