Rebecca Thomas’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Hunger Mountain, The Massachusetts Review, Fifth Wednesday and other journals. In 2015, she received a Pushcart Prize nomination for fiction. She received her MFA in creative writing from West Virginia University. She received undergraduate degrees in creative writing and screenwriting from Chapman University. Originally from Orange County, California, she now teaches writing in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Excerpt from “Milestones”
As I change my son, he quiets, turns,
and calls out. “You talking to your brother
on the other side of the wall?” I ask.
He is four months old. He doesn’t yet know
where his brother sleeps or how far sound carries.
Excerpt from Statement
My second son was born shortly before the Trump administration began the cruel practice of separating migrant children from their parents. At the time that the images and Pro Publica tapes broke, he was just a few months old. As I nursed him each day and night, his body curled into mine, I would look to my phone and see the pictures of these children, hear their voices call for their parents, and read about babies being taken away from their mothers. I clutched my son closer.
Ms. Aligned 