Catapult Alumni
At Sunrise
Neighbors could hear the obscenities shouted from the fourth story window on the eve of the New Year. Couples shuffle back from dinner reservations and small children cling tightly to their mother’s hand. All who come back are coming back before midnight. And all could hear the profanities that hang in balance from the fourth […]
The Freya Project: Where Women Have a Shared Voice
The Freya Project is a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by two Catapult classes alumni, Natalka Burian and Nonie Bryzski.
The Cenote and the Harp
I thought of the things that were important. Then I asked myself if those things would be important later, wondering all the while about what it would be like to become a thing. Then the captain’s voice came over the intercom, and he gave a rundown on all the important things about the flight, […]
The Pursuit of Perfection
Later on the same trip, we got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on a large bridge going into a major city. An early September heat wave had descended upon us. By this time, the temperature had unexpectedly swollen to nearly a hundred degrees. Bumper to bumper, the humans’ blaring and honking metallic machines […]
On goodbyes & practicing resurrection.
My old roommates bought a house. They are taking the rest of their things out of the old apartment tonight & then the Misfit House will be gone. It will be nothing more than a memory. (I will always call it the Misfit House because that’s what we were. We were the most beautiful collection […]
Glow of Admiration
The morning’s sunlight was brilliant: not hot, but warm; still, the vibrantly colored peacock retreated from its touch resting within the shade cast from a tractor. He had been caught from the jaws of a dog years earlier and struggled to survive; now, missing one spur, and years advancing, he appeared, without being capable of […]
Labels & Detractors
Recently, I met a fashion blogger, and I was quite excited as I am when meeting any writers; however, my excitement was quashed when she began speaking of ‘labels’ guaranteeing ‘quality.’ I did not feel the need to correct her with my personal opinion; instead, I told her that ‘I don’t really care about labels.’ […]
‘Someone is lucky.’
Those words were spoken to me by a very aggressive stranger whom I met in the street, and they have obsessed me every day since hearing them because an outward appearance is not defining of a life; in fact, the words, personify the adage: ‘Never, judge a book by its cover.’