In the middle of the day, I realized that I had not fulfilled my commitment to publish this column. I’ve been traveling a lot over the last 28 days, in fact as many days this month as I have in a typical year for my job. It was a reasonable excuse, but not one that sat well with me. Tonight...

Hello darlings! What a delight to see you return to a form befitting a grand bastion of hipster religion. Many of your recent pieces filled me with such tingling glee that I thought I’d died and gone to Hell. (Then I realized that I’m already here! Isn’t it marvelous being me?) Though I’m disappointed...

Susan Isaac’s “Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Personal Memoir” is now shipping from Amazon.com. Giddy up. I’ve had this pre-ordered for months now. Susan provides Burnside with funny and wisdom. The stable of writers, authors, journalists, baristas, and other horse...

Get your beads ready! In celebration of Mardi Gras, Burnside Writers Collective is taking you on a virtual trip to New Orleans. Despite its spicy reputation for Girls Gone Wild exploits, N’awlins has a rich cultural and religious heritage. Let’s head on over to the French Quarter, where we can...

Having grown up in Texas and the South in 70′s, I was young enough not to comprehend the significance of Brown vs. Board of Education; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks; Selma, Alabama; and thus, in 2009, I am detached enough to see the Civil Rights movement as something “old.” William...

Tonight I’ll sit down with a glass of red wine from Europe and when I do, I’ll think of an experience I had this past December in Bavaria. I had an afternoon off from teaching and so made my way to a glorious castle (the oldest in Germany), the route taking me through some wonderful vineyards....

The moment I walked into the dingy Medicaid waiting room, I wanted to flee. Posters on every wall instructed me to try nicotine patches, to use condoms, to drink milk. Most of the other women in the room were pregnant like I was, but I felt like another species in my lip gloss and ironed clothes. ...

By Sara Sterley Food pantries need us now more than ever. I live in Hamilton County, Indiana, one of the twenty-five wealthiest counties in the country, and our food pantries are desperate for food due to the huge increases in the number of middle-class families in need. Our largest local food pantry...

In the movie Little Miss Sunshine, Greg Kinnear played the role of Richard Hoover, a wannabe self-help guru of the Tony Robbins stripe. Richard has a book manuscript and a lecture script completed, each filled with motivating slogans designed to inspire and coach his audience members to unlock their...

My first day on my much-anticipated non-profit job was a retreat with forty-five recently released prison inmates. Arriving at the organization, my insecurity was visibly apparent, my hands shaking, my voice quivering, my eyes darting. From the color of my skin, to the car I drove, right down to the...