personal essay – Michigan Quarterly Review

personal essay

Image of a few sharpies and name cards on a chestnut brown desk.

Exchanging Names

The first thing I became aware of, as I stood blinking in the five-a.m. brightness of Taoyuan International Airport, was my own name staring back at me. It gleamed in thick black letters on a white poster board, but the poster wasn’t the strange part. The strange part was the individual holding it up. His […]

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The first thing I became aware of, as I stood blinking in the five-a.m. brightness of Taoyuan International Airport, was my own name staring back at me. It gleamed in thick black letters on a white poster board, but the poster wasn’t the strange part. The strange part was the individual holding it up. His

An image of a train station in the dark.

Four Incidents in the Night

1.  I’ve been invited to lead a creative nonfiction workshop. The fee is generous, so I accept. It will take place at Red River Gorge in Eastern Kentucky, roughly two hours away from my home. Perhaps because it’s twilight, I’m confused by the facility: a stone mountain rising from the river with small apartments wedged

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1.  I’ve been invited to lead a creative nonfiction workshop. The fee is generous, so I accept. It will take place at Red River Gorge in Eastern Kentucky, roughly two hours away from my home. Perhaps because it’s twilight, I’m confused by the facility: a stone mountain rising from the river with small apartments wedged

Vinyl with Heart Stock Image

Listen Along: a Story of Divorce as Told by the Mountain Goats

No one can fully understand the dissolution of marriage outside of the couple. The little ways that couples cut and cut and cut at each other are too individualized. Yet this song was such a deep embodiment of my feelings about my marriage at the time.

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No one can fully understand the dissolution of marriage outside of the couple. The little ways that couples cut and cut and cut at each other are too individualized. Yet this song was such a deep embodiment of my feelings about my marriage at the time.

close up of a 2 dollar bill

Deep Throat

Whistleblowers, according to Fred Alford’s study, do not achieve redemption. They are not, in the majority of cases, acknowledged as heroes or truth tellers. Whistle blowing is rather an act of self-sacrifice, a suicide mission.

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Whistleblowers, according to Fred Alford’s study, do not achieve redemption. They are not, in the majority of cases, acknowledged as heroes or truth tellers. Whistle blowing is rather an act of self-sacrifice, a suicide mission.

photo of author and her father in a pontiac

Baba and the Pontiac

That Pontiac was a classic American beauty: a long, wide yellow convertible with sparkling nickel and chrome trim, and gray leather seats with yellow stripes running down the middle.

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That Pontiac was a classic American beauty: a long, wide yellow convertible with sparkling nickel and chrome trim, and gray leather seats with yellow stripes running down the middle.

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