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Literary

Short Reads-Kate Finegan, Tara Stallions Whitehead & Allie Marini

short reads by finegan, whitehead, and marini

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We're Isabel & Marilyn

We run Letters and Lipstick. A lifestyle blog dedicated for the woman who wants to smell the roses, eat the slice(s) of cake, and learn a thing or two along the way. 

Two Flash & One Poem

This week, our short reads consist of the following:

A flash fiction piece by Kate Finegan that was first published in Gigantic Sequins, but can now be found at Fractured Lit.

A creative nonfiction piece called by Tara Stillions Whitehead that I first read when I was an assistant editor at Pithead Chapel and immediately loved.

A poem by Allie Marini that captures Florida so perfectly that you’ll feel as though you’re there and can feel the humidity on your skin.

Let us know which one is your favourite in the comments below.

Poem about Florida.

Two Flash & One Poem – Our Selection of Riveting Reads

And Even Still the Rivers,” by Kate Finegan

In this time of lips like callouses, tongues of pumice, it feels wrong to see you smile. In this time of so little sweat, no beads for this tongue to suck, no slick of skin on skin, too tired. No good morning, here’s a glass of water, sparkling, full color spectrum on the sun-drenched bedroom wall refracted. No drink it down so I can drink you up, no drink it down so you can scream my name. No finger-knots in hair. No get down to the delta of this body, take it all the way to roiling sea. In this time, all we have is smiles.

2001” by Tara Stillions Whitehead

That was the year we chased ghosts in Elfin Forest and got blacklisted from Motel 6. When we fell in love with New Radicals and Radiohead. That was the year all those last-call tourists were hit by Amtraks near Boar’s Crossing, when we chain-smoked Camel Red Lights in Nikki’s garage and plucked our eyebrows into oblivion.

If Florida Was A Man, This is How I’d Miss Him,” by Allie Marini

If I could just see Florida again,
I swear I’d stop at every roadside stand with

HOT BOILED P-NUTS 

spray-painted on plywood,
just so he could ladle a Styrofoam cup full for me.

Which one of these is your favourite?

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We share a love of Portugal, Chihuahuas, coffee, binge-worthy tv, pull-on-your-heartstrings rom coms, and our amazing mom.

We're different in a lot of ways too.

Isabel loves Historical Fiction, antiques, and life in the countryside while Marilyn prefers Creative Nonfiction, art, and city life.

And of course, we both love literature and appreciate a kick-ass lipstick.






We're Isabel and Marilyn, the two sisters behind Letters and Lipstick.









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