An Unconventional Writer’s Unconventional Memoir: Cris Mazza on “It’s No Puzzle”

"It's No Puzzle" cover    

The writer Cris Mazza and her siblings were blessed with remarkable parents. Her father, a World War II veteran who became a community college physics professor, was a forward-thinking man for his era, ensuring his girls had access to the same educational opportunities as boys. Her mother was not only college-educated, also unusual for her generation, but later returned for a second round of schooling so she could obtain a teaching credential and start a second career in elementary education. Together, the Mazzas made their children the center of their lives; they were rewarded by seeing their clan grow into vibrant, self-sufficient adults. Mazza chronicled these good times in Indigenous: Growing Up Californian, a critically acclaimed introduction into the “normality beneath the California myth that seems all the more dazzling and exotic with the passage of time,” as the Los Angeles Times said. While that book was fueled by memory, her new memoir, It’s No Puzzle: a memoir in artifact (Spuyten Duyvil Books), is powered by the questions that emerged as Mazza considered the objects that would amount to her parents’ legacy.  

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Sunday Stories: “Baby’s House of Missed Connections”

Gauze

Baby’s House of Missed Connections
by Morgan Victoria

J is convinced I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but when I start bleeding out on the Williamsburg sidewalk, she shapes up a bit.

Oh god, she stops midstep, do you need to do something about that?

I elevate my foot and cradle the soft arc of my sandal in my hand. Years of yoga seem to be on my side at this moment. It’s fine, I reassure, despite being the one whose sandal has become slippery and leaving brushstrokes of red behind me. I just need to apply pressure.

J sighs, you can’t go into Baby’s like that.

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Suburban Disquiet, Dallas Style: An Excerpt From Abigail Stewart’s “Foundations”

"Foundations" cover

We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Abigail Stewart’s new novel Foundations, out now on Whisk(e)y Tit. Stewart’s book chronicles the lives of three different women with little in common except for the Dallas house where each of them live at various points in their lives. The result is a taut, empathic tale of restless lives and fraught dynamics.

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