Dana VanderLugt | Writer

What is Left Behind

Several years ago my Dad mentioned a story he had heard about German POWs who came to pick the apples in what would later become my Grandpa’s orchard. For the last nine months or so, I’ve been immersed in researching and writing — amazed as I uncover more...

“The Orchard”

I’m excited to share that my essay, “The Orchard” is published in the Winter issue of Longridge Review. You can read it here. I began the first draft of this essay in my college dorm room about 20 years ago and picked it back up last year as I began...

Guest Post: Poems and Process

Earlier this summer, I wrote about interviewing my grandma with my cousin, Sara Lamers Messink. A poet, a teacher, and one of my first friends, Sara and I grew up bridging the 80 miles that separated us with weekly letters exchanged back and forth. We...

Mundane turned Miraculous

Upon the death of our trees, I learn the Hebrew word for orchard is paradise I’ve grown up watching my father eat apples straight off the trees. His mouth wide, he’d take one giant bite, tearing the skin, exposing the belly, carving out one side of the...