So here’s the thing, I’ve got baggage. It’s not cute or quirky, and it doesn’t make me a tortured artist. It gets all jumbled together in the front of my brain where I’m trying to sort through the setting description for the fiction I’m writing (well, trying to...

There’s a more than solid chance that you’ve heard of the names J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan. Or, if you’ve lived under a rock the past two decades, you’ve at least heard of their creations: Harry Potter and Percy Jackson respectively. Bonus if you’ve read both of...

Sometimes finding time to write is tough, especially if you work full-time, or go to school full-time and work a part-time job too. Finding time while doing that is hard, but imagine when you have a child. Time is nonexistent; your day is full of mommy chores and baby...

I remember when I heard Adventure Time was ending. It felt like an invisible hand was squeezing my heart. I stumbled. My vision became blurry. My left arm began to tingle. Everything smelled like burnt almonds. I woke up in a hospital. But what do you care? You don’t...

Hi, my name is Lauren and I swear. (Sorry, Mom and Dad.) Does it have something to do with my being a writer? Because come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met a writer who doesn’t swear. As my vocabulary has grown larger, the amount of times I’ve been told...

Long ago, before the greater patriarchal regime and its correlated ciscentric literary sphere were erected, humanity existed in relative harmony… but that all changed when the gender binary attacked. Gender—in its entirety, in it’s full spectrum—is especially hard to...

My mom used to gush how she read to me while in her womb, how I kicked when hearing a story. Essentially, I’ve been a reader before I could even read. I’ve also been fat most of my life, and sadly, as a result, I’ve struggled with my self-esteem. Maybe that’s because...

Pursuing a liberal arts degree equips you with all kinds of useful tools that will help you get a job or question the world around you, but did you ever think about how your degree of choice might help you reinterpret your favorite childhood book? With endless lists...

According to a 2015 census, there are 299,000 Hmong Americans living in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2017) and between 4-15 million Hmong individuals living globally (Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, 2017). Looking at these stats, I feel a warmth in...

Every book you pick up is a tree. Every page you write on is also a tree. Your desk was once a tree. Your door was one too. If you need to breathe, and feel sunlight, if you can’t or don’t want to write anywhere human-made, why not go back to the source material....

Tarot is often thought of as a vessel for future-telling, though this limits the possibility of tarot reading. The tarot offers an abundance of potential writing exercises for anyone—you needn’t be a high priestess, brooding hermit, or occult enthusiast of...

IRL Tommy Pico Birds, LLC September 2016 ISBN 978-0-9914298-6-8   Reviewed by KAITLIN HATMAN Tommy Pico’s IRL reads like a fragmented blog post educating its readers on the intricate interweaving of social media, race, sexuality, and mental illness.  It’s a book...