“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 27.2
Featuring the writing of Ann Guy, Indira Khera, Manoj Kumar H V, Gregory Martin, Shannon McCarthy, Julia Nagele, Jessica Lind Peterson, Sam Pickering, Jan Shoemaker, and Ana Maria Spagna.
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.
At 101
By Rebecca Turkewitz
One of the nurses said that Grandma, at 101, was the oldest patient she’d ever treated. At 101, my grandma is both herself and not herself…
The Caballeros Are Coming
By Judy Sandler
I am ten, too old to be put to bed by my father, but I climb into my bed and wait for him to come upstairs to put me to bed anyway…
Kissed by a Jaguar
By Casey Harkleroad
The ink from my waiver is still wet when the padlock clicks, securing us in a ten-by-ten-foot chain link cage inside the animal’s sanctuary…
Something to See on a City Street
By Thomasin LaMay
Last summer, in this same spot there was a bird haven. Honeysuckle, robins, hummers, bleeding heart, roses tended by an older man with suspenders, cane, and a straw hat…
Latest News …
Anne Goldman Wins the 2025 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize
We are delighted to announce that Anne Goldman has won the 2025 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. Her manuscript, House of Fragile Things, will be published in Spring 2027 by the University of New Mexico Press.
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 in...