Richard Schwarzenberger

Straight to the Heart

For reasons perhaps best not to contemplate, flash fiction—complete stories told (or telegraphed) in just a few lines—is one of the fastest growing literary genres today. For our bi-annual writing contest issue, we asked local writers for their takes on the rapid-fire form.

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Where I’m From

Twice a year, we devote an issue to personal essays by local writers, all written specifically for us. The topic at hand—“Where I’m From” (after a well-known 1993 poem by George Ella Lyon)—has inspired writers and poets around the country, yet it also seems tailor-made for our diverse East Bay.

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Machines of Summer

As a boy, he drove the Minneapolis Moline, a tractor that cut a crooked swath in his fields. He hated the heat, prayed for rain (except for at the baseball field where his beloved A’s played) and kept contemplating mortality.

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Faces of the East Bay

In the Philanthropic Swim

In the Philanthropic Swim

Rockridge residents John Bliss and Kim Thompson may live far removed the gritty flats of East and West Oakland. But this philanthropic couple see themselves as one with the citizens of Oakland, particularly those who are struggling financially, and they’re leading a campaign to get their “financially blessed” peers to invest in the community like they have by funding city programs to teach kids how to swim.