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Author: Ashley Bethard

Writer. Editor. Digital Media Expert.

If you want overly-personal letters from me …

on August 3, 2018March 6, 2019 By Ashley Bethard 3 Comments

... sign up for my TinyLetter. It's called "hello, dearest," and it's really just a way for me to practice essaying in the form of letter-writing, which is one of my favorite mediums. I'll send you love letters about writing, art, creativity, life, grief, joy and all the bits of ephemera in between. >> Sign [...]

“My little flower, where are you going?”

on February 26, 2018February 26, 2018 By Ashley Bethard

That’s the name of this painting my brother did. I found it this weekend, in a box of art supplies my mother salvaged from his apartment. The title is written on the back, along with his signed name. It’s a nod to the Italian song “Piccolo Fiore” by Vittorio Merlo, a rough English translation of [...]

I have a new essay up at one of my dream pubs

on February 15, 2018March 6, 2019 By Ashley Bethard 2 Comments

Let me get this out of the way: I'm really not a cool kid, so I'm just going to let the awkward fangirl in me hang out. I love Catapult literary magazine, and pretty much all of the work they're doing, honestly. The writing is diverse, engaging, and spans a variety of perspectives and topics. [...]

On learning to love the work

on February 14, 2018April 16, 2018 By Ashley Bethard 1 Comment

I’ve fallen in love with my work again. Deeply. In a way I haven’t experienced since finishing my MFA eight years ago. I long for it when I’m at work, or driving, or doing something that takes up most of my mental capacity. I’m always thinking about it, pining for it, itching for the chance [...]

2017 in the rearview, and a pilgrimage to my childhood home

on January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 By Ashley Bethard

The day after Christmas, I loaded up a rental car and drove back home, alone. Not Ohio home, but original home: the place that bore me, that contains just over a third of my life’s memories. 

‘Do you hear that?’ It’s joy and chaos, both

on December 24, 2017December 24, 2017 By Ashley Bethard 1 Comment

It’s normal, around each holiday, each milestone, each moment we are expected to come together with family, to remember those who are no longer staunchly in the land of the living. 

A tripped wire in the universe

on December 3, 2017November 28, 2017 By Ashley Bethard

"All I wanted was for the summer — that terrible season of loss — to end."

A few notes on gratitude & the holidays

on November 27, 2017November 27, 2017 By Ashley Bethard

Love and thankfulness start in the kitchen. The Italian parsley drying on the sink. A half lemon left over from dressing the food. A bulb of garlic, inquiring eyes, and finally, a beautiful bird prepared by my mother.

A letter on grief to my dead brother

on October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 By Ashley Bethard

I had to call our mother To tell her you died. She wasn’t responding to my texts or calls So I had to call the nursing home where she worked And have the nurse’s desk page her. What’s going on, she asked immediately. I told her to sit down. She said Just tell me. I said [...]

What to do when the news makes you feel like a human ashtray

on October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 By Ashley Bethard 2 Comments

I never realized how much we take the absence of pain for granted. Instead, we cite boredom, general malaise, and complaint rather than sheer gratitude for the stardust shooting through our bodies, for those perfect moments when speck and cell align, humming, harmonious. We've got to be grateful at the cellular level. We've got to [...]

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Ashley Bethard

Ashley Bethard

Writer. Editor. Digital Media Expert.

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