Cara C. Volle
Writer. Fighter.
Bullet biter.
Cara C. Volle writes essays and novels for women who seek escape from menopausal rage, patriarchal bullshit, and the mental load.
It's time you took a little break.
From my big mouth...
Essay
Burt Reynolds and the Shawshank Redemption
I was nine the day I came face to face with a naked Burt Reynolds. I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I was being thorough because I closed my mom’s always-open closet door to look behind it. That’s where Burt was waiting. The poster tacked to the cobwebbed wall showed the erstwhile Bandit lying on his side, propped upon elbow. He lay on an animal pelt of unknown species with a strategic arm covering his genitalia but not his pubic hair, which was resplendent in its 1980s bushiness...
Essay
Now Taking Applications
In August of 2021 I lost my best friend to the pandemic. She didn’t die, but after 20 years of navigating our vast differences in religion (me: atheism, her: catholicism), career (me: creative entrepreneur, her: corporate exec), politics (me: so very liberal, her: conservative), and just about every other area of our lives and personalities, we had to break up. I thought it all started for me over her denial of COVID, her anti-vax position, and her subsequent embrace of right-wing pandemic conspiracies (ivermectin, anyone?)...
ESSAY
Clear and Present.
I know a lot of people are jumping on that Dry January train right now, and I say go for it. It’s not only because I want some company here on the other side, but that’s one reason. Last year, I decided to do a Dry 2023. As in, the last time I had a sip of alcohol was January 9, 2023. I vowed to take a year off alcohol, and I am now freakishly close to that. But what I am even closer to is never going back. Like, I might never drink again. And let me tell you, no one is more shocked about this than I...