**** Mrs. Beasley’s Lessons I. Mrs. Beasley: my mother presents her as a hand-me-down. I instantly dislike the doll for the stain, suspiciously pooh-colored, on her blue polka-dot outfit. So I toss Mrs. Beasley in my bedroom’s extra closet—the one that contains my mother’s evening gowns and dress shoes, which hang in floor-length shoe bags. […]
Nonfiction
The Pieces
Dikembe
by Jacqueline Goyette
When Dikembe Mutombo dies of brain cancer at the age of 58, I watch old footage of that time the Denver Nuggets upset the Seattle Supersonics in 1994 and Mutombo wagged his finger over and over again at players who tried to dunk on him. He blocked all their shots, like he always did, his […]
Birthdays For Life
by Angela Townsend
How do you get on the birthday list? You exist in my vicinity. How do you get off the birthday list? You don’t.
The Day When the Sun was Brighter than Ever
by Gouri Mehra
The Day When the Sun Was Brighter Than Ever On a sticky June morning, when the sun is brighter than ever, I hold onto my mother’s free hand as we make our way through streets lined with people, vehicles, cattle, more people. Turning left into a narrow opening, she follows the herd (of people, not […]
Leaving the Cusp
by Sayantani Roy
Leaving the Cusp In a grotto of debdaru trees, Father sits with novitiates, boys slightly older than us but still in their teens. These are the sprawling grounds of a seventeenth century church on the banks of the Hooghly River near Kolkata. Father, a stern Romanian in his thirties, speaks fluent Bengali and is perpetually […]
The Mirror Operator
by Sarah Mullens
This story won first place at the MAYDAY 2024 Nonfiction Contest. A logic is an attempt to understand when one statement follows from other statements, and why. Logic is not a settled body of knowledge, but a domain of inquiry, in which we encounter different logics for different purposes. Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to […]
The Retirement Clipboard and Notes, Hand-Written
by Ed McManis
This story won second place in the MAYDAY 2024 Nonfiction Contest. I taught for 40 plus years. Forty, a biblical number; the Great Flood, Jesus’ time in the desert; his number of days on Earth after the stone was rolled back. Forty years, a God hour. I worked with teachers who taught the same year […]
Life, Death, Neighbors, Houses
by Mary Allen
This story was the runner-up in the MAYDAY 2024 Nonfiction Contest. Life, Death, Neighbors, Houses I’m sitting at my kitchen table talking to my friend Anne on Zoom when a cop car pulls up to the curb in front of my house. “The cops are here,” I say. “I hope I haven’t done anything wrong.” […]
Swimsuit Scraps
by Lizzie Lawson
Swimsuit Scraps The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I tanned in the sunny patch of grass behind the toolshed, where no one could see me from the house or yard. I had procured two hand-me-down bikinis from a friend, one white and one cerulean blue, and my mission was to bronze my […]
Diva Plavalaguna Cuts Your Career Short
by Ethan Klein
1. You sit for your interview at a cubicle inside a large warehouse. Your interviewer says you’d be a risky hire, as he’s looking to bring someone on with more relevant experience. However he’s open to hearing how your work recycling cheap clothing back to citizens of the Global South, working security at a sticky […]
