First Draft

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  • Muses is Amiss

    Thursday night leading up to Fat Tuesday in New Orleans is known as a night made for Queens – a parade that features only women, dressed in creative costumes and colorful wigs. Muses. Their hats sparkle, and bubbles float throughout the air, hovering above bubble baths which glide down the parade route on electric scooters,…

  • Islands

    Sonder is the feeling of realizing everyone has an inner life as complex as one’s own. It’s easy to feel like one’s own feelings, one’s own interior being, is more complicated, convoluted, and richer than anyone else’s. It is, afterall, the only mind we are privy to. As Nietzsche said, “We are always only in our own company” because…

  • Merry Christmas

    When I was seven years old, my parents got a divorce. Sadness. Confusion. Split Christmases. Blah, blah, blah. A classic, modern story shared by far too many. My mother liked to make something special for my sister and I. She’d host Christmas Eve on December 23rd, and then we’d wake up, open presents, and go off to…

  • Poached Egg

    Delicate and soft, ready to burst with the slightest poke. Emotions ooze out of a jiggly shell, until yoke consumes my plate. I’m begging for a slice of toast or a chunk of potato to soak up the mess. Something hefty, something that doesn’t break apart so easily.   I am not fully cooked. I am runny…

alex ragonesi

Currently based in New Orleans, I am a creative nonfiction writer utilizing the styles of lyric essay, poetry, memoir, and reporting with flair. My writing is vulnerable and intimate. I invite you into the most personal parts of me. Together we can discover ourselves, discover New Orleans, and discover the world.

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First Draft