Anna Rollins’s debut memoir, Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl, will be published by Eerdmans on December 9th, 2025. Rollins blends memoir, reporting, and research to examine how diet culture and biblical purity culture instruct women to fear their bodies and deny their appetites. She is also the author of numerous essays and craft pieces including: Between the Sunflower Stalks in The New York Times; Running an Olsen Twins Fan page Taught Me to Craft an Online Identity i...| The Bookends Review
“It says here that when Leonardo Da Vinci died, he asked forgiveness for not using his art to the fullest of his abilities. That somehow, he had failed God and mankind.” A lanky man with a thick red scarf around his neck folded his newspaper, stuffed it into his jacket pocket, and turned to his companion not expecting an answer. The two men had stopped to take a break from their afternoon walk, sitting down on a bench overlooking a stretch of beach that surrendered to waves, the bay, th...| The Bookends Review
on this night I had a dream.conjurations by the fairies’ midwife it would seem, bringing me sweet visionsand courted by heart-strung decisions, swimming in soft swan featherswhile chasing him bound by their divine tethers. in the morning when I wake,the fog of courtship clears that memory made by mistake. then I shall cut the cord and cringe,taking her sickly medicine from a sharp syringe. i painfully pull out his gilded arrowand shake the nightmare out of my bone and marrow, purging misty ...| The Bookends Review
I sit at the dining table, and the warm spring sun falls on an empty sheet of paper. I draw almost every day now. And no matter what I start to draw, I see myself in the end. The day before yesterday, I was a tennis ball. A green one, with light lines wrapping around my body. Such balls are usually picked up by men in snow-white shorts. Those with strong hands and stressful jobs. They grab the ball, lift the racket, and swing it against the wall. Just to have fun and relax. “Stupid ball!”...| The Bookends Review
Announce the Morning. Yesby going about Your day. Yesraise Your well-rested Flesh,dress It & take It to Café Colao. Note the warmth in warmth.Note the Sun & Clouds.Note the Bus Driver & His solemn, stoic face. Note the patience it takes to wait for the walk sign to turn white.Note the Woman as You enter,whose car has gone missing| The Bookends Review
“Katherine, I believe it’s important that we clarify your goals concerning these recurring dreams. Think of it as a springboard for the healing process, the starting point for our journey.” Ten minutes into a fifty-minute hour, and Kat is already eyeing the door. Katherine Wyatt is not a person who seeks psychiatric help. Normal people don’t see shrinks, and normality is Kat’s calling card. Yet here she sits, chewing the end of her braid while Doctor Bramble smiles at her. Fucksake,...| The Bookends Review
When the school in Japan asked in her interview why she wanted to teach overseas, she didn’t give the real reason: that it had been an ear infection. Her parents had rented a lake house for early July. The first day, water had gone into her ear and had stayed in, resisting head shakes and leg kicks. She was the oldest of four. When she was younger, relatives called her “Young Mother Hen” because she changed diapers, helped with homework, and, later, drove her brothers and sister to thei...| The Bookends Review
