Fiction from Bronwen Griffiths
Photo: Collin Williams Cadair Werdd (The Green Chair) Our father sat in the green chair for over a decade—its arms slowly turning black and frayed, the seat sinking under his weight. He weighed his words and spoke only when necessary and he used Welsh, his mother-tongue. All traces of English seemed to have vanished from […]
Fiction from Melissa Benton Barker
Photo: Jens Lelie Mother and Son The Girl on the Bus The bus winds round and round the mountain, up the mountain, down the mountain, the girl curled, asleep in the last seat, she missed her stop, she’s been forgotten. The bus goes all the way up to the top of the mountain, place of […]
Fiction from A.C. Koch
Photo: Jakub Dziubak My Fire Still Burns Until she found the right word, she couldn’t tell the story. Without exactly the right word, it would sound crass, or pathetic—the daydream of a delusional person. And although she could nearly taste the word, it wouldn’t come. Min-ji sipped her pineapple juice through a straw and pressed […]
Fiction from Chris Haven
Photo: Avess Chicken Little, the Later Years So Chicken Little is sitting around, and that good for nothing Turkey Lurkey comes by and says hey, the sky is falling. Chicken Little says to Turkey Lurkey you’re full of crap. And then Henny Penny and Lucy Goosey and all the other birdbrains come by and say […]
Fiction from Anthony Varallo
Photo: Krzysztof Hepner My Money-Making Scheme I don’t know what to say about how it all started, except to say that one day I was living paycheck to paycheck, counting every dime, and then the next day my wallet was bulged with tens and twenties. That’s the truth. I know I should say I’m sorry, […]
Fiction from Iona Rule
Photo: Stephanie Yaich Calculating Snakes with red and yellow stripes touching are venomous, those with red and black touching aren’t. If a man is wearing a shirt with blue stripes in his profile pictures, how dangerous is he? If you hear hoof beats do you think “Horses!” or “Zebras!”? How many times has it been zebras? How many […]
Fiction from Melissa Llanes Brownlee
Photo: Stephanie Harvey What if God Is One of Us I saw God in the parking lot of a Taco Bell, temporarily closed after a viral video involving hot sauce and a waiting to be filled burrito. He was dealing coke out of the back of a souped-up Honda Accord, baggies bouncing to the beat […]
Fiction from Mandira Pattnaik
Photo: Beth Macdonald Where Fate Keeps Her Tools We—banjo clocks, ivory mirrors, jadeite—love to be Fate’s tools. We hold up flags of bygone times in the fifty-year-old store named after George the Sixth, where the cobbled street bends away from Town Square. At George’s Secondhand Shop, all we do is—wait. When the wait’s over, we […]
Fiction from Brett Biebel
Photo: Amir Mohammad Holy War A kid from our town fell off the water tower and walked away. 150 feet and no hospital, no fractures, not a fucking scratch, and media were everywhere. Must’ve been a slow news week. Trucks from Fox and ABC News, and they’re interviewing all these Big Ten physicists who keep […]
Fiction from Allison Renner
Photo: PJ Gal-Szabo No Place Like Home Something in the way the crow carcass is splayed on the pavement brings to mind the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. I was seven when I first saw the movie at my grandmother’s house. I thought it was black and white because her TV was so […]
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