creative nonfiction – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Some thoughts on ‘Writers on Writing’

What some of the best in the craft say about voice and rhythm, getting started, similes and metaphors, and the need for writers to “admit that nothing in this world makes sense.”

It was a cool winter’s day and I was on a minor dusting spree when I discovered tucked away in a far corner of my bookcase a paperback called Writers on Writing: A Bread Loaf Anthology. Published in 1991 by Middlebury College Press and edited by a couple of Middlebury English professors, Robert Pack and Jay Parini (neither of whom I’d heard of), the list of authors displayed on the cover piqued my interest. There, presented on a slant, a graphic treatment no doubt trendy in the late ’80s and early ’90s, was an all-star cast of writers I recognized–Stanley Elkin, Richard Ford, John Irvin, Erica Jong, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien–along with many names I didn’t. Holding the book in my non-dusting hand, I studied the cover and concluded I must have purchased it at some long ago library book sale, then tucked it away for safekeeping. (I’m always a sucker for books about the writing craft, and buy any I find, especially if they’re cheap.)

I set aside the dust rag and began reading. Dusting would have to wait.

Three months in

A status report on writing during the first quarter of 2026

From a writing standpoint, 2026 has been a good year so far. As of today (March 31), I’ve had seven pieces published in seven different places. The latest pieces, published Monday and today, are “Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” a bit of flash fiction published in luckycreature‘s #MuckyMondays, and “How to Fish,” a short story in Cowboy Jamboree‘s latest issue, a tribute to the late great grit lit writer Lucia Berlin.

Looking ahead, I have acceptances for six more pieces, most of which will be published in April.

So far this year, I’ve submitted to 50 journals. I’ve received rejections from 30 of them, putting me on track to again this year join the 100-rejection club.

Here is everything I’ve had published during the first three months of 2026:

“Liars,” creative nonfiction in Frazzled Lit, January 2026.
“Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?” a short story in The Orange Rose Literary Magazine, January 2026.
“Livin’ la Vida Pocha,” creative nonfiction in In Short, January 2026.
“Devin Found a Flash Drive,” micro fiction in MythicPicnic, March 2026.
“Eden in the Ozarks,” a poem in The Argyle Literary Magazine, March 2026.
“Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” flash fiction in luckycreature‘s #MuckyMondays, March 2026.
“How to Fish,” a short story in Cowboy Jamboree, March 2026.

New flash non-fiction: ‘Livin’ la Vida Pocha’

Some thoughts about cultural identity and assimilation into the Great American Melting Pot

For years, I’ve had a fascination with my Mexican-American heritage and how little I am connected to it–how there is little more to that heritage now than the surname, Careaga. Some thirty years ago, when I first learned there was a term for people like me, pocho, or pocha in the feminine (see more about the terms below), I started writing short pieces, mostly non-fiction or maybe autofiction, about coming to terms with this lost identity and claiming this pocho identity. “Livin’ la Vida Pocha,” published in Issue 4 of the outstanding literary magazine In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction, is the first of these pieces I’ve had published. I’m working on others, so stay tuned.

My attempt with this piece is to express my mixed feelings about my cultural identity and assimilation into the Great American Melting Pot in a direct, deeply personal style. I hope you like it. Many thanks to In Short founder and editor-in-chief Steph Liberatore for her support of this piece and for her edits, which improved the piece greatly.

New writing in ‘Frazzled Lit’

I’m thrilled to have my nonfiction piece “Liars” published in the latest issue of the online literary magazine Frazzled Lit. Some of my educator friends, and at least one high school teacher, might not be so impressed. It lays bare my writer’s origin story in a most transparent way–warts and all, as they say. Nevertheless, I hope you like it, I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me my youthful plagiarism, and I hope it serves as a cautionary tale to other the other high school slackers and cheaters out there, who have the benefit of AI, which I did not, back in my day. And it’s probably a good thing I didn’t.

Photo by Nicolas Denorme on Unsplash.

Essay: Joe Strummer, punk prophet

Reposting an old essay on the 23rd anniversary of The Clash front man’s death

NOTE: Soon after Joe Strummer’s death of an apparent heart attack on this date in 2002, I wrote about The Clash co-founder’s influence as a prophetic voice in the world of punk rock and beyond. My attempts to connect Strummer’s musicianship with Christian theology might be a stretch, but it was a fun thought experiment and I enjoyed exploring those tenuous connections on the page (or the screen). I offer it here as my tribute to Strummer, who, in my opinion, embodied the spirit of ’77 punk rock and infused it with global sounds and a politically progressive worldview that is as needed today as ever.

Earlier versions of the essay below were published in 2003 in the online Christian/emerging church publications RELEVANT and The Phantom Tollbooth.