Wishbones and Scars

By Anne-Marie Oomen Sun contributor We couldn’t afford icicles for the Christmas tree so my mother saved coffee can ribbons, the metal strip you peeled off with a key when you opened the can. On Thanksgiving Day, to divert and appease us, and to satisfy our wish that Christmas (in our minds the real holiday) […]

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Sentence Pending: My Time in Jail

By Mary Sharry Sun contributor Buzz. Click. A security guard whom I cannot see unlocks a steel door. He does this electronically. There is no clank of heavy keys against metal bars as you might hear in an old Western. I hear the lock bolt slide through the channel into its housing. I pull the […]

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In honor of the Traverse City Film Festival: A filmgoer’s secret obsession

By Pat Stinson Sun contributor Leaning toward me in the movie theater, my husband whispered in my ear, “Bet you like him!” The moment was a revealing one, not only for the character in the movie but also for me, or would be in the years to follow. As it happened, the moment was also […]

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School Daze

By Mary Sharry Sun contributor School had just let out for the summer and here I was already thinking about fall, the new school year. Kindergarten was wonderful and then first grade with blackboards (I date myself) and chalk, oak tables and chairs, the cloakroom where in the winter snow-crusted mittens dripped onto the floor […]

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Discovering secrets in the Empire Bluffs

By Adam Dean Sun contributor The location in which you choose to live your life defines a great deal about why you live it. Some people dedicate their lives to their corporate jobs and often live in bustling cities full of the “American dream” and asphalt jungles. Some people dedicate their lives to helping others […]

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Shopping Sonnet and American haiku:

Loving to shop, and buying American By Anne-Marie Oomen Sun contributor With more than a little guilt, I admit I love to shop. Since my mother introduced me to shopping discount at Robert Hall’s in Muskegon back in the sixties, I have enjoyed it. We are hunter-gatherers, right? That impulse is in all of us. […]

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A Christmas caught between culturas

By Nadine Gilmer Sun contributor I felt a prickling of guilt as I sawed into the trunk of the knee-high tree and attached it to my dog’s harness. She barely noticed it on the walk home except when she looked back and saw its drag marks in the snow and scattered pine needles. “What a […]

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Snow Angels

By Mary Sharry Sun contributor If Clyde didn’t hurry, he and Pearl would be late for the Christmas Eve candlelight service. Pearl waited at the foot of the stairs for him. From the top of the steps light from the lamp on their bedroom dresser streamed through the doorway. She called up to him, “Clyde, […]

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My grandmother’s recipes: of food and family

By Holly Wren Spaulding Sun contributor I look around the long table. Our mothers — the three sisters — are presiding over numerous pots and pans, the many dishes required to feed our coterie. They sit down to eat, then just as soon as something runs out, get up to fetch things from the kitchen […]

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Kineebigag, Snakes

By Lois Beardslee Excerpted from Lois Beardslee’s forthcoming book of poetry titled We Live Here. Past excerpts by Beardslee in the Glen Arbor Sun are from Not Far Away, The Real Life Adventures of Ima Pipiig (AltaMira Press), which is due out in September. That was a difficult conversation The one that Niinooko had with […]

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