Family relations have always been difficult for me. My immediate family is not close. When mom and dad moved out of Kansas City in 1983, we all went our separate ways. I remember I felt a kind of relief. No longer were these people around to hold me back, tell…
One CommentAuthor: Patrick Dobson
Dr. Patrick Dobson is a work in progress until his termination. In the meantime, He is a writer, scholar, postman, and college professor living in Kansas City, MO.
The University of Nebraska Press published his travel memoirs, Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer in 2015 and Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains in 2009. Canoeing the Great Plains won the 2016 High Plains Book Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. His essays and poems have been published in New Letters, daCunha, Kansas City Star, Garo, Wood Coin, and JONAHmagazine, and others.
Dobson earned a doctorate in American History and Literature at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013. He has edited books, taught journalism, and been a union ironworker. He now teaches American History, Modern Latin American History, and Western Civilization at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS.
He looks forward to hearing from you soon.
A friend of mine asked the other day how he could make jokes when reality has become the joke. He referenced the recent turn in American politics in which absurdity and nonsense has gained traction—to the point where millions of people actually believe the outlandish statements of the political candidates, who…
Leave a CommentSome days I’d like to strangle Bill the Flying Cat. Bill came to us in winter four years ago. He was a kitten who wound up on our porch when the temperature hovered around 3. His small stature and aloof personality attracted me. He had one eye that didn’t open…
Leave a CommentFor those of us who have had the benefit of health insurance for a while, the actual costs hospitals charge patients is startling. I know because I had a wreck on my bike back at the end of July when we didn’t have health insurance. I used to be quite…
Leave a CommentThe summer ended, literally, overnight. One day we were in the 90s for about seventh straight week. The next day, September 21, the daytime temperature dropped into the 70s, and that’s where it’s going to stay for a while. I will miss this summer, one of the most productive I’ve…
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