Nelle 9/2025
The Three Sisters Award
I am incredibly honored to be part of this beautiful literary journal, NELLE, with so many other incredible writers, whom I’ve linked below. NELLE is named for Nelle Harper Lee, who is basically the reason I am even in Alabama. Years ago, my wonderful editor, Catherine Frank, (a brilliant freelance editor if you’re looking) asked me to write a biography of Harper Lee for teens as part of the UpClose Series at Penguin, so I headed to Monroeville, Alabama and did a slew of interviews up and down the state, because I knew googling Harper Lee from Silver Lake wouldn’t work for the book I wanted to write.
In the course of things, my good friend and beautiful poet, Danny Anderson, encouraged me to apply for a tenure-track job at UAB, and well, here we are, seventeen years later. (Gulp.) What even?
In its ninth issue, Lauren Slaughter, the editor of NELLE, has created such a gorgeous journal along with her amazing literary staff. This essay is part of my memoir, “The Family Plan - Unstable Connections,” which I am plodding along through edits and revisions to submit to my agent in May after the semester wraps. Then I’ll send my caring, talented, and hardworking 50+ creative writing students on their way to share their stories, essays, and poems with the world.
NELLE 9 | 2025
Lauren Goodwin Slaughter, Editor
Announcing the winners of the 2026 Three Sisters Awards:
Poetry: D. Dina Friedman
Fiction: Kelly Pedro
Nonfiction: Kerry Madden Lunsford
Feature Folio
Embodying NELLE’s 2026 theme, She Persisted:
Saara Myrene Raappana
Read Online
D. Dina Friedman
Kelly Pedro
Kerry Madden Lunsford
ire’ne lara silva
L. M. Davenport
Ha Kiet Chau
The Family Plan
Kerry Madden-Lunsford
NELLE 9 | 2026
Excerpt
My son, who is thirty-six, has had forty-five phone numbers or thereabouts. My husband doesn’t name/save his numbers, but I save each one. His siblings’ numbers have stayed reliably, blessedly the same all these years from when we first got them cell phones. I honestly don’t know why I save all his numbers. Somehow, I think that giving each new phone a name will be proof that our boy is trying to join the world again, but by the world, I mean—our world.
See, he’s getting better. He wants a phone. He got a phone. Next, it will be a job. Oh, wait, he should get sober first. He should go back into rehab. Show he’s serious. But hey, a phone is a good start. Maybe we’ve turned a corner.
He’s had forty-five phone numbers since 2013, when we took him off the Family Plan after the intervention that didn’t take. I’ve got all his phone numbers stored on my phone under different incarnations of his name. I name them, hoping one will finally stick.
Joan Didion wrote, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” but my husband and I tell each other stories so our son will live. We want him to live. We want him to turn that corner, but we’ve turned so many corners ourselves that we always go right back where we started.
Last night he called from an unknown number. We always answer unknown numbers in case it might be him. It was him and the accompanying sweet relief—he’s still alive—he’s still here. Our son also calls my husband more than he calls me because my husband is a softie and says yes more than I do. “Hey, it’s me, Pops.”
“Hey, it’s me, Pops.”
“Hey son, how are you? How’s it going? It’s great to hear your voice.”
“Yeah, yeah, Dad, you too! Hey, Pops, can you get me an Uber to a concert over on Lincoln for me and my friend right now?”
“Where are you? Where do you want to go exactly?”
I’m sitting next to my husband, but I don’t say anything. I’m glad to hear our boy’s voice. The disappointment of his asking for a favor stings a little, but nothing like it used to in the olden days when we only traded in hope. This is typical—our son wants an Uber, or he wants money to buy a phone, which we will only send to the company selling the phone. It’s usually a storefront in downtown LA that has a deal. New Phone. New Watch. Jewelry. We never send money directly to him, because our boy hasn’t had a bank account in years. The phones he gets are called “Obama Phones,” and they don’t hold much memory for things like photographs or VENMO.
Here is the link for the rest of the essay, “The Family Plan.”
More information on NELLE:
Nelle Journal - Issue 9 is officially available for purchase through our website! If you were lucky enough to enjoy an advanced copy at AWP this year, you know just how special this new issue is for us. If you aren’t a subscriber, please join our list to help support the journal for more incredible voices like the ones you’ll find here. Drop a comment, like, and share to get this gorgeous issue out for everyone to see! Plus, WOW, can our new intern design a great post or what? Let us know what you think! Check out the link in our bio for the website! #NELLE #poetry #fiction #nonfiction #literaryjournal
Below is the link to purchase the journal:
I have read this before and find is so incredibly moving Kerry. How can I get a copy of this magazine for a friend?