In the middle of the night I lie awake considering my options One thought: I could 5150 myself to buy time, sort things through have a bed, a roof and three squares. But when I wake later, early that morning, I know the answer. I throw back the covers with abandon Spitefully hoping…

Recently, I attended a literary event at an acquaintance’s home. I was apprehensive at first because I didn’t know any of the (younger) guests, but felt my social anxiety receding after some friendly, getting-to-know-you banter around a warming fire pit. That was one moment. The next moment, a chasm opened…

(after a poem by Dorianne Laux) — Burnt sienna to match the appliances and times Fat flutes alternating with thin Creating crannies the Pam never reached Weary from a brief marriage to Betty Crocker, and a fling with Duncan Hines, they found love with the Pillsbury Dough Boy When the phallus with a hole rising up from the flutes…

“Want some?” Those were the first words Steve spoke to me while extending a heaping spoonful of cocaine as I stood flipping through the stack of albums next to the turntable. In case you hadn’t guessed, it was the 80s and we were at a mutual friend’s Fourth of July…

Bake any banana bread this past year? You’re not alone. Many of us adopted new pastimes and rituals while being (mostly) stuck inside during various stay-at-home restrictions. Some pastimes were born of necessity, others of boredom. Some will last, most won’t, especially as life returns to normal…whatever normal is. With…

By Amy Roost The week after pandemonium* broke out, I met a friend for coffee. I thought Amy and I had shared everything — including our names—over the course of our nearly 50-year friendship. …

A true story as told to (and written by) Amy Roost for Estela Salazar. Don José I was 6 when Don José surprised me with some cookies and milk before bed. I got so sleepy. The next day I woke up all bloody, with a cut on my ankle. Mami…

The inconvenient truth on the pesticide that caused my baby’s brain anomalies.

Nine years ago, at the age of 47, the editor of my hometown community paper offered to let me write a bi-monthly column. It marked the start of what would be an improbable journey to a successful writing career. Success didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t until 2014, that I had…