May 16, 2021

“Bette Howland” & “Barbara,” CNF by Raymond Abbott

Posted by in Writing
“Bette Howland” & “Barbara,” CNF by Raymond Abbott

Photo Credit: Magic City Books Editor’s Note: We’re excited to announce two pieces of creative nonfiction by FC member and former Featured Writer, Raymond Abbott. He details two events from his career as a writer. Bette Howland, Chicago Writer  Bette Howland has been dead for more than two years.  I have had ample time to consider some of the things written about her. She received the MacArthur Award in 1984, and receiving the grant seemed to compel her to stop writing. I had heard of this kind of thing before, but I don’t know that I believe it. What slowed her down when I knew her was the pain she suffered when a man she had been seeing for a long time unexpectedly married another woman.  Bette wrote and published several books, including W3, Blue in Chicago, Things to Come…

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March 8, 2021

“She Is Going to Do Something Nutty,” by Raymond Abbott

Posted by in Writing
“She Is Going to Do Something Nutty,” by Raymond Abbott

He told the police sergeant, as he knew he would, that he would leave right away and help however he might.  The address he wrote down was familiar to him.  It was in the Flats, an old Holyoke neighborhood or section of the city once inhabited by many different ethnic groups, although now almost exclusively Puerto Rican.  He shoved the paper with the address in his coat pocket and found his little black bag with the oils and other implements for giving what once was called the last rites of the church, but were now termed the sacrament of the sick, and headed off in the direction of the Flats.  Sixty-six Center Street.  He’d been there before, he was sure.  Only the week before, the adjoining block had burned up.  It was another of those…

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