By Sally Elley   When I took up surfing while living in San Diego, I envisioned that I would eventually get barreled. It would be in...

By Julie Springston   The old Schwinn sped right off the sandy sidewalk and directly into the deep sand. Forward momentum faded quickly...

America happens to me. It happens when other places don’t. There’s magic. You need to look at the neon cords of traffic from a hotel up...

By Sean Stiny   * THIRD PLACE WINNER ANIMAL ESSAY CONTEST *   Trigger warning: Image of Dead Animal There's a gray fox in my black...

By Jacqueline Schaalje   The waves were splashing around me, the surf was carrying me as if by echolocation measuring shore to shore. The...

By Linda Abbott Trapp, PhD     He surprised me, quietly strolling among the things we call weeds, but that he probably thinks of as a...

By Margaret Pearce I was jet lagged for all of six weeks in England. Every time the kids took me out to lunch, they had to wake me up...

By Jim Moores “It was Moby Dick that dismantled me... For forever and a day I shall chase that white whale”. - Captain Ahab Some years...

by Nik Xandir Wolf

By L.A. Hunt “Gilligan, Rat Face, and Rags.” There, I typed it. It’s shameful and I hate thinking about how I said it. Well, more than...

By Wendy K. Mages I’m glad Barbara, my thesis advisor, prefers incandescent lamps to florescent lights. Her office is dimly lit; I can...

By Cypress Wilde   Their appendages stretched out in front of me, white and prickly. It is getting much,  much warmer here in the Florida...

Breakwater   Against the wash of time and tide, great granite walls stretch out, away, cutting in two the incoming flow. Protecting,...

By Katherine Plumhoff   Carefully read the entire test before doing anything. In order to ensure the accuracy of this exam, you should...

By Sofia Huebner   Wave after wave crashed upon the beach, frothing at the mouth, spitting salt and foam, teasing my eager eyes. A sound...

By Sherri Harvey The whippoorwill is so named for its call—three whistled notes that sound like “whip-poor-will.” It could repeat this...

by Lisa Loop I spent my morning behind a 1978 Chevy truck on the 134 east. These days, when I see one of these old trucks, I want to...

by Sean Stiny The gin-clear runoff from abundant winter snow meanders down spontaneous falls. The rum-colored Rio Grande holds sway...

by Perrin Pring I’ll call him Abe. Carnie Abe. Let me back up. In college, during the summers, I worked for a company as a river rafting...

by Krista Puttler I learned to surf on a gentle, rolling break called Canoes. It’s the one tourists are told they’ll be able to surf once...