CRWR 106

Another dusty sunset filled the rearview mirror as the wheels on our car scraped against the pebbles. “Bella, they used to shoot movies down this road; makes one hell of a dust devil for car chases, don’t it?” Chris’s tone wasn’t questioning, rather, it left no room for an answer. Dads typically aren’t called by […]

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  “Sweetie! Is that you?” I heard Connor’s voice float through the apartment as I shut the door. I made a face. I had his birthday present folded under my arm. If he came to greet me in the foyer, I’d be dead in the water because he’d ask me what I had and he […]

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Attack of the Ducks The clock struck one; the fog rolled into the city. New York City was usually a pretty lively city at night. But tonight, it was dark and quiet. Emily and I, dressed in all black clothing, crept alongside the endless rows of buildings that lined the streets of New York City […]

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This story is about a man named Skinny who was living alone and knows that he does not have much longer to live. Throughout the entire story he doesn’t know how to tell his kids that he is going to die. You start to feel bad for him because all he wants is to have […]

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I loved how Belle Boggs was able to create the character’s age without actually giving you it until the very end. I would have been really very much okay if the age was never said at all actually. Belle Boggs gave the reader a character and filled out the portrait of this woman but by […]

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This was such a beautiful portrayal of what life is like with a transgender family member. This is still such a taboo topic for some reason, so being able to gain a better understanding through this piece was incredible. I think that Boggs took a very sensitive subject and was able to tell a story without […]

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I’m bored of saying readings were interesting. This reading was insane. How do these authors come up with these stories? I know we aren’t supposed to say bad things, and this wasn’t bad reading, per se, but I literally couldn’t help but think throughout like, half the reading that Nemecia needed major therapy. The narrator […]

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Belle Boggs has succeeded again in creating a story that you can jump into. Like Imperial Chrysanthemum, she did not conclude the story in the typical sense. What I appreciated most about this story was that it left you wondering and thinking about the different outcomes. There’s no happy ending with a tidy bow. It […]

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I loved the relation between ‘Election Day’ and ‘Imperial Chrysanthemum’. It is brilliant the way Belle Boggs uses two stories to show two different point of views. ‘Imperial Chrysanthemum’ is told in Loretta’s point of view and it doesn’t portray Cutie in the best light. She is a stubborn, annoying old woman that Loretta has […]

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You will never be alone, you hear so deep a sound when autumn comes. Yellow pulls across the hills and thrums, or the silence after lightning before it says its name – and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed apologies. You were aimed from birth: you will never be alone. Rain will come, a gutter filled, and […]

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Two Loaves of Bread, a Lemon Pound Cake, and a Donut for the Walk By Jessica Kennedy   Inside the bakery, an old man waits for his regular order: two loaves of bread, a lemon pound cake, and a donut for the walk back home. Every second and third Thursday, not counting the other days […]

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In “Night at the Fiestas,” main protagonist Frances struggles with who she is and what she wishes to become.  As the story begins, she is a sixteen-year-old overprotected and modest young women who yearns for more. She is not satisfied by her surroundings, herself, or her family. One could say she is a little ashamed. […]

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No, Lila remembered. He had not. Instead he gathered their things awkwardly in his arms, as if he were going to run off with them, leaving her standing alone and embarrassed. She had grown panicked then, standing in the checkout line. She had been afraid of being deserted. That part she did not share with […]

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As someone who is not extremely familiar with the transition process, much less how they affect a family, I found this short story very intriguing and insightful, despite it being fiction. The confusion our main character, Melinda, goes through only adds to this experience. Melinda wondered if Jonas would have ever made this decision without […]

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In “Homecoming” Boggs writes about how one’s family history can influence the decisions one makes in life. In Boggs’ story, Marcus, the main character, comes from a broken family where both of his parents are in jail. Tiff, Marcus’s aunt whom he lives with when both of his parents are sent to jail, ends up […]

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This short story was very interesting to me because I haven’t come upon many short stories about the transgender transition process and how it affects a family. This topic is something that is still seen as controversial in many societies, so it is great to see it written about in this detail. It is not […]

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Belle Boggs story “Election Day” is a short story that continues the story “Imperial Chrysanthemum”. It is about a woman named Cutie and her caretaker Lauretta. Cutie is going to vote in the election. There is a depressing theme to the story. Cutie is thinking about her old age and how repetitive the years of […]

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Cora Tyler Young, better known as “Cutie”, is struggling. She has been struggling and stubborn for a long time. At eighty-four, simple tasks take immense amounts of effort and she needs help. As stubborn as she is, help doesn’t come easy. Especially not from her closest relatives– her son and his wife– who don’t seem […]

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I enjoyed reading Belle Boggs short story, “Opportunity”. The story of a young school principle is very relatable. Many of the settings mentioned in the story, places like Richmond, Kings Dominion, and the Hampton Roads Tunnel are recognizable even though I have only lived in Virginia for a short period of time. The story pays […]

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Write a story in which the first sentence of the story begins with one of the phrases below and the last sentence begins with another of the phrases: In the middle school library, … In the dim light of the garage,… Inside the bakery,… In the hospital waiting room,… In the distance along the river […]

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