Catapult

Cover Photo: "Helpers of destiny; an odd phrase, considering that a destiny, by definition, is that which cannot be helped." Moyosore Orimoloye's short story "An Exercise in Paranoia":

Fiction | Short Story

An Exercise in Paranoia

The prayer for air safety then begins to taxi to a halt: “Charge your angels, oh Lord, to escort the plane from take-off to landing.”

Moyosore Orimoloye

Nov 15, 2019

Cover Photo: A photograph of a squirrel in Central Park eating an acorn, wary of the camera being pointed at it

Columns | Sidewalk Naturalist

How Do You Count All the Squirrels in Central Park?

“If you’re worried and you can’t sleep / count your squirrels rather than sheep.”

Nov 14, 2019

Cover Photo: An illustration by Kim Salt of a woman with long blond hair whose face is partially obscured, against a teal background holding a plain white puzzle piece while covered in a blue, green, khaki, and pink blanket. There are corresponding puzzle pieces missing within her own body.

People | Things | Ritual

Finding My Inner Piece: How Puzzles Ease My Anxiety

It’s very calming, very methodical, very good if, say, someone you love has died, but you know the world cannot stop, and you can’t either.

Nov 13, 2019

UPCOMING ONLINE CLASSES

Catapult online classes: Anna Godbersen, 6-Week Online Fiction Workshop: Writing Young Adult Fiction, Fiction, Workshop

Online | Fiction | Workshop

6-Week Online Fiction Workshop: Writing Young Adult Fiction

Catapult online classes: Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Online Novel Generator: 12 Months to a Full Draft , Fiction, Novel, Workshop

Online | Fiction, Novel | Workshop

The Online Novel Generator: 12 Months to a Full Draft

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Catapult online classes: Jessica Wilbanks, 6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Memoir 101, Nonfiction, Memoir, Workshop

Online | Nonfiction, Memoir | Workshop

6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Memoir 101

Jessica Wilbanks

Catapult online classes: Chloe Caldwell, The Online Essay Generator: 12 Months to a Full Collection, Nonfiction, Workshop

Online | Nonfiction | Workshop

The Online Essay Generator: 12 Months to a Full Collection

Catapult online classes: Diana Arterian, 6-Week Online Poetry Workshop: Exploring the World through Poetry, Poetry, Workshop

Online | Poetry | Workshop

6-Week Online Poetry Workshop: Exploring the World through Poetry

Catapult online classes: Bruna Dantas Lobato, 6-Week Online Open-Genre Workshop: The Art of Translation, Fiction, Nonfiction, Workshop

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Workshop

6-Week Online Open-Genre Workshop: The Art of Translation

Bruna Dantas Lobato

Catapult online classes: Marin Sardy, 8-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Turbulence & Flow in the Personal Essay, Nonfiction, Workshop

Online | Nonfiction | Workshop

8-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Turbulence & Flow in the Personal Essay

Catapult online classes: Taylor Larsen, The Online Novel Generator: Twelve Weeks to a Full Draft, Novel, Fiction, Workshop

Online | Novel, Fiction | Workshop

The Online Novel Generator: Twelve Weeks to a Full Draft

Celebrating one year of Catapult Artists

Cover Photo: Photograph courtesy of Brian Rea

Catapult | Catapult Artist

On Art, Audience, and Activism: Brian Rea, Catapult’s October Artist

“If I see the sun come up once in a while, it makes me feel good, like I accomplished something no one else did.”

Oct 25, 2018

Cover Photo: Photograph courtesy of Hanna Barczyk

Catapult | Catapult Artist

“There is No Other Way to Be”: Hanna Barczyk, Catapult Artist for December

“Conveying emotions, narratives, stories. This, I believe, is at the core of all art.”

Dec 20, 2018

Cover Photo: Photograph courtesy of Sirin Thada

Catapult | Catapult Artist

Stirring Ideas to Life: Sirin Thada, Catapult Artist for May

By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me that had been there all along.”

