Bird in Hand
2015
MY NEIGHBOR DEREK LUSCHE was seeking the center of gravity in his new bird sculpture. “I am going to hang it and maybe make it part of a mobile.”
Worms Eat My Garbage: A Saint Paul Love Story
2015
“You look like yesterday.” Margaret set her crossword aside and smiled warmly from the bench outside Northwestern Hall at Luther Seminary.
From Somalia to Kenya, to Somalia to Minnesota
2015
I am Hamda Ahmed Essa. I am twenty-two years old, I am single, and I live in the Twin Cities. In 1991 when I was a little girl in Somalia my family and relatives had to run away from the war.
Memory Care Unit
2015
Words don’t mean much here. Take Ida, who is excited to hear: there is a phone call for her! She turns to the window to pick up her glasses.
Fabel’s Shoe Store
By David Unowsky ● 2015
On Saturdays when I was a kid, my friends and I took the streetcar—later the bus—to downtown Saint Paul. Sometimes we went to the library, where the wise librarians knew how to help active boys find books that would hold their interest and keep them coming back for more.
We Were Fine, Thank You
2015
Kwame McDonald, an African pillar in the Saint Paul Rondo com- munity, was working on his autobiography when he transitioned into ancestorhood.
From Mears Park in Spring
2015
If you are walking on the sidewalk beside a tall building and, arriving at a cluster of orange cones, look up
Niam, Ua Koj Tsaug Thank You, Mom
2015
People ask me, “What is Hmong?” Hmong is not just an ethnicity, but a definition of who I am. Hmong is a tradition, a culture, and a belief. Above all, being a daughter in a Hmong family is both a gift and a curse.
Praises
2015
MAY LEE BEAMED when I praised her fennel. Mhonpaj’s Garden is the first organic Hmong Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the U.S.
Miss Decides She’s Had Enough
2015
I’ve been here for ages, my power formed this land right, all curves and banks, low countryside and limestone bluffs.
Playing Catch with My Dad
2015
Tossing the ball
back and forth
from hand to air to glove
The sound of it, leather
hitting leather, a satisfying thud.
An Uncommon Wedding: Eat Your Heart Out, Kate Middleton
2015
In a way, I feel sorry for Kate Middleton. She didn’t have to worry about a flooding Mississippi River dumping tons of mud on the wedding venue. Nor did she spend nights making hundreds of paper rosebuds for bouquets and centerpieces.