The old Cadillac broke down on I-80. I was on my way to a photography convention in Reno, Nevada. It was my first one and the magazine asked me to speak about my work. I have been a photographer for the New York Times for 20 years, and now my pictures have received so much praise that I’ve somehow won awards.
I’ve enjoyed pictures all my life. When I was a little boy, I would buy used cameras fro...
Papa lost his job at the mill after breaking his ribs in an accident. With no income and hunting season being over, we were starving. My sister Tilly and I struggled to walk around without our dresses slipping off our shoulders. Our only food was jam preserves, which Mama prepared for us before she died. We rationed them over several months.
No one in town was hiring for help as Tilly and I knock...
The rain was crashing that evening. It was pouring so heavy that it pooled in small puddles everywhere and gathered slickly on the freshly paved roads, paved just two months prior. The sky had darkened and grey. Immense clouds opened their mouths and released the weight of their burdens onto the small town.
Father hadn’t come home after work last night. He was hardworking, working late shifts fo...
I arrived at school in my freshman year, and it was time for my first class of the day, English. I couldn’t sleep the night before and tossed and turned at a decision I knew I had to make. My girlfriend of three months, the girl who I lost my virginity to, the girl I told I would be with her forever, was driving me insane. All the while, I thought about my ex. She began texting me again, and I ven...
"Jules, please listen to me. I have known you since you were born. Your mother, my sister, died on that lake. Your father was never in the damn picture. I took you in; I raised you. You became my flesh and blood. I would do anything for you. I would die for you. I fucking love you. You're so beautiful."
The sobbing started to come out in wales between the words. The deep inhales stifled by the th...