NOVEL ATTEMPTS by ashraya gupta

Most of these are quotes from other people. It seems I spent a lot of that summer just writing down whatever I overheard—on the ferry, the train, even amongst my friends. Some are notes for articles for the Fire Island News. A few attempts at fiction. And some regular journal entries.
“Come back, Communists! All is [...]

Anna: I was like, “I’ll play with Mike and Rob cause…Hey, why not? But I’m not going to DO music.”
Me: Yeah. You guys are like the guy I shouldn’t date but can’t help sleeping with.
Anna: You ARE dating us.
The Kitchen Cabinet tours Europe!

Going home means I always wind up rereading some book I loved when I was younger. I remember picking up The Mill on the Floss the summer we moved to Long Island. I was about to enter 7th grade, knew nobody in town, except for the 6 year-old boy who lived with his grandparents next [...]

Dear world, today, Reverend Al Green called me on the telephone.
Around 2 pm, I was playing his version of “Pretty Woman” on Across 110th Street, the Saturday soul show. The phone rang. I picked it up, said “Hello, WKCR?” The caller paused and then said, “Hi, this is Al Green. What’s your name?”
He wanted to [...]

Blackcurrants will have to hold off just a little while longer, as I’m currently in Madrid, Spain.
We (my family, all four of us) are making our way through Southern Spain and Portugal via Trafalgar Tours. I’m the youngest one here. Everyone else in our group appears to be retired or Australian, except for a group [...]