May 31, 2019

Fans

Cover Photo: a photograph of Japanese wrestler Tetsuya Naito

Why Wrestler Tetsuya Naito Is the Unlikely Hero I Needed

Cover Photo: Photography by Tore Sætre/Wikimedia

For Black Women, Love Is a Dangerous Thing—“Bitter” Showed Me How to Do It Anyway

Cover Photo: Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

Love, Peace, and Taco Grease: How I Left My Abusive Husband and Found Guy Fieri

New from Catapult Books

Sea monsters 3dcvr

Catapult | fiction

Sea Monsters: A Novel by Chloe Aridjis

To keep the sun alive 3dcvr

Catapult | fiction | novel

To Keep the Sun Alive: A Novel by Rabeah Ghaffari

The story prize 3dcvr

anthology | Catapult | fiction

The Story Prize: 15 Years of Great Short Fiction ed. by Larry Dark

Optic nerve 3dcvr

Catapult | fiction

Optic Nerve: A Novel by María Gainza

Meander spiral explode 3dcvr

Catapult | Creative Writing | Criticism | Reference

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison

Rough magic 3dcvr

Catapult | memoir

Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer

Floyd harbor 3dcvr

Catapult | fiction | short stories

Floyd Harbor: Stories by Joel Mowdy

The summer demands 3dcvr

Catapult | fiction | novel

The Summer Demands: A Novel by Deborah Shapiro

Columns

Cover Photo: Hands chopping scallions surrounded by various Korean ingredients such as garlic, soy sauce, rice, among other Korean sample ingredients.

Columns | Bad Kimchi

Banchan, the Only Food I Like to Share

“You can tell a lot about a Korean restaurant based on the banchan it offers.”

Nov 06, 2019

Cover Photo: A collage of photos of the author smiling in a beekeeper suit with hundreds of live bees in her open palms

Columns | Backyard Politics

What I Learned from the Master Beekeeper

He prefaces all his beekeeping sessions with a proposal to examine hives without gloves. It teaches a beekeeper to be more gentle. It’s easier to be gentle without gloves.

Christine H. Lee

Oct 29, 2019

Cover Photo: An illustration of a young man watching a film in the movie theater; the screen is framed by rainbow curtains; projected onto the screen is a still from the Tom Hanks film 'The Burbs

Columns | Movie Made Gay

When You Hate the Movie Your Lover Loves: On Tom Hanks in ‘The ’Burbs’

It’s easy to think—as Ray does in ‘The ’Burbs’—that you can know a lot about a person from what they value.

Manuel Betancourt

Oct 28, 2019

Fifteen Minutes

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle’s Restaurant Critic, on Food, Fusion, and What’s Often Lost in Translation

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Japanese Breakfast, a.k.a. Michelle Zauner, Talks with Noah Cho About Food, Family, and Grief

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

How Rachel Khong Built The Ruby, a Coworking Community for San Francisco Creatives

Anita Felicelli

Fiction

Cover Photo: An illustration of two men—one white, one Mexican—observing a larger-than-human medallion with the image of a grandmother as the Mother Cabrini in a gallery of Mesoamerican artifacts

Fiction | Short Story

The Moon’s Navel

“You’re Mexican!” he said a little too enthusiastically, like I was just what he’d been looking for. I worried that he was going to put me in his museum or something.

John Paul Brammer

Nov 08, 2019

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Fiction | Short Story

The Whales

The whales would sing because they were alone, but with each other, their song a reminder that loss and exile are linked.

Nov 01, 2019

Cover Photo: Color pencil drawing of a little girl getting her face painted at a party by a face painter and looking into a mirror, scared of her reflection and crying.

Fiction | Short Story

Year of the Pony

I can’t stop seeing the brush in her hand as a scalpel, her countless bracelets jangling as she prepares to make the next cut.

Oct 25, 2019