GRANDE DAME LITERARY

We Do Love a Diner

Wherever we are, my mom and I love to go to diners for breakfast. We relish the low-key ambience, the speedy service, and not least, the...

Tarah Friend Cantore

Taste, Smell, and Embrace it.

I clicked off the hairdryer. "Oh, shit. No! Where is it?" I came out of the hotel bathroom and saw Maggie frantically searching through...

Laura Damian

On the railway station bench

It’s better to meditate at sunrise, they say. Inhale two, three, four, exhale two, three, four. I close my eyes to look for my nothing...

Lea Pounds

The Last Waltz

Ignoring my sense of foreboding, I concentrated on Charlie, my husband of less than a year as he emptied his apple picking bag into a...

Laura Damian

Red lipstick

“You should wear makeup, dearest, and find yourself a boyfriend.” Madame Constantinescu leaned and kissed me goodbye in front of the...

Kelly Turner

Sunday Ham

The squeal pierces the quiet Sunday afternoon. Unmistakably swine. I lift my head, wipe my bottom lip with the back of my hand. The muted...

Laura Damian

At Nakashita’s Restroom

a young girl in a white vest bombed my shoulder and politely said “sorry madam.” For a second I wanted to slap her back. Instead I...

Noelle Stern

Getting Out the Door

One Christmas, my husband gave me a gorgeous new pair of Women’s Power Streaker Winged Flyers RD 9560s. Six months later, with the grass...

Kathryn Ruth Bloom

Blind Date

My psychology professors won’t admit it, but to truly understand people, try spending some time as a waitress. As a...

Jennifer Handy

Advantage

“All our affairs seem to be in order,” William told her that evening over coffee. “And profits should be high this year.” ...

Laura Bota

The Wake-Up Call

Wake up, Angela, wake up, a timid voice whispered into Laura’s ear. Heart fluttering under her skin, her t-shirt drenched in cold sweat,...

Paula Bernstein

The Secondhand Store

Sarah and Annabelle finished their ahi tuna salads, sipped their iced teas, and asked for the check. “Feel like browsing?” Annabelle...

Carol Ornstein

Little Girl Broken, Loved

Little girl, finding comfort in your big strong arms Loving, safe – you were my everything What happened that first night When you...

TR Biggar

The Hermit and the Hitchhiker

I was always my mother’s favorite. But she was never mine. Yet, when my father died at the young age of 72, everything had to change. I...

Carol Ornstein

Forever

We met I giggled You were serious I felt your heart even then Our souls said hello again Here we go A lifetime would pass 33 years to be...

Noelle Sterne

He Laughed

My father was a difficult man. A talented violinist, a natural leader, he was unfulfilled in music and little appreciated in his...

Carol Ornstein

Good-bye Stress

Me: Dear Stress, thank you for being such a big part of my life for most of my life. You have helped me to know in my body what feels...

Jessica Petralia

Out of my Scar

I have a massive scar on my right arm on the outside of my elbow. That scar means more to me than any tattoo I could ever get. It was a...

Tara Reale

Eight Belles

Bottles of the finest Scotch lined the oak-paneled wood walls where Dad and I sat at the bar in a bay side restaurant looking at the...

Ginger Dehlinger

A Sewing Circle

The moving man, stout as the load on his dolly, steered a dark wood cabinet into my mother’s apartment. He scanned the small studio,...

Lexi Pelle