Evelyn still remembers the nickname her elementary school classmates assigned her: the mermaid. She was the strongest swimmer in her class; her mother had to fight to get Evelyn out of water when she swam at the Malecón — a large sea wall near the ocean — in Cuba, where…
One of my first memories in the kitchen is of my father cooking peanut sauce. I would settle on one of the stools at the kitchen island after school, and watch him. He’d be stooped over the stove, stirring a sauce pot of what looked like thick brown goo, a…
I began smoking cigarettes regularly when I was 17. Both my parents were smokers (they’ve since quit), which sped up my decision to take up the habit. In the beginning, my brand of choice was Newport 100s. I liked the smooth mint flavor, its polluted, metallic sweetness. After my dad…
In her 10 years as a practicing midwife, Racha Lawler experiences mostly joy, but she’s also learned one disturbing truth: Many women of color have been traumatized during a hospital birth. She recalls one woman in particular, who labored for 52 hours. Nurses insisted she and her baby could both…
Listening to music is a long-used productivity hack among creatives. Author Stephen King says he used to listen to Anthrax, Judas Priest, and Metallica while writing. Gabriel Marcía Márquez “wore out” Beatles records while working on One Hundred Years of Solitude. Charles Bukowski at least claimed he needed cigars, whiskey…
2016 was, without a doubt, my break out year as a writer. I hustled and busted my ass to get my work out there in world, and moved one step closer (I hope!) to writing full time. I fought back wave after wave of insecurities (Will I ever make it…
The first time a friend congratulated me for my sexual conquests was on a playground. I was about 18 or 19 then, either about to leave for college in New York or back on my first visit. There we were, on the cusp of adulthood, drunk on a swing set…
