Creative Nonfiction

What Exactly Are You: The Woman In-between by Victoria Teammell

“The complexity of being multiracial as a child was intense because, during that stage of life, you are still in search of your identity. I was too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids. I didn’t know who I was. I attended a predominantly African American elementary school in the area of Bushwick, Brooklyn. I recall memories of my Caucasian mother accompanying me on school field trips. I was a small child–pure, innocent, and ecstatic to be chaperoned by her mother during a school day. I did not see color. I only saw love.”

Write About Your Identity by Carlie Gausch

“I’ve gotten weird in quarantine, and all I can bring myself to make are odd collages. I have become weird in the sense that I listen to angry music too loudly. Weird in the sense that I cry in my car outside of my sister Nicole’s house when she refuses to give me a shag haircut that she has no idea how to cut. Weird isn’t the right word. I’ve become more emotional. More anxious. More isolated.”

Decoding Dating by Angela Treese-Landis

“Personal ads, I quickly learned, are not easy to decode. I had assumed they would contain a bit of '‘tell it slant’ in true Dickinson fashion. What I discovered was a challenging double speak that required the skills of a Navajo Codebreaker to decipher. I read through only a page before my head hurt. By the end of the second bottle of wine and Julie’s wise tutelage, I eventually learned to read between the lines.”

Mathematicians in the Media with Dr. James Hammer by Solomaya Schwab

“I just always enjoyed the problem solving aspect of it, so I guess I’ve always enjoyed puzzles like sudoku…and that’s really, when it comes down to it, what mathematics is.”

Wishes by Julianne Redmond

“Throughout my whole life, I wished for things to make me “perfect,” to make me “complete,” and I never noticed that I was just wishing for band-aids. The things I wished for were mere cover-ups and they could not provide what I was truly seeking. Straight hair and golden tanned skin couldn’t make me feel worthy. A corporate personality, while it may land me a job, would not make me feel content with my life. I wasted wishes that could not buy what I was looking for.”