Fiction from Christopher Santantasio
Afterlove 1. He was my gem, but I did not adore him for his glinting brilliance or any gilded inlay. I treasured him for the rare glow. The singular cut of his crystal. The irreplaceable weight on my life. 2. He had impressed an enduring stamp on my soul that faded only with his death; […]
Nonfiction from Melissa Wiley
Playing Astronaut The largest space in the universe is the space inside your head. And inside an astronaut’s helmet the space is quieter, which is more of a reason to wear one than even the fact your head would explode in outer orbits if you didn’t. Only my Barbie astronaut never wore a helmet over […]
Fiction from Lori Sambol Brody
The Girl Who Waits for the Superhero The girl who waits for the superhero stands on a rooftop above the City, high above streetlights and cold blue glows from windows. She’s vertiginous with power. She tells herself she’s waiting on that roof at midnight because the superhero is a source for her article on corruption—an investigation that will expose […]
Fiction from Mariela Acosta
The Smuggler If a man should cross from Brazil into Argentina with a sword swinging by his side and a whistle on his lips, and in Argentina, meet Rosario, customs officer, he will need, if he is smuggling contraband, to have his wits about him, for Rosario loves nothing better than to search swordsmen who […]
Fiction from Ashlie Allen
Pumpkin Friday I make sure to buy a pumpkin every Friday during the Fall. It is a table for my wrists and company for my wine glasses. I am unhappy most of the year, but October brings an eerie feeling I am sentimental about. If I had friends, I’d invite them over to paint my face like demon […]
Nonfiction from Diana Whitney
Resurrection Stone The gods were taking summer back again. Fear blew in through the screen doors at the end of July, that first morning I woke and felt the shudder of a lasting chill, the season turning, mist on the teeming phlox, a new clarity in the air that heralded change. We were finishing Harry […]
Flash Fiction from Reed Underwood
Note from the author: “These pieces are part of a series composed via a randomized process using three ten-sided dice and a list of nine-hundred and ninety-nine words and phrases taken from Google News searches about the city of Guangzhou.” Fire: Broken Cameraman Blues They found the Cameraman at the bottom of an elevator shaft […]
Fiction from Sophie Nagelberg
The Hawk A hawk stole the mitted kitten from the backyard. From the bottom of the deck, my five-year-old screamed bloody murder at the sky. I worried the neighbors would think I was taking a switch to her legs, so I told her to hush; the damage was done. But it wasn’t done—we just couldn’t […]
Poetry from Amy Jirsa
This is how you become a ghost. Repeat yourself. Stand in the corner of your childhood bedroom. Wish so hard for someone to take care of you that the small haunt of a child, stowed beneath a quilt too heavy for the season, can no longer bring herself to look in that corner or to […]
Fiction from Sunisa Nardone
Golden Land She couldn’t know anything about the Southern Hemisphere, dressed as she is. The feeling struggles in me, that flutter of judgment and shame, seeing my countrywoman dressed so—. A foreigner would no doubt mistake her for young and foolish but as a Thai woman myself I can tell that this long-limbed girl is […]
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