Literature

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 36 By Louise Peloquin Chapter 36: Good vibes A long frantic day was winding down. By the time Blanche finished apologizing to her teachers for skipping class, evening had fallen. Loud grumbling reminded her that an empty tummy had been ignored for too long. When the…

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 35 By Louise Peloquin Chapter 35: Consequences of playing hooky Blanche had no idea how much time had passed when her numbed body slid out of the confessor’s armchair to the floor with a thud. The singing had ceased. “The novices are outa here. Phew! That…

Dry Cleaning Tales By David Daniel   One: Elizabethan Dry Cleaning My old man never went past the tenth grade, but he once gave me a piece of advice that, for all my university education, I’ve been kicking over in my mind ever since. He owned a dry cleaner, the…

The official launch of The Lowell Review 2022 will be held on Saturday, May 7, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at lala books, 189 Market Street, in downtown Lowell. The Lowell Review includes essays, poems, stories, criticism, opinion, and visual art by writers from the Merrimack Valley and…

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 34 By Louise Peloquin Chapter 34: “Run along now” Noël vacation was only two weeks away. Blanche and her friends were plowing through the curriculum from Latin declensions and new vocabulary to the American Revolution timeline including the March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre, the December 16,…

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 33 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 33: Cuisses de grenouille Back in October, when the sun kissed the grounds and clement breezes made kaleidoscopic funnels from multicolored leaves, biology teacher, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus – Sister T for short – was allowed to hold classes…

Catherine and John Goodwin were iconic figures in the history community of Lowell. Catherine originated the very popular walking tours of Lowell Cemetery and led them for several decades. When age prevented her from continuing, she put out a call for a volunteer to take over the tours. I responded,…

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 32 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 32: Mnemonic Device The weeks after Thanksgiving flowed with relative calm while the student body settled into a routine structured by SFA rules and regulations. As the novelty of boarding school had worn off, spells of boredom set in. In an…

Living Madly – Eulogy for a Sugar Maple By Emilie-Noelle Provost Ten years ago when we moved into our house, one of the things we liked most about the yard was the large sugar maple tree growing beside the driveway. I could tell the tree was old by the thick,…