Kemari Howell
Bio
Coffee drinking, mermaid loving, too many notebooks having rebel word witch, journaling junkie, story / idea strategist, and creative overlord. Here to help people find creativity, tell their stories, and change the world with their words.
Achievements (1)
Stories (28/0)
The Power of Words
I always knew I would work with words. From the time I was ten and won the school spelling bee, I just knew. The word that helped me win was itinerary. And I realized somewhere, in some part of the world, that word meant everything. I made it all the way to the county finals. For weeks, I spent every hour, reading words from the dictionary like I could drink them and quench my thirst. And then I would use all of them in sentences and build stories and worlds and galaxies that transformed my life.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Journal
Something Extraordinary
Naomi could feel nothing extraordinary as she curled a hand against the delicate skin beneath her bellybutton. She was hoping for a miracle, a sign that might help make the decision for her. But there were no miracles beneath her palm. Choices still hovered over her, expanding like wet cotton, filling every space of the waiting room with their presence until it was hard to breathe.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
A Good Boy
The letters began to show up a week after the storm that caused the city-wide blackout. The same week I’d rescued the scruffy little mutt that had been wandering the neighborhood. His sad eyes bore into my soul every time I left the apartment. I just couldn’t bear it anymore, with his big, dumb face looking at me like he pitied me more than I did him. He and I were the same. Lost souls, drifting through life just looking for scraps of happiness in all the garbage that was thrown our way.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
Like the Freaks They Were
There is an art to being different. It requires patience and bravery. Sometimes, it requires miracles and a little magic. But more than anything, it requires integrity and compassion — to stand in your truth and be YOU while forgiving others for hating you without knowing why.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
You Can Find Me in the Marigolds
Nature is a force with the power to end or begin things as it pleases. It exerted this faculty over my life in a constant cycle of creation and destruction. Starting and stopping. Ebbing and flowing. It made me dizzy how it giveth and taketh away without bias. But I’d learned to find the gratitude for all that was and wasn’t. And so it was on that winter night, as I drove home to my Mama for the first time in years. I was simply grateful, for what was coming and what was leaving.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
Between Stardust and Saltwater
When I was younger, I thought the ocean was another galaxy. That like the night sky, it too reflected an entire universe and never-ending celestial wonderment. In between, was us… the world. We were not the rule, we were the exception, blanketed between two expanses of stardust and saltwater. The link between the deep blue sea and velvet blue of the heavens. I thought for sure that scuba divers were just astronauts, exploring other underwater worlds and finding alien life. In a way, I was right.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
- Top Story - July 2021
The Criterion Diner
Rumor was, if you ate at the Criterion Diner, it would be the best meal of your life. Heaven-sent. As if the gods of taste buds rose up from the ether and plucked out ingredients especially for your palate. But the other rumor was that once you finished your meal, you’d be judged for your life thus far, and everything from that day forward would be restitution tenfold.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction
Both Shade and Sun
I remember the way the air smelled that night. Like wet dirt and bonfires. The barn was in the middle of the field, surrounded by dense clusters of trees. There was a fog settling over the farm, rolling out from the woods all the way to the old rickety barn. Beneath our high top Converse, the red and gold leaves crackled, like an autumnal flame lighting our path. It felt like Mother Nature was setting the perfect scene.
By Kemari Howell3 years ago in Fiction