Essays

Kick Ball Change, Plie

When I was eight, I saw my mother win a hula-hoop competition. We were at a work picnic for my dad’s company, and she entered the contest and won it. Her prize was a bright yellow walkman. Yes, that portable thing from the 90’s that played tapes. I wasn’t too surprised when I saw her …

Valentine’s Day Is Chaucer’s Bitch

I’ve just been reminded as to why I find Valentine’s Day so interestingly ironic. Notice I did not use the word moronic. They only sound alike. It should be noted that many return to St. Valentine as a habit of affection, so I am truly sorry to burst bubbles–well, not so sorry, I like it …

The Chosen

Her name is Ally Crystal Elridge. She’s knows to have the best pot, pot that is better than any other student’s stash. She always has KB. Kind Bud. Smooth. Delicious. None of that cheap skunk shit I always smoke. We call her ACE when we are allowed to, when we get to know her better, …

When Sisters Speak

A Story from My Sister Kate:   I am not home. I’m probably at some sports practice for one of the three sports I play for my high school. My mom is either on her way to or from one of the Jazzercise classes she teaches. It is early evening and my sister is home …

Tweet

There is an old 1982 El Camino sitting in my driveway in the mountains of Cripple Creek, Colorado. It’s a year older than I am, and has a sock holding a part of its engine together. But it’s a good little super sport truck—and astonishingly reliable. My grandfather owned this car for years. He bought …

Snake

Finn was an alcoholic cabinet maker. Ruddy and unshaven, a scar on one cheek, eyes sunk back in his head, he would get drunk, commit some Cool-Hand-Luke-type crime (though this was ten years before the movie came out) and, once convicted, have himself transferred back to the Crisp County Work Camp, which he seems to have used as a substitute for rehab.

The Measure of Us

You see the ocean for the first time on our honeymoon. Your large feet dig deep into the muddy sands of the Maryland coastline as your blue eyes swell at the infinite water before you. I wrap my arms around your thick waist and press my ear into your back like you are a seashell and if I listen hard enough I can hear the origins of you. I close my eyes and plant myself in the moment. I want to stay this way forever. We are newlyweds. In this moment, with the sky darkening and the shush of waves around us, we are normal, and our problems, which loom large and heavy every other day and hour of our lives, are washed away with the sand between our toes, sucked back into the majestic wake of the Atlantic at our feet….

26.Too Sore

I am sitting in the passenger’s seat of my mother’s Honda Civic. It’s 5am, and she’s driving me in the dark to the marathon I’m about to run. I’ll be running 26.2 miles today, and we’re both antsy as hell to get to the start, to get there on time. And I just want to …

A Hemline of Condoms

Maybe twenty baby gators crowded the restaurant’s yellow wall. Their tails flicked into C’s. Their plastic mother was not far away, on a wall abutting. Her mouth was agape and the little hunter greens followed mom’s example, all ostensibly shocked by Caitlin’s story or, could be, begging for bits of our burgers. “She pulled a…a, …

Things You Should Be Doing Instead of Reading Kim Kardashian Articles

Get an enema — i.e., clean out your shit. 2. Petition the Pulitzer Board for the Johnson, Wallace, Russell debacle. 3. Read a book. About something important. 4. Go watch her video. No words needed. 5. Get your nails done. So you can be just like Kim Kardashian. 6. Study. Something besides nail painting and …

Essay and Other Nonfiction Workshops at Eckleburg

Personal Essay

Lyric Essay

Body Narrative

Modern Memoir

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Submit Your Nonfiction

We accept polished creative nonfiction/essays up to 8,000 words year round, unless announced otherwise. Preferences veer toward shorter works under 1500 words with an arts and culture focus. If you wish to include a bio, keep it short, under 200 words. Submit your nonfiction.

Essay Collections and Memoir Manuscripts

We publish short works at The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. At this time, we do not publish novel, long memoir, essay collections, story collections or poetry collections at The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. We do offer manuscript workshops at The Eckleburg Workshops. If you are looking to place a manuscript, we can suggest several excellent small and large presses whose excellent books are promoted through our Eckleburg Book Club — i.e., Random House, Graywolf Press, Coffeehouse, Tinhouse, St. Martins Press and more.