“Our present-tense human experience is like a living tree growing by a river. The current in the river is the passing of time. Our individual pasts are like the same tree fallen in the river, drowned now, and disintegrating with surprising speed. We resist time’s flow with our memories and language, with our stories ”
~ David James Duncan
Issue 26.2
Featuring the writing of Megan Baxter, Will Bridges, Janet Burroway, Roger Conant Cranse, Hope Henderson, Catherine Humikowski, Katherine Larson, Lucy McBee, Mariana Penãloza Morales, Sharman Apt Russell, Margot Singer, and Michael Wiley.
River Teeth is a biannual journal combining the best of creative nonfiction, including narrative reportage, essays, and memoir, with critical essays that explore the impact of nonfiction narrative on the lives of its writers, subjects, and readers.
Letter from the Same Room
By Lauren Fath
You take me to dinner at a restaurant in a deconsecrated church, The Love Apple, which has an actual apple tree on the patio, green fruits too fledgling to pick...
Full Moon and Baked Beans
By Anne Jacobson
We were driven small-town kids who had glimpsed enough of the world to know we wanted more; we were tired young adults who had carried the expectations of family and community long enough to know we wanted less...
Latest News …
Ander Monson Announced As River Teeth’s 2025 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize Judge
by Natasia Verdel We are delighted to announce Ander Monson as the final judge for the 2025 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. Ander Monson is the author of nine books, the latest being Predator: A Memoir, A Movie, An Obsession, published by Graywolf Press...
Hannah Hindley Wins River Teeth’s 2024 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize
By Megan Lutes
We are delighted to announce that Hannah Hindley has won the 2024 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. Her manuscript, Love and Also Fish, will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in Spring 2026. Hindley will also receive a $1,000 honorarium. All entries were screened by the editors, and our guest judge, Beth Nguyen, chose a winner from among the finalists. All of us at River Teeth are grateful to the many writers who submitted their books to the competition this year and to Beth Nguyen for sharing her time and expertise to choose the winning manuscript.
River Teeth Goes to L.A. for AWP 2025
We our packing our bags and our boxes of goodies as we prepare to make our way to AWP in Los Angeles this March 26-29 in Los Angeles.