Tag: relationships

Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.

Ella Dawson learns about the perils of break-up sex the hard way.

Newly single in her mid-50s, Pam Mandel swipes through dozens of selfies, including her own.

After separating from her husband and entering quarantine, Anne Liu Kellor faces her ongoing desire for a partner and the necessity of loving herself.

Shaheen Pasha explores how the trauma of a loved one’s incarceration unravels her carefully planned-out existence, and sets her on a new, unexpected path to find meaning in the meaningless.

Robin Antalek considers the legacy of the man who abandoned her for another family and never looked back.

Adam Kuhlmann was outmatched at the 1993 Little League World Series. His 11-year-old nephew helps him to learn from his errors.

Deenie Hartzog-Mislock confronts a lifetime of body image trauma when her marriage turns south and sexless.

Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.

What happens when ordinary people play God to strangers? Leora Smith explores the history of one of the oldest art installations at Burning Man and the conversations that unfold there.

Deena ElGenaidi considers the ways in which adoring Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine from afar in her teens and early 20s provided a safe outlet for expressing desire.

Nicole Walker contemplates the nature of migration, and realizes there are two places you can never escape: the planet and your own head.

After a ten-year relationship ends painfully, Mona Kirschner finds herself searching for emotional and physical healing at a weight loss center in Brazil.

Laura Lippman, admittedly a rotten friend, is bummed by the ways in which friendships end as one gets older.

Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.

After Jay Deitcher sits silent as his wife is verbally assaulted by his father’s racist friend, he grapples with the ways his family has been muted by trauma.

After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.

In the wake of childbirth and postpartum complications affecting her mental health and her marriage, Ukamaka Olisakwe picks herself up and starts over — in grad school.

Alyson Pomerantz reframes her understanding of illness when an allergic reaction turns out to be something else.

From straightening her teeth to finding her true love, Summer Block has reached the milestones in her life later than most.

Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.

How does receiving a donated organ affect a person’s sense of self? Caitlin Dwyer explores the lives of organ donor recipients and their intimate relationships with donor families.

When her 13-year-old daughter finds love a stone’s throw away, Lisa A. Phillips confronts the inevitability of first heartbreak.

Joy Notoma grapples with saying goodbye to friends before a move, the complicated grief of shunning, and the way one parting can be a painful reminder of so many others.

On the profound loneliness of female desire in Lisa Taddeo’s “Three Women.”

What kinds of relationships exist between humans and animals, and what well-intentioned actions from humans bring harm?

A late bloomer as far as relationships go, my first encounter with heartbreak came from the track. It was junior year. The district meet: all big Texas sky and girls next to me adjusting hair ties and heat waves shimmering ahead. At that point in my life, I had devoted myself entirely to running. I […]

Brick had gotten a new jaw, nose, and cheekbones from a surgeon in California, costing him around $30,000, and still he was furious at women and the world.

As she prepares to leave the home she shared with her ex, Marlene Adelstein finds herself fixated on the husk of a nest hanging in the yard.

Nancy Jainchill recalls a ’70s sexcapade that helped her make (one month’s) rent, and began her exploration into women’s pleasure and sexual parity.