HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Aaron Burch
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.
Aaron Burch
Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection, A Kind of In-Between, and the editor of the craft anthology, How to Write a Novel: 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both out THIS WEEK from Autofocus Books. He is also the author ofYear of the Buffalo, Stephen King’s The Body, and Backswing. He started the literary journal Hobart, which he edited for twenty years, and is currently the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports), HAD, and Short Story, Long (on Substack). He lives in Michigan and is online: on Twitter and Instagram at @aaron__burch, and the world wide web at aaronburch.net.
REST STOPS AND PARKING LOTS by Aaron Burch
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.
AMERICAN LAKE by Aaron Burch
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…