Fiction from Sutton Strother
Photo: Michael Prewett When I Say You’re Welcome What I Mean is My Pleasure Over the wine coolers we’ve smuggled into her dorm room, Jenni confesses she’s never touched herself. I thought it was dirty she murmurs like she’s still not certain it isn’t, and suddenly I wish I was someone better than the girl who […]
Fiction from Benjamin Niespodziany
Photo: Luke Southern Guadalajara Funeral Parlor I am in an apartment in Guadalajara across from a 24 hour funeral parlor that never stops partying. In this dream, children grip pistols that shoot black flags. Pristine limousines breathe tattered tassels. The bereaved own the district. They stuff trumpets in each hearse and blurt dirges through the […]
Poetry from Judith Roney
Photo: Alexander Andrews Confirmation Number The Verizon associate …………who had a thick accent took my credit card number, …………the expiration date and the three numbers …………on the back of the card that seem to carry so much weight …………you can’t buy food without them. The monthly bill for two phones …………and an Apple watch was […]
Nonfiction from Jennifer Fliss
Photo: Kris Mikael Krister My Body Is an Aquarium Up to 60% of a woman’s body is made of water. There was a time I was so sick I ate nothing. My illness lasted for three months and doctors could not figure out what was causing me such pain. I worked at an aquarium […]
Fiction from Cathy Mellett
Photo: Honey Caranzo The Green Bridge My mother Marnie was visiting us again. She said she left her husband for good this time. It was always for good, and she always went back to him. But for now, she was living with my grandmother and me. The first day Marnie was home, she phoned a […]
Fiction from Cheryl Pappas
Photo: Florian Klauer Hunger Roger has 22 apples. He gives 5 to his baby sister, Rory. Rory says No Fair and hits him with a stick. How many apples does Roger have now? The new movie theater in town, with plush velvet seats, charges $28 a ticket. Dave and Michelle have $14.38 in their account, […]
Fiction from Nathan Willis
Photo: Zane Lee Wholesale Ghost Hearts The ghost hearts fill my body like Styrofoam nuggets. I can only take them out one at a time and only at certain places. So far, those places include the roof of the high school that Karen went to, the house grandma lived in before the home, the church […]
Nonfiction from Aslan Demir
Photo: Andy Falconer Uğruna ne canlar yitirdim ey körolası özgürlük Ne çok dışlandım, katledildim, oysa kaderimdi Kürtlük Lives I have lost for your sake, you bloody freedom I have been ostracized, slaughtered Yet it was only my destiny to be Kurdish Loss It was the beginning of spring, still the doldrums of the year as […]
Nonfiction from Rachel Laverdiere
Monkey Wrench . . Inspired by the vast skies of Saskatchewan, Rachel Laverdiere anticipates that calm will erupt into thunderstorms, flocking geese will disappear into the sunset, and northern lights will traipse across the blackened stage. When pastures bloom into bouquets of crocus and sage, she forgets the chaos of a world that spins too […]
Fiction from Jenny Wong
Photo: Denis Doukhan The Remembering Skins A herd of sheep stampede down a cliffside, all of them staring at the same fixed point in the middle distance. They can’t see me. But I wonder if they can still sense my gaze searching for the hidden seams beneath their fur. Their thin legs bolted to artificial […]
