The Recovering Academic

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A Hot Bath in April
A lyric essay
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Joshua Doležal
11
The Day I Became An English Major
How My Ántonia changed my life
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Joshua Doležal
11
What Role Do Fathers Play in Feminism?
I was speeding down the Atlantic City Expressway, having just escaped the Philadelphia traffic, when my ex (whom I’ll call Sarah) announced that Roe v…
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Joshua Doležal
14
A Hymn to Hot Sauce
Sap is running in the sugar bush, the ground is loosening with rain and warmth, and I’m soaking my first round of garden seeds. I have observed the…
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Joshua Doležal
27
The Dodgers Jacket
A eulogy for my grandfather
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Joshua Doležal
14
Fathers and Sons (Part Two)
Excerpts from a memoir-in-progress. The lesson I was to learn from the firewood caper was that my father was still in charge even if I’d outgrown him in…
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Joshua Doležal
6
Fathers and Sons (Part One)
Excerpts from a memoir-in-progress. When my ex and I scheduled an ultrasound during her third pregnancy, I expected another girl. The odds were pretty…
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Joshua Doležal
12
Finding My New Fitness Family
While packing boxes for another move, I’ve gone through a familiar cycle of deciding what to keep and what to throw away. Old photographs always make…
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Joshua Doležal
34
The Recovering Academic in 2023
And a taste of what 2024 has in store. It is hard to start this letter at the end of last year, because the story I’ve been telling on begins in…
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Joshua Doležal
43
A Lost Son Comes Home
Searching for ancestors and finding chosen family in Moravia
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Joshua Doležal
7
A Sadness That Holds Hope for Joy
I used to teach in an Iowa town that Bill Bryson said was “as tranquil as a double dose of Valium.” That was close to the mark. Pretty much everything I…
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Joshua Doležal
45
The Therapist
A short story
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Joshua Doležal
11
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