Tim Carmichael
Bio
I am an Appalachian poet and cookbook author. I write about rural life, family, and the places I grew up around. My poetry and essays have appeared in Beautiful and Brutal Things, My latest book. Check it out on Amazon
Achievements (16)
Stories (234)
Filter by community
Medusa's Nest That Never Sleeps
Medusa felt Kestrel wake before she did, a slow tightening near her left temple, the turn of a narrow head testing the dark. She had given that one the kestrel’s name for its hunting patience, for the way it surveyed the middle distance as though the cave wall might suddenly take flight. The tongue began its work at once, sampling the cavern’s stale breath and bringing back its report. Cold stone, mouse droppings tucked behind the eastern wall, the mineral trace of yesterday’s rain.
By Tim Carmichael12 days ago in Fiction
The Persistence of Elpis
Everything disastrous in that household had been Epimetheus's idea, and Myrto had worked for the family long enough to know that when the master of the house said something like it's perfectly safe, just don't open it, the correct response was to begin mentally cataloguing which of your personal belongings could be easily replaced.
By Tim Carmichael12 days ago in Fiction
The Voucher Program
Tennessee's Education Savings Account program was introduced to the legislature in 2023 with a specific image attached to it. A poor child in a failing school whose parents finally have the power to do something about it. That image did most of the political work. The bill passed. The program launched. And then the data started coming in, and the data described a different child entirely.
By Tim Carmichael16 days ago in Humans
The Legible Child. Winner in A System That Isn’t Working Challenge.
A particular form of exhaustion arises from performing unseen tasks, distinct from the fatigue of overwork. It settles slowly, over months or years, until one day a teacher stands at a photocopier early in the morning, watching pages collate, and notices she no longer knows why she chose this profession. She gathers her papers, walks to her classroom, and begins another day of documentation.
By Tim Carmichael17 days ago in Humans
The Midsummer Ritual. Winner in Rituals of Affection Challenge.
Granny Wise kept the tin box on the highest shelf. I wasn’t allowed to touch it. I wasn’t allowed to stand too close when she opened it on Midsummer’s Eve. Seed spilled through her fingers like brown rain.
By Tim Carmichael28 days ago in Fiction
The Pride Flag and the Diversion. Top Story - February 2026.
For nearly a decade, the LGBTQIA Pride Flag rippled in the wind at Christopher Park, a kaleidoscope of color staked into the soil of America’s first national monument to LGBTQIA+ liberation. That flag came down this week. Federal officials, citing new guidance from the Trump Administration, silently lowered the rainbow flag from its pole across the street from the Stonewall Inn. The birthplace of the modern gay rights movement now flies only the United States flag.
By Tim Carmichael30 days ago in Pride
