“This isn’t some tabloid story about serial killers. You live in a small town, and most of the people who were there that night still live here too, and there is a lot of pain from that time that never went away for any of us,” (Jones 121). In August 1999, popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears …
Last month I went speed dating. It came up on my Instagram. It seemed fun, exciting, different. Pre-pandemic I was on some apps with no luck. I didn’t know how to send a good message to someone, I didn’t know how I could tell if I liked someone based on a picture where the person …
I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review. A Geography of First Kisses is a short story collection that follows Southern women in various stages of their lives. We have a young girl collecting boyfriends as she aimlessly tries to find her path, a newlywed couple searching for a missing …
April is National Poetry Month and because of that I usually like to prioritize the poetry collections I’ve gotten ahold of during the year and read them. I know I should read poetry all year, especially since I’ve enjoyed the ones that have come my way. But it seems like this is a pattern that …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. Grieving siblings Natalie, a palliative care nurse, and Bart, a minister, contemplate life and death after the death of their mom. When a storm hits, a disabled angel visits them and takes the siblings and the audience along to talk about death and …
“Photos soon emerged: heads on spikes outside of rides, corpses floating in detention cells, and viscera decaying in the humid Florida sun. FantasticLand, where ‘Fun is Guaranteed!’, was covered in blood,” (Bockoven 2). Welcome to FantasticLand, promising visitors that “Fun is Guaranteed!” since the 1970s. But when the deadly Hurricane Sadie destroys the Florida coast, a …
“I used pop culture…as a kind of glue to hold me together when I was hurtling through disaster…jamming a piece of pop culture into an absence in my life, no matter how poorly matched, seemed fine. It seemed like the only, no, the best thing to do,” (Sookfong Lee 4). Author Jen Sookfong Lee has always …
“What follows are some of the most dangerous stories of my life: the ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. These are the stories that have haunted and directed me, unwittingly, down circuitous paths,” (Polley 3). Screenwriter, director, and actor Sarah Polley encounters …
A very exciting and hard to believe update, but my short story “A Guided Meditation for the End” has made the gritLIT 2023 Writing Contest Shortlist! Thank you so much gritLIT for this amazing honour!
Sometimes, you have prior knowledge about weird saints (especially canine ones), other times strange saints come to you. Such is the case of Saint Margaret who I learned about from my sister’s teenage not-Catholic co-worker. This one’s for you!
Sarah O'Connor 