The walk to Tony’s, down Xenia Street in Corona, Queens, isn’t about the Pepsi or Doritos I say I need, or the milk or American cheese my mother sometimes sends me out for. For Amy Brill, the bodega by her house was essential in creating the sense of community that shaped her childhood. There are also geographical touchstones where everyone in the neighborhood gather. Neighborhoods can be just as much a part of our home as our physical houses. “ Finding Community in a Queens Bodega” by Amy Brill The opposite of lamb’s blood - a sign that God will not protect them. At least once a week during my walks, I see a new sign: “Bank Owned,” or “Auction.” Overnight, a white document appears on a neighbor’s front door. But we all know that this infection will spread. We pretend to still have jobs as we come and go, waving at the neighbors. It’s making the thin wallpaper curl, the tongue-and-groove floors moan. How do you deal with the slow erosion of your neighborhood and your childhood home? Desiree Cooper wrestles with this heart-wrenching dilemma in her short story of a family watching as their neighborhood disappears around them. According to my limited understanding of art and who made it, Dirty Work shouldn’t have existed. Here was a story set in a rural South I recognized, written by a man whose slight grin and neat mustache resembled my father’s. Partly because Jessica had given it to me, but also because it struck a nerve. As an adult he encounters the work of Larry Brown, which illuminates how wrong he was and proves that the South is worthy to be written about.īut I loved book in an elemental way.
In contrast, Johnson is deeply rooted in a sense of place-often misrepresented or rendered invisible in literature-that he always thought wasn’t worth claiming.
“ The Stories That Helped Me Embrace the Rural South” by Caleb Johnson That emptiness, though excruciatingly painful, has also allowed me to cultivate emotional and psychological dexterity, to embrace digression, and to comfortably linger on the shores of foreign cities on my impossible search for a place to call home. I am from nowhere or, perhaps, I am from a constellation of places which habits and social codes violently contradict one another, leaving me empty handed. Given the disorienting cartography of my life, there isn’t a singular home for me to return to. In this essay she maps Odysseus’ quest back to Ithaca onto a desire to find a similar sense of home in South Bend, Indiana. For Oloomi it’s the latter, because of a lifetime of moving from place to place. Not all of us have a home that we can return to, whether that’s because you’ve cut ties or because you never had one in the first place. “ Reading the Odyssey Far From Home” by Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi So, whether you’re re-watching Home Alone for the 50th time in your reindeer pajamas or doing other secular non-Christmas-related activities, read some of the best short stories and essays we’ve published about home. No matter what you celebrate, or don’t, this is a time of year most associated with family and going home.
SHORT STORIES TO WRITE ESSAYS ON FULL
Holiday season is in full swing most of us are replacing half our blood with eggnog, listening to Christmas music 24/7 whether we want to or not, and either hanging out with our (birth or chosen) families or pointedly declining to. Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.
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