maybe it was just one last story, the greatest: life. welcome. nobody knows evidence was destroyed -- no fear, no shame. volcanic vents and unbroken thread nearly 4 billion years old discern day from night. oh, the things molecules do. NOTE: The "COSMOS" poems are a true experiment. They're iterations of previous "found text" poems I [...]
Author: Ashley Bethard
Writer. Editor. Digital Media Expert.
fixed points in the universe: the homestead
There are few places where the past seems alive and well, where I am confronted with the characteristics of age, items attesting to the inevitability of decay everywhere I turn. But age isn’t a bad thing. It didn’t only mean death, though some days it does. It meant a history. That’s what we heard, my [...]
a little sweetbrag: Ohioana Grant
So, a thing happened, and it's a thing I've had my eye on since I was 18 years old. I won the Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant, which is an annual writing award given to a writer age 30 or under who hasn't published a book yet. https://www.facebook.com/Ohioana/photos/a.378711712794.158803.25305117794/10155110366302795/?type=3&theater Here's the full text of the Ohioana [...]
on pushing and getting nowhere
When my brother died, it took the Erie County Coroner's office more than two days to call any of my family members back. We called the police officer who initially reached out to me. We called the police department. We called the coroner several times. Nothing. We had to physically show up at the office, [...]
Some essays take 4 years to write.
I mean, this one did. I turned it over and over again, like stones in water, finding things that glimmered and caught the sun. But there never felt like a real sense of cohesion. I'd also add that it's one of the more experimental essays I've done. So experimental and feeling/sensory-oriented that I considered categorizing [...]
2015 Literary Goal #1: Quality, not quantity
First, an observation: bottomless mimosas are very conducive to dreamlike, hazy, optimistic thoughts. In other words, exactly the kind you should be having on New Year’s Day, as you dream about what the year might have in store for you. In recent years, reflecting on the year gone by and setting goals for the new [...]
How to write about blood
"Basic laws of physics: how to lodge a hook in your head. Treble means three. Simple motions. Hold, run, cast. You tell the story for show now, choosing words carefully, measuring impact, showing ownership of memory. I can tell it too, that is the subtext of what you’re saying. But you’re not trying to compete. [...]
What it’s like to learn you’re semi-deaf
"It’s like being underwater: the loudest thing you hear are your thoughts. Voices are garbled syllables with distorted time signals, they are far off and distant. It is easy to ignore, easy to give in to the indulgence of living in one’s own head. This is what it’s like to be semi-deaf, to be increasingly [...]
How to be a better person in 2014
DISCLAIMER: This post is in no way, shape or form written by an expert, nor does it contain any secret keys to life. (Sorry.) Instead, it was written by a very faulty human who has some self-awareness and a sincere desire to humbly move forward and become a better person. By now, you’ve probably already [...]
My Top 10 Books of 2013
READ IT: My Top 10 Books of 2013 I hate listicles, but I like Mensah and books, so I agreed to write this. My disdain for the year-end tradition of list-making is trumped by my belief that sharing books we love and our reading practices are incredibly important for human beings. Some books that have made [...]
ashley bethard 