Issue 2 | 2018 - The Nasiona

William Michael Harnett, "The Artist's Letter Rack," oil on canvas, 1879, Morris K. Jesup Fund, 1966, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Embracing the Subjective

September 29, 2018 Susanna Barlow

As memoir writers, we must enter the dark waters of memory where facts are few and remembered events are often unstable. But the subjective experience offers its own reality and can reveal the truths that […]

Hans Christian Andersen, "Two Pierrots Balancing on Swans and Two Dancers," cutout in blue paper mounted on an album sheet, 1820-75, Mary Martin Fund, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Men Teach Me to Shoot

September 28, 2018 Rachel Laverdiere

A little girl yearns for Papa’s attention, yet feels regret the moment the pellet gun weighs in her hand. Some men are not to be trusted. She wants to be brave and to be seen […]

Paul Klee, "Baum und Architektur—Rhythmen (Tree and Architecture—Rhythms)," oil on paper, 1920, Gift of Benjamin and Lillian Hertzberg, National Gallery of Art.

Jujubes Represent Sugar

September 27, 2018 Nicole Zelniker

Jae Langton is just like the rest of his family, especially in his love of musicals. The biggest difference is that Jae is South Korean, while everyone else is white. Jae’s parents, Shelley and David, […]

Egypt, "Fragment of a Queen's Face," yellow jasper, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353-1336 B.C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Open Season

September 26, 2018 Laurel Brown

Blending styles including personal memoir, creative nonfiction, and photography, “Open Season” lyrically explores what it means to be a woman in America. The vignettes present flashes of microaggressions that women suffer and internalize every day, […]

Winslow Homer, "Camp Fire," oil on canvas, 1880, Gift of Josephine Pomery Hendrick, in the name of Henry Keney Pomeroy, 1927, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Fire Extinguisher

September 25, 2018 Dan Branch

When the motor on his boat catches fire eighty miles up a remote Alaska river, the speaker in “The Fire Extinguisher” is forced to see the experience through the eyes of an accompanying Swedish doctor. […]

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, "Peasant and Girl," color etching printed in black, red, and blue, 1921, Gift of Ruth Cole Kalnen, National Gallery of Art.

About Time

September 24, 2018 Judith Kalman

My father, born in Hungary in 1906, was often mistaken for my grandfather. Nowhere was the cultural divide between us more pronounced than on a trip to Budapest in 1969. We both let each other […]

Paul Klee, "Alter Dampfer (Old Steamboat)," oil transfer drawing and watercolor on laid paper, on Klee's original mount, 1922, Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art.

Detroit Gold

September 23, 2018 Emily Viall

First came the scrappers, Slicing the drywall muscle for Detroit gold. Dissection of the vein, red conductors. They gutted the city, Broke her teeth, Boarded up her eyes. Then came the scavengers, looking to make […]

John Swlentochowski, "High Silk Hat," watercolor and graphite on paperboard, ca. 1935, National Gallery of Art.

James Longstreet Constrained by the Economy of the Reconstruction

September 22, 2018 Mark Luebbers and Benjamin Goluboff

During his years in New Orleans Longstreet pursued several commercial ventures including the sale of insurance and membership in the city’s cotton brokerage, either of which, before the war, might have brought him a comfortable […]

Frederick H. Evans, "In the Attics," Kelmscott Manor Photographs, 1896, Purchase, David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1968, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Broadway Avenue

September 21, 2018 Carl Boon

East Canton, Ohio My grandmother’s house remains gray, remains past what might be recalled of it. A boy and a girl play Yahtzee! in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon, and from the car I […]

Nepal (Kathmandu Valley), "Mandala of Chandra, God of the Moon," early Malla period, late 14th-early 15th century, distemper on cloth, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Uzi Zucker, 1981, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Nepali Chhori: Interview with Richa Pokhrel

September 20, 2018 Julián Esteban Torres López

Conversation with Richa Pokhrel about her blog Nepali Chhori, the vulnerability of personal essay writing, and being a Nepali woman in today’s world. RICHA POKHREL is a nonprofit professional. She is originally from Nepal. Her work has […]

South Netherlandish (?), "Glass Fragment," colorless glass, 16th century, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1930, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Memoir

September 19, 2018 Erin Jamieson

and we were dying a little every day fleshy leftovers on tilted sidewalks failing to leave an imprint even the sun seemed to weep and the shadows never quite faded even as day broke even […]

Albert-Charles Tissandier, drawing for an illustration in "Yoyages du Flandre," graphite and brush and wash, n.d., The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When You Rise: Interview with Jim Cavan

September 18, 2018 Julián Esteban Torres López

Conversation with recovering sportswriter and emerging memoirist, Jim Cavan, about the industry, the craft, and how a rare cancer has affected his family. “To approach the other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in […]

Egon Schiele, "Crouching Nude in Shoes and Black Stockings, Back View," watercolor, 1912, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After Party

September 17, 2018 John Fantin

Her Pomeranian shot back and forth like the white lines cut out on the coffee table as she tucked bleached hair behind her ear and snorted from the rolled-up bill. She stripped at Blush, the […]

Joseph Pennell, "In the Jaws of Death, Rolling Bars for Shells," lithograph, 1931, Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art.

Memory Unfolded: Interview with John Z. Guzlowski

September 16, 2018 Julián Esteban Torres López

Born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, JOHN Z. GUZLOWSKI came to the United States with his family as a displaced person in 1951. His parents had been Polish slave laborers in […]

Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, "Tadeus Langier, Zakopane," photograph, 1912-1913, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Echoes of Tattered Tongues

September 16, 2018 John Z. Guzlowski

Below are three poems from JOHN Z. GUZLOWSKI‘s critically-acclaimed book Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded, his book of poems and essays about his parents’ experiences as slave laborers in Nazi Germany. Make sure to read […]

Made in New York, "Quilt Top, Crazy pattern," silk, satin, velvet, and cotton, ca. 1885, Gift of Tracey Blumenreich Zabar, 1989, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Reader’s Digest, December 1969

September 12, 2018 Carl Boon

Life in Hanoi. Pumpkin Pie to Make Your Mother Jealous. A Stranger in My Bedroom. What To Do with a Jar of Pennies. You will learn that a woman has stitched ten thousand quilts since […]

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