“Our present-tense human experience is like a living tree growing by a river. The current in the river is the passing of time. Our individual pasts are like the same tree fallen in the river, drowned now, and disintegrating with surprising speed. We resist time’s flow with our memories and language, with our stories ”
~ David James Duncan
Issue 27.1
Featuring the writing of Emma Bolden, Rachel Cline, Shannon Cram, Jim Daniels, Chelsea B. DesAutels, Beth Ann Fennelly, Allison Field Bell, Gary Fincke, Jesse Lee Kercheval, L.C. Killingsworth, Asena McKeown, Jenny Molberg, Phong Nguyen, Lynda Rushing, and Corrie Williamson.
River Teeth is a biannual journal combining the best of creative nonfiction, including narrative reportage, essays, and memoir, with critical essays that explore the impact of nonfiction narrative on the lives of its writers, subjects, and readers.
Toward Love
By Karen Skalitzky
I go back to that fateful day in mid-September. Was the morning air swollen with heat? Did you slip through the hospital doors unnoticed?...
The Art of Submersion
By Courtney Langdell
In the lake on summer evenings at dusk, after the lifeguards have blown their last shrill decree and the children have trudged home with floaties nipping at their heels, I go for a swim...
Nobody Knows
By Rachel M. Hollis
He thinks every question has an answer. A map, an explanation, a truth from millions of years ago. Delivered before bedtime...
Latest News …
Interview With Laura Julier – Winner of River Teeth’s 2023 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize
By Megan Lutes Laura Julier, former editor of ten years at Fourth Genre, won River Teeth’s Literary Nonfiction Book Prize in 2023 for her memoir, Off Izaak Walton Road: Grace that Comes from Loss, published by University of New Mexico Press, 2025. As an educator,...
Ander Monson Announced As River Teeth’s 2025 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize Judge
by Natasia Verdel We are delighted to announce Ander Monson as the final judge for the 2025 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. Ander Monson is the author of nine books, the latest being Predator: A Memoir, A Movie, An Obsession, published by Graywolf Press...
Hannah Hindley Wins River Teeth’s 2024 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize
By Megan Lutes
We are delighted to announce that Hannah Hindley has won the 2024 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. Her manuscript, Love and Also Fish, will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in Spring 2026. Hindley will also receive a $1,000 honorarium. All entries were screened by the editors, and our guest judge, Beth Nguyen, chose a winner from among the finalists. All of us at River Teeth are grateful to the many writers who submitted their books to the competition this year and to Beth Nguyen for sharing her time and expertise to choose the winning manuscript.