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Only Now

By Suzanne Farrell Smith   |  October 31, 2016
Only now, as you stand center of an aisle carpeted royal blue, where you and your older sisters, styled by mother in hand-sewn dresses to match her own, once trailed like ducks down the narrow river...

Bike Ride

By Ethan Joella   |  October 24, 2016
I don't remember if I wrapped my hands around my father when he let me ride on the back of his yellow Schwinn....

Red Birds

By Melissa Ballard   |  October 17, 2016
I hand the plate of raw vegetables to Dad. He sets it on the shelf attached to the grill, settles his arm around me. Pointing to the tree above, he says, "See those red birds?"

Reliquary

By Leah Silverman   |  October 10, 2016
When Rachmaninoff swallows my mother, I no longer know the woman...

True Grits

By Richard Gilbert   |  October 6, 2016
Harry Crews begins his classic memoir A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by conjuring in intimate detail someone he doesn't remember...

Bare, Naked

By Andrea Fisk Rotterman   |  October 3, 2016
Rain falls, dimpling puddles. I kick off my clogs. My toenails shine like sparkling pumpkin peel. I slide my underwear and jeans down my legs...

On Guilt

By Jennifer Wortman   |  September 26, 2016
When I was a baby and woke up at night, my mother held me, her arms a boat on a gentle sea. Oh, the helpless power of the small, to be thus cupped in the world's warm hand...

Water

By Chris Huntington   |  September 19, 2016
Many days I set a thermos of jasmine tea beside me on my desk. Jasmine tea is mostly water, perfumed by flowers. My thermos is stainless steel with metallic green paint and says L.L. Bean on one side...

Editor's Notes, Volume 18, Number 1

By Joe Mackall   |  September 15, 2016
At the end of the academic year, when students start to lose it over grade pressure and work load, and I begin to wear down and wonder how much longer I can read thousands of pages of student work, I do what every burned-out writing teacher would do--I read.

Kathryn Winograd

September 14, 2016
Kathryn Winograd is the author of Phantom Canyon: Essays of Reclamation, a finalist in the Foreword Reviews 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards; Air Into Breath, winner of the Colorado Book Award in Poetry; Stepping Sideways into a Poetry, Scholastic resource book for K-12 teachers; and two books on online learning published by McGraw Hill.

Four River Teeth Essays on this Year's BAE Notables List

September 14, 2016
Four River Teeth essays were listed on this year's Best American Essays list of Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction for 2015.

Emily Brisse

September 14, 2016
Emily Brisse's essays and fiction have appeared in a variety of publications, and her work has recently appeared in or is forthcoming from The Fourth River, Armchair/Shotgun, Two Hawks Quarterly, and Hippocampus.

Marion Boyer

September 14, 2016
Marion Boyer has written essays for Paddler, American Whitewater, Canoe & Kayak, Great Lakes Review, and The Tishman Review.

Rachel Graham Cody

September 14, 2016
Rachel Graham Cody is a writer in Portland, Oregon, and the co-author of Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball.

Kevin Honold

September 14, 2016
Kevin Honold was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His first book of poetry, Men as Trees Walking, won The Journal/Ohio State University Press prize in 2009. He is currently a PhD candidate in English at the University of Cincinnati.

Feagin Jones

September 14, 2016
Feagin Jones currently resides in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she obtained an MFA from West Virginia University. Her work has previously been published in PANK and Hippocampus.

David Lazar

September 14, 2016
David Lazar’s books include Who's Afraid of Helen of Troy, After Montaigne (co-edited with Patrick Madden), Occasional Desire: Essays, The Body of Brooklyn, Truth in Nonfiction, Essaying the Essay, Powder Town, Michael Powell: Interviews, and Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher.

Alex Lemon

September 14, 2016
Alex Lemon is the author of Happy: A Memoir, the essay collection Heartdusting: Notes from the Feverland (forthcoming from Milkweed Editions), and five books of poetry, most recently Or Beauty (forthcoming from Milkweed) and The Wish Book.

Annie Olson

September 14, 2016
Annie Olson completed her MFA at the University of New Mexico. She lives and teaches in Albuquerque.

Angela Pelster

September 14, 2016
Angela Pelster's most recent book, Limber, was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay and won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in Nonfiction.

Josh Potter

September 14, 2016
Josh Potter received his MFA from the University of Washington in 2015. His work has appeared in Shelf Awareness, The Stranger, and Driftwood Press, where he is a guest editor for their upcoming fall issue. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

River Teeth Journal Issue 18.1

September 14, 2016
Featuring writing by Marley Andino, Emily Brisse, Marion Boyer, Rachel Graham Cody, Kevin Honold, Feagin Jones, David Lazar, Alex Lemon, Annie Olson, Angela Pelster, Josh Potter, Joe Wilkins, and Kathryn Winograd.

When Students Cry

By Kate Michaelson   |  September 12, 2016
I know I shouldn't hug them, but I can't seem to stop, though I'm sure HR would advise it. I'd like to stop their crying as well, but that's even less tractable. Like the girl last fall who came to my 8:00 class wearing loose shirts and, after arriving late one day, told me she was pregnant.

Mars and a Reflection of Mars

By Carolee Bennett   |  September 5, 2016
"There are two red planets tonight," I say. And you reply, "What a brave universe". And I feel brave. Two 30-lb packs hang near the tent we pitched just before it got dark enough to need headlamps. It's Night One of this backpacking trip...

The Importance of Being Outside

By Margot Kahn   |  September 1, 2016
Gail Folkins' collection of essays was just the impetus I needed to unearth our family's old camping equipment and plan a trip into the mountains. We hadn't gone backpacking since before our son was born, and as I sifted through stuff sacks, headlamps, and cookware, neglected parts of myself reawakened...

Don Isidro

By Diane de Anda   |  August 29, 2016
In the lean years after WWII, soda bottles were our treasure, the two to five cent refund mine and my brother's only income for anything beyond the necessities our parents provided.

2016 Nonfiction Book Contest Accepting Manuscripts

August 24, 2016
River Teeth is pleased to announce that Andre Dubus III will serve as final judge once more for the 2016 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize. Series co-editors, Dan Lehman and Joe Mackall, will continue to screen all manuscripts. Deadline is October 31, 2016.

Brake Lights

By James M. Chesbro   |  August 22, 2016
On Sundays my father's red brake lights flashed ahead of me as he held a newspaper out the window of his car. I took his hand-off and ran to the next house where the heavy editions of the Philadelphia Inquirer thudded onto the steps of porches...

Stay Put

By Katie Powers   |  August 15, 2016
A whistle through the trees: stay put. He's cutting red maples.

For You, the Universe on a String

By Art Edwards   |  August 12, 2016
Whenever I hear someone has writer's block, I recommend writing about one's parents. It's a loaded subject for anyone, conjuring feelings we might otherwise repress...

18-1 (15)

a childhood (1)

andre dubus iii (3)

award (3)

bare (1)

beautiful things (159)

best american essays (9)

bike ride (1)

book contest (6)

book review (107)

deadline (2)

gail folkins (2)

harry crews (1)

light in the trees (1)

naked (1)

nature (2)

neglected nonfiction classics (4)

on guilt (1)

only now (1)

red birds (1)

relationships (1)

reliquary (1)

teaching (2)

water (1)

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