THE NITTY GRITTY INTERVIEW WITH RONITA CHATTOPADHYAY| reckonreview.com
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A girl rides west toward a new stepfather, a yellow bedroom, and a life she hadn’t asked for. June 1972 The train pulled out of the station in New Orleans at dawn and headed west over Lake Pontchartrain on a long stretch of track that led to Benson, Arizona. Our new home. At least for […]| Reckon Review
by Charlotte Hamrick| Reckon Review
PARENTAL RECKONINGS: Lassie, there’s a writer in a well!| reckonreview.com
It was 98 degrees with 90% humidity, and my thighs were sweating through a beige knee-length pencil skirt. He had to choose yesterday to kill himself, in the middle of summer, during a pandemic. It felt like a final fuck you. One last gag from a man who’d always had a dark sense of timing. […]| Reckon Review
The woods have a unique quiet. A silence, almost, but for the sounds of the whispering leaves as the wind caresses their surfaces. An occasional birdsong creates melody with the sounds of the breeze. My feet crunching softly on the dirt path are rhythmic, patterned, meditative. The light— chiaroscuro, a fractal sun dancing on leaves […]| Reckon Review
Brother Hank called yesterday and said, Brother John, I know it’s not a good time, I sure am sorry to bother you, it’s just that I figured you probably still had the keys from Christmas and you got that big truck, and I said, No, I know, it’s fine, I’ll bring ‘em by tomorrow. He said, Good enough. I thank you. Long pause, then: Now you tell me, would Sister Maisy like to be asked to do the flowers around the tomb, or should we maybe call up Janet? And I sighed and said, I think—ye...| Reckon Review
Jeremy B. Jones’ most recent work Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries will come out in September 2025 with Blair Publishers. Cipher follows Jeremy’s fourth great-grandfather’s encoded writings while simultaneously grappling with the author’s own role in his family, particularly as a parent. This book offers a raw, honest look at the role of […]| Reckon Review
Maybe her philtrum is intact. The skin between her nose and lip a gentle slope, leading to a rosebud smile. She could have nursed from her mother’s plump breast with a strong suck, no whistling holes in her cat’s mouth. At school, perhaps Dawn held hands with her at recess instead of luring her into […]| Reckon Review
There are people who say they were close to Angela. Super close. People we used to know. They say her accident wasn’t an accident at all and the people who won’t accept this, can’t, because they aren’t strong enough.| Reckon Review
A large sign at the entrance of an ancient Egyptian gallery at the museum warns viewers of mummified human remains enclosed in a sarcophagus in the next room and suggests an alternate route to bypass the “triggering” mummy. It reminds me of trigger warnings; how quick they are to label a story before the reader has a chance to peek in. I actually wanted to see a delicate face wrapped tight in ancient linen, to bear witness to a past where someone was loved enough to be held for eternity.| Reckon Review
WRITING THROUGH ADVERSITY IN THE POST-TWITTER AGE AND THE HEALING POWER OF LITTLE STORIES | By Barlow Adams| reckonreview.com
Editor’s note: This story reads more like a folk tale than creative nonfiction, even with the beginning sentence stating that it’s a true story. However, one section of Amanda’s cover letter brought everything together in a way that we felt was important. We also didn’t want to interrupt the flow of Amanda’s writing and ask […]| Reckon Review
Few things are as daunting as a blank page or an empty screen, the sheer weight of expectation lurking in all that white space can be crushing. It’s a heaviness that settles in your chest, threatens to cramp your fingers, daring you to prove you have the words, that you’ve still got it, whatever it even is. During times of grief, illness, burnout, or sheer loneliness—that challenge can feel like too much. I can’t count the days I’ve opened a word document, stared at the blinking cur...| Reckon Review
By Amy Barnes| Reckon Review
By Stuart Phillips| Reckon Review