Fiction
Fiction Highlights…
-
![]()
"Irish Dance Macabre"
by Rob Dailey
“The flames of her hair flood the floor while yours lap at the ceiling, setting fire to the beams and enveloping the family. You wouldn't know it from her smile.”
-
![]()
"The Milk Man"
by Scott Larimore
“My family and I were debating what my dad would do for his mid-life crisis. It had been coming on for a while now.”
-
![]()
"EXHAUSTION"
by C.C. Russell
“It was this that was finally, fatally wearing us down. This constant waking. These echoes of adrenaline.”
-
![]()
"Louisiana Street"
by Stephen Dean Ingram
“…he shudders again, but this time not from the air conditioning. Something wells up inside of him and he chokes it back, gulping, and hugs himself. He looks up to see if anyone sees him.”
-
![]()
"RELEASE"
by Nanami Fetter
“The reason I’m alive is because of release dates. Album release dates, book release dates, and movie release dates. There are so many good pieces of art to look forward to, and so that’s why I’m able to live another day.”
Jergen’s Ears
by William Brasse
“Jergen was a middle-aged man with glasses that he called spectacles. He was far from handsome, and some people thought he looked like something out of a horror movie. The spectacles were not responsible for this.”
The Crack
by Annemarie Neary
“Out there, there will be watchers, waiters, skulkers, seekers. Desperados and lunatics. Ordinary loners. Even now a girl is moving through the Common, spotlit then lost then spotlit again. Each time the girl vanishes, Anna grieves for her…”
The Return of the Shrew
by A. D. Canareira (trans. by Clare Gaunt)
“‘On a plain in Southwestern America, many, many years ago, during the Dust Bowl, or perhaps still today, there lived a tiny and very lonely little shrew.’”
Three Micros
by Trae Stewart
“It starts in the pharmacy, under lights that make everyone look guilty.”
The Corpse of Newson Farm
by Thomas Misuraca
“A female body was found tied to the barbed-wire fence at the north end of Newson’s Farm. It had been out there the entire winter, one of the worst the county had ever seen.”
The Organ Grider
by Marcus Silcock
“Every morning, Mags sat naked on the beach, counting her breaths, awaiting nothing, purely centred, while the tourists flocked the promenade, purchasing one thing after another, and licking their ice cream.”
The Blue Dress Lady
by John Power
“Her bright blue eyes matched her bright blue dress and gave her the look of the universal grandmother that Julie never had.”
The Heart Asks for Pleasure First
by Antonio Sodré
“…every full moon, she came to play. Alerted by scouts, the chief watched her fingers coax melodies from the piano. He was spellbound. Horrified by his own enchantment, he ordered the piano destroyed.”
Cheetos Never Prosper
by Kelly Murashige
“By the time I arrive at the scene of the crime, all of the Cheetos have already been cleaned up. Either that, or there were never any Cheetos in the first place, and the inside of the truck was as hollow as your oversized head.”
Melt
by Elizabeth Murphy
“And along the way, she can appreciate what a torture the drive is, especially when it looks and stinks like a flock of laxative-loving seagulls dumped on the car floor, whereas, in reality, it’s just a once-and-for-all reminder that something has to change.”
Louisiana Street
by Stephen Dean Ingram
“…he shudders again, but this time not from the air conditioning. Something wells up inside of him and he chokes it back, gulping, and hugs himself. He looks up to see if anyone sees him.”
Three Micros
by C.C. Russell
“It was this that was finally, fatally wearing us down. This constant waking. These echoes of adrenaline.”
Polly
by Spencer Barnes
“Physarum polycephalum are unique in that, unlike most eukaryotic organisms, they are composed of a single cell with multiple nuclei. Polly is essentially brainless.”
Party in Tiltsville, Florida
by Jacek Blaszkiewicz
“The palm trees flash red and blue. Like the intoxicated driver negotiating with the police, they sway, feigning stability against the night breeze.”
RELEASE
by Nanami Fetter
“The reason I’m alive is because of release dates. Album release dates, book release dates, and movie release dates. There are so many good pieces of art to look forward to, and so that’s why I’m able to live another day.”
The Milk Man
by Scott Larimore
“My family and I were debating what my dad would do for his mid-life crisis. It had been coming on for a while now.”
Irish Dance Macabre
by Rob Dailey
“The flames of her hair flood the floor while yours lap at the ceiling, setting fire to the beams and enveloping the family. You wouldn't know it from her smile.”
Your Pathways
by Renee LoBue
“Inside, she saw a tangle of lines — ropy, cable-like bundled cords of some unseen engine, dense and coiled, alive with potential. For an instant, their mind looked like an archive flung open: drawers half-alphabetized, folders spilling in disarray.”
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye
by Madeleine Foster
“I’ll miss you, she scribbled, glancing at his broad, angular frame, the way his legs rested beneath the table, inches from hers. Miss your voice, miss your laughter.”
eXtinct
by Michael Czyzniejewski
“For X, my classroom had a picture of a brontosaurus, which is funny now, as that’s not a real dinosaur anymore, and the word under the picture was eXtinct. Like they couldn’t figure out the name of an animal that started with X…”
“The Return of the Shrew”
by A. D. Canareira (trans. by Clare Gaunt)
“‘On a plain in Southwestern America, many, many years ago, during the Dust Bowl, or perhaps still today, there lived a tiny and very lonely little shrew.’”