Noa Sivan The American Dream They are eleven people living in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. Childhood friends—kindred dreamers—refugees of a civil war. At night they sleep head-to-toe on the bed, couch, or floor. In the morning they joke as if they didn’t hear one another scream. Whole and Perfect The […]
Category / Fiction
Michelle Meyers As you know, today our class was supposed to discuss the 2008 economic recession and the subsequent bank bailout. We were supposed to discuss liquidation squeezes, credit default swaps, toxic assets, and the real estate bubble. We were supposed to discuss the Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac. […]
Christine Hennessey Raquel is not a marine biologist, but she can tell right away that the whale washed up on Bellhaven Beach is dying. It’s late winter and the wind gusts, cutting through her coat as she walks along the shore. She doesn’t notice the whale until she’s almost on top of it, which seems […]
Patrick Walczy We’d seen previews of his dancing at the company holiday party, clucking and sliding on the dance floor with his girlfriend, but now, in his cubicle, he gave us a full dose. Kept shouting, “Yes!” Kept kissing the framed picture of his girlfriend. Heads popped over cube walls to see if he was […]
Jennifer Wortman I am the woman driving across town to stop the wedding of the man I love. Because I am now this woman, he’s getting married in a big, steepled church. The man I love hates church, and marriage. But now he’s getting married in a big, steepled church to a woman who isn’t […]
James Yates They planned to meet at the train station that morning. Thomas had read tips online, that it was a good place to hook up; he hadn’t gone the dating site or hookup app route. He just couldn’t take any chances. Knowing his own luck, someone, somehow, would find out. He wasn’t ready to […]
Daniel DiFranco “Her Majesty” blared out of a T-Top Camaro. The driver, a man, shirtless, revved the engine. The car screeched off as the light turned green. Two people, early thirties in business attire, crossed the street. One of them could be you or me or someone you know, but since this is a story, […]
Noa Sivan They meet at a bar: an Inuit guy who hates snow and a Tuareg woman traveling with her sled dogs across the frozen land. They fall in love; spend winters in the Sahara, summers in the Arctic. He tells her his father was a depressed hunter, couldn’t kill a living creature—skinned a carcass […]
Jeff Bakkensen We split her up by dropping names into a hat. I got both arms, Paul a leg, Ryan the head, Matt the other leg, and Drew the coveted torso. Then we split for our various cities, Paul and I to New York, Matt to L.A., Ryan to Boston, and Drew to London. We […]
Cathy Ulrich I’ll go to the closest bar and find a man who looks like you. His name won’t be your name; his mouth won’t be your mouth. But he’ll resemble you a bit, through the eyes, the curve of his throat. The way he futzes with his hair. I’ll say: Buy me a drink?, […]
Zach VandeZande At a certain point you just have to go for it, and then you are hitting the kid, and you want to say the sound is like a “plonk,” but it’s not. It’s a sound outside of language, after all, and you feel that feeling that you are part of the car, that […]
Dina L. Relles A Polaroid of my childhood home. split-level, screen door open A single square of the blanket I was given at birth. red and white gingham with tiny green leaves A list of wishes written on yellow paper at summer camp when I was 14. to love only one person to be happy […]
I. FAMILY MEMBERS He’s only a park gardener. Shaves, makes coffee, watches porn, wipes up the mess. She’s only a traffic controller. Does her crunches and pushups, skips breakfast, curses everyone on the bus before charging out into the street. They both love Johnnie Walker and unsoiled sheets. They wash their hands before going to […]
Sacha Idell Junpei Nomura was the author of three short story collections: Field in the Dark, Grapes, and After the Moon, the last of which received the prestigious Yomiuri Prize in 2007. He was, additionally, the translator of two volumes of John Cheever’s short stories, the author of the ornamental gardening book Hedges, and a […]
Valerie Nieman Lourana opened the door to the sweepstakes parlor to check the skies. Robbie as he left had warned her again about the winter storm. “We’re under a warning come midnight. Get yourself home—it’s gonna be a bad one,” he told her, not that she couldn’t tell from the empty seat at every machine. […]
Emi Benn The path down the hill is right by my apartment, so it seems safe, though it’s obscured by trees. Sometimes coyotes lurk around. When the back door’s open, I can hear people trudging up it. Once, I heard a couple screaming at each other. A neighbor warned me never to walk there after […]
Aimee Parkison Take me out. Play with me. I’m shivering. You can flip the switch to make shadows go. I shudder, waiting to roam. The glass fills with light. Piped-in air smells of candy, girls trembling after misted showers spritz us with moisturized perfumed waters. Hot air vents blow-dry our faces, hair, and bodies, coated […]
Carol Guess and Aimee Parkison The girl in your bed1 isn’t in your bed. She stands on one leg2 while she steps into her skirt.3 Slides her skirt up her thighs,4 around her waist. Glances at you as you glance at her.5 The girl in your bed stands facing the window,6 blinds pulled tight, like […]
Sarah Beaudette My first friend on the island was unlikely, in the sense that we met because my boyfriend had recently gotten her pregnant. The night before I was supposed to take the ferry to meet Jack on the island, he drunk texted that he’d been sleeping with not one but many girls in my […]
Vanessa Cuti Find in the wreckage these gifts: a die-cast car, a snow globe stamped with the name of the city I was leaving, cheap lettering smudged. The girl in duty-free wrapped them for me, so find nearby this tissue and ribbon. Ignore my wedding rings, which might just as well be tin, and whatever […]
