Conor McNamara

Conor McNamara, a Seattle native, earned a BA in English from the University of Montana and an MFA from the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. His fiction and poetry have been featured in agape, Gambling the Aisle, Riprap Journal, The American Journal of Poetry, The Saturday Evening Post, and Valley Voices. In 2017, he started a reading series in Pensacola, FL called Words Matter. He currently travels for work on a land survey crew.

CHANCES by Conor McNamara

I’ve been exchanging letters with an inmate at Downstate Correctional Facility, the friend of a friend. In my letters I talk about my work, the woods and the hours. Even though I scoff at Lena’s “attracting happiness” theories, I encourage my friend’s friend to “keep his head up” and I assure him that he is loved. I decided that when I got laid off, I would drive to Fishkill, New York and visit him. Leaving my cellphone and wallet in a drab locker room that smells like puke, I cross the metal detector. And then I’m in the visitors’ center…

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