Stories

400 Words content. True personal stories that might or might not also appear in the print magazine.

Annabel, Edinburgh

Posted to Stories on the topic of Autobiographies on 5 April 2008, with no comments so far.

by Annabel—Age 24—Edinburgh, Scotland
Mom was a conceptual artist and Dad a drummer in punk bands. Once he played a gig dressed only in boxers and tinfoil, which fell off as he played. He stopped playing when I was two, and started taking me to social work school with him on the Green Line. Mom stopped […]

Derek, Portland

Posted to Stories on the topic of Autobiographies on 3 April 2008, with no comments so far.

From 400 Words, Issue 1
by Derek—Age 33—Portland, OR

I now reside in Portland, Oregon. I arrived here two years ago in a beat-up truck with everything I owned crammed into the bed and cab. I was fleeing Lee’s Summit, Missouri, where I had worked for a shady sub-contractor for the Justice Department—blowing the whistle led […]

Flux

Posted to Stories on the topic of Work on 11 November 2007, with 7 comments so far.

by Erin—Age 30—Saskatoon, Canada
Each day is quite different from the last. I am a mother. I am a grad student. My work, however, can scarcely be summed by such labels.
When I was five, my parents decided to go to grad school. In the five years that followed I was very much on my own, save […]

Easy

Posted to Stories on the topic of Work on 9 November 2007, with 6 comments so far.

by Holly—Age 42—Killingly, CT
I leave my quiet home on the lake and arrive at work every weekday at 11:00 am. Standing behind the register of our family restaurant, I take in its familiar sights and sounds.
A three-year-old throws a tantrum when his pregnant tattooed mother takes away the salt shaker he was busy sucking on. […]