Author: laurenalwan

Supermarket Sweep, 1994—Jeffrey Hecker    Abundant and considerate, first starlight, so why on earth, as Mom races to fill her cart with Tomahawk steaks and slips, does no solitary bystander assist her oblique fractured patella? Not host Mark Ruprecht’s wide neck tie.  Not shopping partner Uncle Jerry, stuck in console at storefront.  Jerry can smell only … Continue reading Americana Stories: Poetry

Walking Directions to Dunton’s General Store—Sara Epstein From our house on Beaver Pond, walk past the Murdaughs’ house. On the dirt road, kick the stones and watch the dust swirl. Cattails rise from the edge of the pond behind the four identical cottages. Next pass the Silvas, and then the fourth house.Can’t remember who lives … Continue reading Americana Stories: Poetry

Beyond—by Lou Turner Lou Turner_BeyondDownload Lou Turner is a writer and musician (Lou Turner, Styrofoam Winos) in Nashville, TN. She is an M.F.A. candidate in poetry at Randolph College and the author of Shape Note Singing, her debut chapbook from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. Recent poems have appeared in Entropy, EcoTheo, HAD and elsewhere. Turner's latest … Continue reading Americana Stories Web Feature: Poetry

Elliot’s Story—Fiction by S. Blair Jockers Looking back, I realize I had a serious crush on Joe. People didn’t think that way in 1949, but I should have figured it out the day he told me he was leaving Pensacola as soon as his enlistment was up at the end of the year. “I’m sick … Continue reading Americana Stories Web Feature: Prose

Skin Smooth—Laine Derr Until her mother died, she’d forgotten a thumb calloused from killing – an ant, hemolymph still warm. an ant, even in death, fights. an ant with boot cut jeans, sugar-coated throat. Letting go: ashes sinking, river stones longing for kind, skin smooth from shining – a body thinned with linseed oil. a … Continue reading Americana Stories Web Features: Poetry

Morels—Amy Love “When old apple trees quit yielding,” she says,  fingering scarred bark with sun-spotted hands,  “farmers beat them with chains. It stirs up traumatin,  a hormone that shocks them into blooming and bearing again.” “Apocalypse sex for trees?” She laughs, but her thumb probes a rift and I flush just watching.   Then she drops … Continue reading Americana Stories Web Features: Poetry

Today we begin an exciting new series at the museum—Americana Stories—highlighting poetry, fiction, and essays that will bring outstanding new work to our museum readers. Each week here on News & Features, we'll feature selections of exciting repurposed Americana, a chance to expand the writers we serve with new fiction, poetry, memoir, flash, and essays, … Continue reading Welcome to our newest project: Americana Stories Web Features