Rasmenia Massoud's Blog

There Was a Girl

There was a girl with strawberry blond hair woven into a braid that hung down the length of her back. Her blue eyes reflected the sky and absorbed everything beneath it as she sat next to the window in the school bus talking about Supergirl and Wonder Woman. About Spiderwoman and Batgirl and how Huntress […]

Art Awards, Americanism, and Arnold

The art award was a big deal. The level of fanfare was off the charts. If you were one of the lucky winners, you’d have some fantastic swag to prove your artistic bona fides, including a Certificate of Recognition, a placement ribbon, and an American flag pin. Yeah, just like the one politicians tack on […]

The Year I Forgot How to Live but Didn’t Die

No matter how things go wrong, it’s always a blindside. Life goes tits up on a fucking dime. There’s no warning. No easing into the skid. One day, it’s all systems nominal. The next you’re crashing down to Earth, staggering through the wreckage, reaching out for something solid to steady yourself for one goddamn second […]

Laughing Through the Blood

I got the shopping cart for Xmas when I was 3 years old. Immediately, I began planning a shopping trip to 7-11. No, not a grocery store. Just as I would later insist as a stoned teenager craving a Super Big Gulp and risky nachos, it had to be the goddamn 7-11. The adults informed […]

I Feel So Different

People crowd the street, most of them women with flecks of silver in their hair and lines on their face etching a map back to who they used to be: young women full of joy and anguish. Weird, creative girls trying to survive the constant pressure of what parents, friends, schools, and institutions said they […]

That Shiny Newfangled Technology Can’t Do the Work for You

The venue reeks of cheap coffee. Creaks and groans of tables and chairs dragging on the hardwood floor echo, bouncing off the high ceiling. Barely audible beneath it all is the mumbling of socially awkward writers mingling in the early morning. The chipped folding tables are covered with cloths. Stacks of books and displays are […]

More Books to Add to Your 2022 Reading List

I don’t know about you, but my to-read pile of books is absurdly out of hand. Every year, I manage to knock a hundred or so books from the stack. This makes no dent in that ever-growing...



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Sometimes Healing Means Turning Your Life Upside-Down

Trauma is an unpredictable and sneaky thing. Most of us have those experiences in our personal backstories that have left us softer in some places, harder in others. Maybe we get a little twitchy...



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The Things You Loved as a Kid are Still Pretty Great

Google Alerts is a useful tool. I added a couple of alerts about 10 years ago and occasionally, I’ll get one letting me know where my books are being pirated. Pretty handy. But mostly, I get a...



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In Defense of an Aging Rock Star with Shitty Opinions

Every day the Internet tells me which artists I’m not supposed to like anymore. As much as I don’t want to enable anyone’s shitty behavior, people have a right to say and do stupid...



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