father – MAGAZINE

“Your Dad Took His Own Life This Morning”

Posted on Apr 15, 2023Apr 20, 2023 by Grace Korynta

“Your dad took his own life this morning”
Words I never thought I would hear coming out of my mom’s mouth …

Imagining My Father’s Death by Mi-Mi Monahan

Posted on Aug 31, 2019Sep 22, 2019 by Germ Magazine guest author

if your absence was no longer a choice maybe the rest of our family would stop looking at me like a chipped-tooth smile they can all see right through like i am the daughter of the knot in the skin of a family tree that is otherwise smooth so i spend my time trying to […]

Erin McCahan: On Thinking There’s Time

Posted on Jul 3, 2017Aug 21, 2017 by Germ Magazine guest author

Tall. Elegant. Southern. Gentlemanly. Kind. Principled. These are the words that come to mind when I think of my stepdad. Late. The man was always late. Always. Never on time for anything but church. And he was a surgeon, so my mother had a handy and believable excuse for his tardiness, but he rarely had […]

Fish Bowl by Esha

Posted on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 by Germ Magazine guest author

I saw death for the first time when I was 8. She was beautiful and isolated, floating upside down in a fish tank at a Chinese restaurant. I remember her red eyes, so hollow and glassy staring at me as I pressed my nose against the glass. A blue light illuminated her in the tank, […]

Little by Maddie

Posted on May 9, 2017May 30, 2017 by Germ Magazine guest author

“Shower caddy and soap—” “Check.” “Desk light, pillowcases, notebooks—” “Got it.” “Socks, glasses case, portable radio, my quote mugs—” “All present.” “Okay…” Harper Little released a flap on the last cardboard box and watched it settle into place. Looking up, she grinned at her mother. “What?” Vivian Little rolled a felt-tip pen between her thumb […]

Father of the Year by Kate Foley

Posted on Dec 13, 2016Feb 14, 2019 by Kate Foley

from the perspective of your daughter, twelve years from now I was Daddy’s girl until I found out that Daddy had another girl and another girl and another girl and he rotated through them like revolving doors in the winter. I was Daddy’s girl but then Daddy started sleeping with someone half his age. I […]

Things Lucy did that nobody understood by Zainab

Posted on Nov 27, 2016Dec 12, 2016 by Germ Magazine guest author

When they asked Lucy’s father what word he would use to describe Lucy, he said “phantasmagorical.” He had trouble pronouncing the word, so it came out jumbled, messy, and illiterate, which ironically perfectly suited his thoughts on Lucy. He loved her, yes; he’d seen galaxies when he’d held her for the first time in that […]

Portraits of Innocence by Maghfira Raharto

Posted on May 29, 2016Jun 27, 2016 by Germ Magazine guest author

These pieces started out as peace offerings for my parents. They are modelled after my baby pictures from the year 1999. I decided to take a monochromatic, pop-art-style approach for a retro-esque effect. For these, I used my brother’s leftover sheets of drawing paper and a blue coloring pen that I found lurking in the […]

Learning to Drive by Ed Higgins

Posted on Apr 26, 2016Apr 25, 2016 by Germ Magazine guest author

Just take the mountain curves as tightly to the inside and as fast as surface conditions permit and the road’s edge or yellow center line allow my father was saying, concentrating on my desire to learn all the secrets of driving. What he meant to tell me, or so I imagine, was stay alert, that […]