Sanguine

Sanguine

               All animals have blood hearts             Omnia animalia sanguine* corda             All animals have blood in their hearts   Sanguine is no longer meaty. We have squeezed out the blood. Lobbed off ventricles and arteries to leave just an outline <3   Our animal hearts...
The Hawk Outside of the NICU

The Hawk Outside of the NICU

One morning, as we ate sandwiches—mine had apples on it—a hawk appeared outside the hospital cafeteria window. Or no, it was not a cafeteria, it was a cafe. Which was meant, perhaps, to conjure a sense of normalcy. You could order paninis and mochas and bowls of soup. My husband...
In Chinese I Am Six Years Old

In Chinese I Am Six Years Old

I know the sweet shape of sugar, tang, and the soft sweep of cat, mao. I know wo e le, I’m hungry; I know wo bu zhi dao, I don’t know. I know wo yao, I want; wei shen me, why; dui bu qi, I’m sorry. Last March, I learned...
I Live Alone

I Live Alone

According to the US census, more than one-quarter of older adults live alone, one out of five men and one out of three women Nearly half of women over 75 live by themselves.   1. I live alone. Husband dead. No kids. My dog can’t hear anymore. God is the...
The Mathematics of Decay

The Mathematics of Decay

In Tokyo, they measure death in hours. Nako’s began with stomach pains at a wedding reception—her own. The cake hadn’t been cut yet, but something else was already dividing inside her, multiplying with the precision of a cell gone wrong. Three hundred and twelve days from “I do” to “Time...
Rumpus Room

Rumpus Room

I’m nine. I stand behind a leather couch in the larger area of the daylight basement everyone calls the rumpus room. It’s Easter Sunday and cool and hazy outside but not enough so that my grandfather will need to ignite the fists of coal already mounded in the grate of...
Lebanese Eggs

Lebanese Eggs

Click here to jump to recipe. Otherwise, notice the tippy milk crates stacked two-high under your five-year-old feet, the white chef’s apron knotted behind your neck, draping down past your shoes, between you and the oven door of the ten-burner stove in your grandfather’s diner, the two flats of eggs,...
There Will Be Plenty of Time

There Will Be Plenty of Time

Your mother won’t forget you right away. There will be plenty of time to prepare logistically and emotionally for this event. You’ll become accustomed to the usual symptoms over the course of months or years: forgetting appointments, tripping over the names of acquaintances, the first missed birthday. When she begins...
Potshots

Potshots

(after Hanif Abdurraqib) I remember guns were a private thing we only used at camp beginning with the potshots my cousins and I took at empty Miller Lite cans the white cans with the red emblem and the time David yelled at me after I discharged the lever action BB...
Night Owl

Night Owl

He switched the headlights off and urged her up, into the night air. “Go on. Stand up,” he said, pointing at the Toyota’s open moon roof.  The car rolled slowly down a country road, somewhere deep in the valley of quakes. Soon enough she would be too old for this....
Things I’ll Likely Forget

Things I’ll Likely Forget

Yesterday, I couldn’t find my passport, not that I needed it, I wasn’t going anywhere, hadn’t gone anywhere in ages, not since my partner and I decided to pack up the house we’d lived in for ten years and move to another (smaller) house, in another (larger) city, with car...
other people’s mothers

other people’s mothers

I keep a catalogue, a mental inventory. There are mothers who paint portraits of cats dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte and mothers who fall asleep drunk on patterns for XXXL pajama pants, and mothers who mouth “fuck you” to their daughter in the backseat when they get lost in the family...
Latest Issue
Issue 80 / SEPT 2025

Issue 80 / SEPT 2025

Brevity‘s latest issue showcases 12 brilliant flash essays from Molly Akin, Heather Kindree Thomas, Julia Hou, Sue Fagalde Lick, Dana Wall, Richard Robbins, Marjie Alonso, Heather Shaw, Jeremy T. Wattles, Steven Church, Lori White, and Toni Judnitch.
Teaching with Brevity

Teaching with Brevity

Our TEACHING RESOURCES section (found in our top menu) offers a powerful collection of resources for writers and teachers of literary nonfiction, including prompts, craft essays, subject and craft element indexes, teaching tools, and much more.