This winter, we are pleased to present a “Best of Ducts” issue!

2017 will mark our eighteenth year in the world of online litmags and it’s an exciting one for us. With the help of our amazing community of readers and supporters, we just launched our brand-new, redesigned website, and we aren’t stopping there. Our second decade is only issues away, and with this in mind, we are in the midst of reorganizing and revamping our publication, as well as formally incorporating into a new nonprofit that will support the next generation of personal narrative.

Our next issue of new content will launch in Summer 2017, but in the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy this look back on some highlights from our past decade. 

 

Mary Cool

Editor-in-Chief

November 25, 2016

 

Table of Contents
My Dinner With Andy
"Oh, please. You're Andy Warhol. Let's have dinner, okay?"
Piecing Communities Back Together
We are making order out of chaos by being diligent, dedicated, and open to sharing with each other. We are both “piecing” and “peacing” communities back together.
SAVING STITCHES
“The work of our lives will never be done, but it will end.”
Confessions of a Stamp Murderer
Into such an India I am born. As the firstborn daughter, I enjoy an enviable position in the family and am subject to huge amounts of pampering.
Rat Love in New York City
It stretched its body from the roof of the cage to kiss her back as if the two were lovers.
I Was a Teenage Slut Wannabe
To me, being a slut meant being promiscuous, and being promiscuous meant being desirable, and being desirable meant being powerful.
In the Time of the Byzantine Empire
Her former husband was a good man, and she had screwed up the marriage.
Tabernacle
“I got to tell ya Jimmy Jam, you really outdid yourself this time."
Fly-Over Country
Begin with this: You have never been to Cedar Rapids.
Clydes Through History
Every dog must have his day and every pup his pedigree.
Terror on Bravo
I’ll watch anything with a Real Housewife in it. I say this with no pride and little understanding. I have no preferences.
Small-Town Boy: Twelve
I wasn’t always a bad kid. Sure, I was a little anti-social and my penchant for wild bursts of Disco dancing made me a very lonely 3rd grader.
How To Find Your Son and Save Him From Bears and Machete-Wielding Zombies
This is how you find your son who was hitchhiking home for spring break to surprise you and now he calls you because he and two friends are stranded in a deserted place called Pine Island and it’s getting dark.
Fathers
My father walks through the scrub, a shortcut, to get to Walmart where he meets up with his friends for coffee on Friday afternoons.
A Poem
We consume what we must, to make it up. In this neighborhood, tact never stood a chance.
Naiads
. . . there's no doubt about it, it's pure naiad scorn.
Dear Reader and Other Poems
This morning the world tried its best to tuck me back in.
Jan. 14 Trumpet Fiction Reading
Join us for the Trumpet Fiction reading series, sponsored by Ducts magazine! Saturday, January 14, 2017, 7-9 p.m. KGB BAR – ADMISSION FREE 85 East 4th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Ave) Bar opens 6:30 pm–seats fill up fast!
Feb. 11 Trumpet Fiction Reading
Join us for the Trumpet Fiction reading series, sponsored by Ducts magazine! Saturday, February 11, 2017, 7-9 p.m. KGB BAR – ADMISSION FREE 85 East 4th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Ave) Bar opens 6:30 pm–seats fill up fast!
March authors bring the heat
Trumpet Fiction thanks its March 11 readers for packing the KGB Lit Bar despite the freezing temps―Jim Jennings, Erica Abeel, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan!
Apr. 8 Trumpet Fiction Reading
National Poetry Month Edition! Sat, Apr 8, 2017, 7-9 pm at KGB Bar
April readers celebrate Nat’l Poetry Month
Trumpet Fiction thanks Ducts.org poetry editor Amy Lemmon for hosting and our April 8 readers for celebrating National Poetry Month . . .
May 13 Trumpet Fiction Reading
Join us for a nonfiction-esque evening that will feature a combo of personal essay writing and fictionalized memoir.
May creative nonfiction readers
Trumpet Fiction thanks our May 13 readers . . .