Here’s My Story

By J.M. Parker
“Do you need anything off my laptop?” he asked. It was a pointedly sardonic question. A year into our relationship, we’d attempted what no new couple wisely undertakes simultaneously: starting a new job (me), leaving one behind (him)…

By Brian Fehler

The 1990 Dutch documentary Na Het Feest, Zonder Afscheid Verdwenen tells the story of Willem Arondeus, artist, novelist, and Dutch Resistance worker in World War II. Arondeus lived his life as an openly gay man. He led an attack on a Nazi registry office to protect thousands of people hiding in the country.

By Jordan Power
In my earliest memory, I’m three and hunched behind a blue exercise mat, masquerading as a stage curtain. My parents have paused dinner preparation for a sneak peek at my latest theatrical original, always here for one night only. I hit play on the boombox, click on the nightlight illuminating the side walls, and saunter from the back of the “curtain.”

By Charles Baran

I was an excellent houseboy at first. Mondays I’d do the laundry: sheets in the morning, towels in the afternoon. Tuesdays I’d vacuum and shake the sand out of the area rugs. Wednesdays I’d clean the three bathrooms. On Thursday I’d grocery shop for the weekend. By 4 p.m., I was done.

By Asmae Ourkiya
I was born with the gift of skepticism, stoicism, and a love for women. The combination could have ended with me in prison, so here is the story of why I left my country.

My home country of Morocco is a beautiful and fascinating place, but not all of us are free to be ourselves. Homosexuality is still criminalized under Article 489 of the Penal Code. At a very young age…

By Rafaelito V. Sy

I READ MY FIRST NOVEL at age fourteen. If my high school English teacher had not assigned a report on a book written for adults, then I would never have picked up Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel.

By Aila Boyd

I’m only 25, but I’ve been a high school theater and chorus teacher, a general assignment reporter, a college English instructor, and an editor of a small weekly newspaper. Luckily I have done quite well in both arenas. Perhaps that’s because I have a good work ethic and am resourceful.

By Brad Graber

Am I having trouble breathing? Is that cough an allergy or something more serious? These are the thoughts racing through my mind as I socially distance from everyone except my husband, Jeff. Am I afraid of coronavirus? You bet.