A collection of short fiction that focuses on the moments where we love one another that the world doesn’t always see.

We Love in Small Moments

For Noah, it’s easy. “It’s not fair for anybody to be left out,” he tells Olivia, after telling her it’s not a big deal. At 9, that’s how love makes sense to him.

Speaking Your Truth: Why Noah Benson's Coming Out Moment on Law & Order: SVU is so Important

you are the Puget Sound
I don’t know why
it took me
so long to see

the longer your hair got
the more Puget Sound you became

your hair is a ribbon lake

The relationship between Benson and Stabler is as baroque as the characters themselves, cascading dramatically from unmatched adoration to intense exasperation over the 12 years we see them work together.

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni Keep Getting Better

He misses her most in the dead of night when his bladder wakes him or the dog barks at the wind or he’s startled awake from something he can’t quite place.

(on page 30 of link)

Things You Can Only See From West Virginia

THE WAY OLIVIA BENSON IS BOTH EXTREMELY PROTECTIVE AND EXTREMELY ABLE TO FUCK YOU UP IS SOME SERIOUS DADDY ENERGY

My lack of sexual partners is not for lack of desire. It might be for lack of trying. It’s certainly directly related to how I assume people will feel about my body and my limited experience.

My Sex Life Makes Me Feel Like a Failure

I had lived 1,000 lives before my tenth birthday, each of them a place I could bury my heartache.

(Inspired Writer Contest Finalist)

Light on Serotonin, Heavy on Creativity

Art, whether it’s a film or a comic or a painting, is so often an escape for people. Whether you are consuming it or creating it, art can pull you away from the most difficult moments of your life and reset you.

What Chadwick Boseman Teaches Us About Strength and Art

Every time she looks at her she is reminded of a poem she once read. That couplet of oneself and oneself your love will write.

(Nominated for a Pushcart Prize)

Melissa Boles

Books

Selected work