My Writing – ashley bethard

What happens when we ask why?

on July 22, 2020July 22, 2020 By Ashley Bethard

Humans spend so much time creating narratives, wanting to string together disparate events into something concrete, something patterned. Story: we crave it. We weave a tale out of bits of information. It’s a kind of electrifying alchemy, to feel as though you’re inside your own real-world choose-your-own-adventure. Does the story we build make us feel important? Does it make us feel like we’re in control? Does it give us a sense of confidence, teach us how to navigate the world better?

I have a new essay out in the world!

on February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 By Ashley Bethard

"What happens when we juxtapose? Do the unrelated become related based on their placement? Do they share energy, tossing it back and forth, creating a link where one didn’t exist before? I sat at the bottom of the stairs for a while and stared at my hands. I couldn’t remember the last time he told [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Recently published: “I Am Not the Girl You’re in Love With”

on September 3, 2017September 3, 2017 By Ashley Bethard

"Awake, I think how nice it would be to fall asleep in your bed, to sink in to your cool, grey sheets. The music surrounds me, brings me up. It brings me out of shelter, it breaks something. I open my ribcage like a cabinet, I offer you my heart. Kiss me hard before you go it [...]

Cosmos, a variation: part i

on August 8, 2017August 8, 2017 By Ashley Bethard 1 Comment

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 [...]

fixed points in the universe: the homestead

on August 1, 2017August 1, 2017 By Ashley Bethard

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 [...]