Friday Lunch Blog

Dig in every month as our Lunch Ticket staff brings you thought-provoking personal essays and nonfiction stories in our Friday Lunch Blog. From stories about grief and loss, to tales of growing up and overcoming challenges, to celebratory pieces about love and family, these stories are shared every second Friday of the month. With these blogs, we aim to give you a glimpse into Lunch Ticket and the values we stand by for this literary publication, to empower writers and readers with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful lives and to advance social, economic, and environmental justice. We hope you enjoy!

Dear Glitch

Adrien Kade Sdao
You were my best friend, and I didn’t know you very well. We…

Feeling Like a Fraud

Jerry Parent
Is it embarrassing that my nineteen-year-old child has never…

Loving Women

Jahzerah Brooks
For most of my life, I've had issues with women. But it grew…

Oversharing 101: #getoversharing

Kate Carmody
Sometimes I have a problem with oversharing. The lady next…

A Bridge West

Jahzerah Brooks
I am often surprised by how many people have heard of my hometown…

The Mad World

Mary Birnbaum
1. I didn’t mean to get serious about running. I try not to…

Medical Freedom

Emma Margraf
It was the middle of the day on a Friday when the breast cancer…
West Oakland Station

Not So Random Thoughts About Light, Dark and Hope

Jesus Sierra
 I took BART into San Francisco to do my writing work today.…

Octavia, How do We “Shape Chaos”?

Meredith Arena
In the house I share with five people, I spearhead the vegetable…

Green Card Blues

Nikki San Pedro
It comes as a surprise to many American friends that I, their…

Coffee Talk

Jerry Parent
This morning, while having my Keurig coffee, and slathering…

The Ripple Effect

Lily Semel
I’ve been fascinated with water conservation since before I…
Noel Ortega Author Image

Transplant

Noel Ortega
I recently made a list of things I have done in the past ten…

Word Vomit: My Sacrifice to the Gods

Nikki San Pedro
Where is the most public place you’ve puked? With this year’s…

Cartographer

Doni Shepard
I am in constant pursuit of an escape route. Since my father's…
Suburban Train Line at Fontanar Station, where my friends and I played on the tracks as kids.

On Writing, Fathers and Sons

Jesus Sierra
I began to write after Pipo, my father, passed away. I was a…

Progress?

Diane Gottlieb
Alexa. A-L-E-X-A. Three syllables, five letters, soft vowel sounds.…

DARPP-32, I Forgive You

Tim Cummings
I equate dogs with death. My father brought the family dog…

Facing the Wave

Lily Semel
The plan was to go back to Montecito—where, a few days after…

Conversations Needed Between Mother and Daughter

Shaneka Jones Cook
Growing up no one ever talked to me about the essential knowledge…
IV Drip Close-Up Photo

Ideation

Noel Ortega
I used to think of death as one of my closest friends when I…
Groundhog animal held by a man

Groundhog Daying Our Lives with Each Memoir Draft

Nikki San Pedro
There is a certain luxury enjoyed by us memoirists. We get to…

Sitting Under the Redwoods

Jerry Parent
Did I create the monster lovingly known as my son? Or is this…

How Baseball Saved My Life

Jesus Sierra
My family and I arrived in San Francisco in 1969, a couple…

Those Who Have and Those Who Don’t

Diane Gottlieb
Money flows in the North Shore of Long Island. It flows through…

Is This My Essay?

Tim Cummings
The first seminar of my recent MFA Residency at Antioch University…

We F**king Exist: Seven Writers on Seven Words

Meredith Arena and the Friday Lunch Blog Team
(do not erase) based-                         …

Phantom

Mary Birnbaum
The radiology department lies deep in a basement of the Chao…

Normal Behavior

Angela Bullock
I had forgotten how completely ubiquitous sexual harassment was…

Musings of the Season

Diane Gottlieb
It’s that time again. We’re coming up on the holidays. Leaves…

Earth Is a Body Who Knows Us

Gillian Reingold
“…frescoes translating violence into patterns so powerful…

What I Learned When Maria Came to Visit

Jesus Francisco Sierra
“Dad, the hurricane sent Puerto Rico back to the stone…

From Writer to Writer/Activist

Kathleen Katims
Those two punctured windows of the Mandalay Bay Hotel from the…

Psychic Servitude

John C. Fitzsimmons
It was a routine morning in the spring of my senior year at Vestal…

Fighting Paralysis

Emma Margraf
Paralysis can be an education: it makes you infinitely more aware…

Sanctifying Israel

Jahzerah Brooks
I got pregnant at twenty-one. It happened while I was still an…

Hybrid in a Hurricane

Ari Rosenschein
It’s an early October morning in West Seattle and storming…

A Picture Is Worth

Marlenia Myers
As a young child, I stuttered. “Mom, wha-wha-wha-what time…

Her Boldest Self

Kathleen Katims
Last month, I visited my eighty-six year old mother, Geraldine,…

What I Thought About When It All Went Dark

Jesus Francisco Sierra
At the intersection of Hayes and Van Ness, a thin elderly man…

Between the Lines: Unsolved Mysteries After Death

Kori Kessler
Growing up, I consumed mysteries—gorged even. I binge-watched…

Diagonal Exile

John C. Fitzsimmons
As I approach seventeen years since I moved to Seattle from…

Reaching Out for Incarcerated Voices

Emma Margraf
When you walk in the doors of a prison, you can’t help but…

Monster Under a Clear Blue Sky: Anger, Meditation, and Writing

Meredith Arena
One of my five roommates recently told me I am aggressive. We…

My Great Divide

Diane Gottlieb
When I was a young girl, I tried to teach myself to fly. Every…

Excuse Me, Have You Seen God?

Andre Hardy
Recently I went to Spirit Rock Meditation Center searching for…

Soul Music

Jesus Francisco Sierra
At around eleven p.m. on a Friday, I descend the stairs into…

Writing My Way Home

Kathleen Katims
In June, I was scheduled to go to my third ten day residency…

Pause

Doni Shepard
All names and identifying data have been changed to protect privacy. In…

Breathing with My Better Angels

Emma Margraf
Every day I have trouble breathing. I am dependent on steroids.…

How Many Ohios?

Melissa Benton Barker
  “...everything was marvelous and everything…

Hail Mary

Mary Birnbaum
I texted the Lunch Ticket Editor-in-Chief Katelyn Keating late…

Let’s Put on a Play

Meredith Arena
In Ross Gay’s poem, To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian, a…

Rain Clouds and Cherry Trees

Vicki Miller
The crowd presses around me. Hands reach up and out. Sticks hover…