“Wear a skirt tomorrow for me.” He puts out his homemade cigarette without taking another puff, and I’m grateful he didn’t offer any to me. His...
OPENING LINES TO LOVE AS A PORTAL: A NOVEL
The first time I met Ayden, he appeared as if out of nowhere and I could tell immediately that he wasn’t a ‘show up with a garbage bag’ case. There was an older girl with him, dragging his hand into the outdated, 80’s style living room. Their matching suitcases were brand-new, as were the shoes on their feet. Standing side-by-side, the resemblance between Ayden and his sister was uncanny. Both with translucent pale skin and light-colored eyes. Blue with hints of light green, intense with their eye contact like their mama never told them to stop staring...
Aspen Pleasant
How can we deeply connect to others when people don’t fit cleanly into the boxes we’re meant to subscribe to and find belonging within? Aspen Pleasant seeks to answer this question, and others like it, in his non-fiction and fiction works. He's been published in Epistemic Literary, Stone of Madness Press, Vine Leaves Press, and placed as finalist in the 2026 SunSpot Lit Inception Contest.
How can we deeply connect to others when people don’t fit cleanly into the boxes we’re meant to subscribe to and find belonging within? Aspen Pleasant seeks to answer this question, and others like it, in his non-fiction and fiction works. He's been published in Epistemic Literary, Stone of Madness Press, Vine Leaves Press, and placed as finalist in the 2026 SunSpot Lit Inception Contest.
Writing
Wild how “hood” books are banned, but true crime isn’t. In this cinder-block dumpster, somewhere in middle-of-nowhere Texas, some guy in a nice...