Dorothy Bendel's writing has appeared in The Threepenny Review, The Believer, Literary Hub, Catapult, The New York Times, and additional publications. Find her at dorothybendel.com or @DorothyBendel.
Growing up with abuse, I came to see the experience of joy as inseparable from the threat that it would all soon be undone.
I try to talk openly about everything that was shrouded in mystery when I was growing up. I try to take the distorted sense of my younger self and change her shape.
My grandmother once told me that bringing bread into a home means that its residents will never go hungry.
Some think good luck or bad luck is with us from birth—though our luck might change if a winged creature steals a strand of our hair.
If a pair, walking together, is forced to pass on opposite sides of some obstacle, they should say “bread and butter” or risk a permanent separation.
Your stomach hurts because all you’ve eaten this week is frozen yogurt—but it is a hurt you can bear more than hunger.
“If contact occurs, rinse thoroughly with water so hot it sheds all the layers of who you once were and reveals someone new.”
