Aaron Burch Archives

ORCAS, or LIFE & ART & MAGIC & BEAUTY by Aaron Burch

June 25, 2025 · Fiction

My buddy Pilot comes to visit. Says it’ll do him good to get out of town for a couple days—new scenery, change of pace, leave the normal life problems and complications and stresses behind. But also we’ve been wanting and meaning to hang out for a while. The new scenery and change of pace and leaving behind of life’s problems and complications and stresses are all bonus. Icing on the cake, cherry on top. All that. It’s sunny out, blue skies, warm. It is beautiful, in that way that can feel unique and special to the Pacific Northwest. We make…

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HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Aaron Burch

August 2, 2023 · Fiction

It was exciting and sad and over too fast and underwhelming and amazing, all at the same. It was all of it. It was beautiful.

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REST STOPS AND PARKING LOTS by Aaron Burch

December 7, 2020 · Creative Nonfiction

Because I didn’t want to pay for a hotel. Because I could afford to pay for a hotel, but it seemed like a waste. Because, as much as I enjoy sleeping in and then being lazy and watching TV in bed, I wanted to get up and moving and on the road as soon as possible. Because I’d paid for and slept in a hotel the night before, and I’d do so again the night after, and I thought a night in my car would both save me a little money and make me appreciate the nights when I did get a hotel.

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AMERICAN LAKE by Aaron Burch

July 20, 2020 · Creative Nonfiction

Did you grow up near water? What did you think of when I asked that—lake, river, ocean, pool, other? Do you like to swim? Do you remember learning how? Did your grandmother live not on a lake, but near? Walking distance? Do you have fond memories of going to your grandmother’s house, getting one of the large towels she kept for you in the bathroom, one of the inner tubes she kept in her garage? Do you remember being little and using actual inner tubes on the water, not an inflatable pool float or tube like you might buy from…

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