“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 27.1
Featuring the writing of Emma Bolden, Rachel Cline, Shannon Cram, Jim Daniels, Chelsea B. DesAutels, Beth Ann Fennelly, Allison Field Bell, Gary Fincke, Jesse Lee Kercheval, L.C. Killingsworth, Asena McKeown, Jenny Molberg, Phong Nguyen, Lynda Rushing, and Corrie Williamson.
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.
The Owl Mother
By Anne Giordano
I’d been puttering around—making coffee, feeding the dogs—before I noticed it: a barred owl perched on a branch right outside my kitchen window...
A Splinter in Time
By Alex Kincaid
I watch the log inch closer to the pointed wedge, and wait in anticipation as it’s squeezed. It fights the pressure, but eventually splinters open with a loud pop and cracks down the middle...
Jumping In Leaves
By Joseph Gross
Somewhere after the turn of the millennium I slid from leaf jumper to leaf raker, and so on this smoky November afternoon I hold down my job for the boy in front of me during what will be his only non-digital hour of the day...
Latest News …
Interview With Laura Julier – Winner of River Teeth’s 2023 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize
By Megan Lutes Laura Julier, former editor of ten years at Fourth Genre, won River Teeth’s Literary Nonfiction Book Prize in 2023 for her memoir, Off Izaak Walton Road: Grace that Comes from Loss, published by University of New Mexico Press, 2025. As an educator,...
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.