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A Midwestern Veterans Affairs mental health clinical pharmacist practitioner shares their reaction to the "Fork in the Road" email that they and two million other federal employees received from the Office of Personal Management at the end of January.

Milwaukee native Ira Madison III is a cultural critic, TV writer and host of the podcast “Keep It.” His book “Pure Innocent Fun" explores media that inspired his career and impacted his life growing up as a Black gay man in Milwaukee.

Lake Effect contributor Dusty Weis writes about his tense experience at a pizza shop. He touches on the current labor shortage and the broader tendency for people in positions of privilege to mistreat service industry workers.

After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, Lake Effect contributor Barbara Miner wanted to know what the process of buying a gun was like. Now, she wants to get rid of the gun and is finding it’s far more difficult to do than it was to purchase it.

Lake Effect essayist Beth Lueck captures the sights, sounds and sensations of spring in her essay "Waiting For Spring."

Lake Effect essayist Barbara Miner has been writing about her experiences throughout the pandemic. Miner, a local writer, photographer, and producer has…

Thanksgiving is this week. The holiday celebrates a gathering early American settlers with a group of Native people in Plymouth. It’s also a time to…

Interactions with strangers are few and far between in the time of COVID-19. Following social distancing guidelines and wearing a mask aren’t exactly…

The gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic has many of us looking for respite, some kind of emotional or physical escape. Something to take our minds off of the…

You may have heard or read Lake Effect contributor Joanne Nelson’s essays before. For her, writing has always been a way to not just escape but…