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, […]
Category / Fiction
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 […]
Dave Housley “Beep beep.” Coyote feels the adrenaline kick. His legs steady, eyes focus on the horizon. He looks left, then right. “Beep beep.” The roadrunner is getting closer. Coyote’s fingers are actually tingling. His mouth waters. He looks left, right. Left. Right. Can he actually hear the steamroller churn of the animal’s legs, or […]
Michael Parker But why do we have to dress up like cops, I asked Run. Because we’ll make more money, he said. I met Run at Mattie’s. He was from Perquimans also but I never knew him, nor his people. Years later, after he died, I was back home for a funeral and met one […]
Shark in swimming pool Scorpion in shoe Icicle I choose cotton over nonflammable polyester I fail to adjust my bike helmet straps according to the instruction manual I forget to knock on wood Shoe stuck in train track Bike wheel stuck in tram track Truck swerving to miss squirrel Meteor Javelin Lawn dart Brian Finger […]
Red Heel Strut Katrina Byrd @ovenhot On a recent day in early April, a short, brown-skinned woman with a large Afro, a funky strut, and an attitude as real as her love for feathers, entered a shoe store just as a bald man in blue jeans pulled a gun from his back pocket and pointed […]
Victoria McCurdy Swipe right. Swipe right. Tinder. Bumble. Be unable to remember which, but this younger, generically handsome boy whose face reminds you of a Playmobil figure has driven from the suburbs tonight to meet you. Stand about awkwardly untill you are seated at a table in the loudest section of the bar. Order wine. […]
Tara Laskowski The children found the Ouija board buried at the bottom of the game bin. Their teachers were too busy arguing about peanut allergy restrictions and setting up Reading Circle to notice. No one could remember later if it was Tommy or Susan or Jamal who unearthed the box, crushed and tattered and smelling […]
