Nonfiction

This is Thin Air Online’s Archive of pieces that are classified as nonfiction. We accept work from those associated with Flagstaff and those from far off.

  • Cantilevered Ponds by Brianna Di Monda

    Cantilevered Ponds by Brianna Di Monda

    The interest of a photographer lies in experiments with transparency, explorations of the frame, and interrogations of perception. I first toyed with these ideas in September, when I took a photo of my friend wading into a pond. He wore only boxers and looked out at trees reminiscent of summer time. James’ emaciated body bore…

  • In Memoriam by Miram Ben-Yoseph

    In Memoriam by Miram Ben-Yoseph

    My mother died on her birthday 40 years ago. She died in Israel. I light the memorial candle in my kitchen in Evanston and recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. I drag the box with the “fragile, handle with care” sign on it from the basement and put it on the chair…

  • Dear Anger, What is Next? by Mekenzie Dyer

    Dear Anger, What is Next? by Mekenzie Dyer

    Dear Anger, I have been staring for months at the blank word documentthat should be my next writing piece. Once a week I tap out a few bitter wordson my keyboard before deleting them once more. My problem: I am still not overyou. For more than a year I drowned myself if you, drowned my…

  • Scared by Michael Chin

    We honeymooned in Orlando at the Universal Studios theme park and found our way to a Jurassic Park-themed boat ride through thick trees and velociraptors—fun in an ironic, retro way. The absences and deficiencies in technology stuck out. There was a time—presumably when the ride was released in 1996—when visitors would have been scared by…

  • Several Indisputable Claims and Why I Fear Chainsaws Simulated; by Jessica Kanzler

    Simulated Reality Theory argues that the universe is actually a simulation created by a computer with powers far beyond our comprehension. That means everything–including the interdimensional loose change that lives in every couch simultaneously–is actually a few imperceptible lines of code for us to blithely accept and complain about. A foundational argument for the possible…

  • “10-4” or “Things I Learned about Cops on my Civilian Ride Along”

    “10-4” or “Things I Learned about Cops on my Civilian Ride Along”

    by Camille Sinaguinan When I told an officer of the Flagstaff Police Department last December that I was a writer, and that I was always looking for story, he suggested that I go on a ride along.  I wasn’t sold on the idea at first–couldn’t you get shot at on ride alongs?–but when I mentioned…

  • The Reason I Read: Or Seven Synchronicities I’ve Had With Books Lately by Elizabeth Hellstern

    The Reason I Read: Or Seven Synchronicities I’ve Had With Books Lately by Elizabeth Hellstern

    The Reason I Read: Or Seven Synchronicities I’ve Had With Books Lately by Elizabeth Hellstern Carl Jung coined the term synchronicity, saying that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be related. For me, synchronicities mean that I’m on the right path. They give validation to my muses, to…

  • Grayscale by Brian Burmeister

    Grayscale by Brian Burmeister

    GRAYSCALE by Brian Burmeister A month after Mom passed, I went back to the house to pack up. In the corner of her closet, buried under a pile of blankets, was a box within a box. Inside were dozens of aged, black-and-white photos of my mother with a man I didn’t know. There were no…