Laura Sweeney

CREATIVE NONFICTION - choose an image & read an essay

IceFloe Press •

Dispatch as a Displaced Worker & Reflections on Lockdown Pivoting

I’m taking a break from researching PhD programs when I receive an email from my brother. “Dad’s asymptomatic,” he says, “don’t tell Mom.” His email, written in his characteristic clinical and removed tone, reads like a litany of events and symptoms pertaining to my elderly father’s ongoing health complications. Last update was prior to the pandemic. Dad had been moved from his public assistance apartment to a care facility in Ft. Dodge, Iowa. “Dad’s on a rant again” my brother wrote then, “some
Whale Road Review •

Self-Portrait as an Opera Girl: A Lesson in Collecting Material

I recall a lesson from a writing conference. One session suggested joining, for a limited time, a group of enthusiasts with whom I wouldn’t normally associate. Like people who collect garbage for art. You need a gatekeeper, inside connections, the instructor said. Jaime is one of those gatekeepers. I enter the Blank Center for the Performing Arts accompanied by Jaime Reyes, owner of Montebello Bed & Breakfast, site of my current writing workshop. Jaime is several years my senior, retired from a
Barely South Review •

On Being She Who Runs with the Dachshunds

Three things make life bearable, hope, jokes, and dogs, but the greatest of these is dogs. Dogs. Big big big believer. No wonder I’ve saved the book Women Who Run with the Wolves, a beaten paperback copy of a feminist classic I’ve never finished reading, stashed on my shelves, corners dogeared and crumpled. A gift from my father from whom I am estranged due to my parent’s divorce and his epilepsy which rendered him a recluse, permanently disabled for much of his life. This book and a tattered p
Stoneboat Literary Journal •

200 Dollars: A One Month Consumption Diary in the Time of Covid

“Working women are experiencing the worst effects of the COVID-19 recession.” The current economic downturn is disproportionately hurting women’s employment, which is more concentrated in sectors such as government, health and education. Ramifications could be long lasting. A six pack of paper towels at CVS that my EBT card won’t cover. But they have good coupons. You can find toilet paper in the store now. I checked for baby food but didn’t find chicken and gravy. Six jars of chicken and gra
Toasted Cheese •

August in the Time of Covid

It’s August. Or is it? In this COVID time, hard to tell. Feels more like September though I’m not from here, don’t know the weather and whether it should be more humid or less. Leaves fall, still green. August. Five months into this pandemic. Where has the time gone? March—stockpiling like a mad woman, April—teaching Zoom class, May—thesis defense, June—post MFA collapse, July—devouring virtual conferences. This may be a forced sabbatical, but it’s not a vacation. When my dog Freya and I first
FICTION SOUTHEAST •

Writing in the Fallow

Why am I here? Not getting married, not finishing an MFA, not moving to Oregon. I’m heading into the deep freeze of Arctic-Iowa, after spending two-hundred dollars on writing contests instead of the boots I need. I just returned from RVing in Oregon, to gain some distance from my failed submission mission. I am back at the page with a new strategy: to meditate on just a few words, like the triptych poems I read in Hamilton Stone Review by Holly Painter (heinous horror impregnable). As I scan ca
THE GOOD MEN PROJECT •

Engaging Men in Gender Justice: My Women's Studies Experience

How do we support and empower women while also reaching out to and engaging men? My journey with this question began when I accepted the Women’s Studies 160 teaching assistantship the summer of 2010. The program was addressing the shift in title to the ‘Women’s and Gender Studies Program’. I had witnessed men in my graduate Women’s Studies classes drop out like an epidemic, and was curious how the program would become more inclusive. I became aware of the class in 2006, when I sought advice an