Brett Stanciu has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight‘s 2026 Essay/Memoir Contest The spring after I finished chemo, insects wouldn’t bite me. My daughters escorted me on short walks in the town forest. Brown-spotted trout lily leaves nubbed up through last-year’s matted leaves. My daughters slapped their bare arms: vexsome black flies were prolific in the wet spring. On me, nothing. Not even mosquitoes deigned to sip my blood. Rain had fallen steadily in the two weeks I’d been at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Farmers delayed planting, fretting their corn seed would rot in the sodden soil. I’d envisioned … Continue reading The Flat World by Brett Stanciu →