Fiction
Spotlight on…
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"Oran, City of Stone"
by Peter Newall
“Oran, city of stone, stony-hearted city, we were born here, we made you what you are, but now you don’t want us any more. Which means you’re not Oran any more. Well, fuck it, as Luc would have said.”
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"The First Star at Twilight"
by Sophia Krich-Brinton
“Then I saw him, like the first star at twilight.”
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"I Dreamed a Lifetime"
by J.D. Lewis
“My last breath escaped and was engulfed by the fire of your aurora. And all was light.”
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"The Regular Reasons"
by James Callan
“I watch them from behind the bar—the regulars with their regular antics. Some of them call me the mixologist, others, the bartender. Most of them call me Frank.”
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"Mrs. True Love"
by Cam Mackie
“The man stared at Marcy Love. His name was Peter Lewis, not of Lewis & Clark & Builder & Miller & Sons fame (that was a coincidence), but a clerk from two floors up—and he was in love with her.”
Obituary for the Invincible Man
by Wyatt Robinette
“Of course, he had haters. They commented things like: “Jump off a bridge,” “take a bullet,” and “get run over by a bus. It didn’t take long for one of their wishes to come true. Two months after the bridge collapsed, Fogel was hit by a truck.”
Disconnect
by Jeffrey-Michael Kane
“Today, the President announced a cure for autism…They said the cure made things easier. But they never said for everyone…or even who.”
Womenstration
by Lorraine Durbin
“Their husbands cry out in pain, while the wives microwave the heating pad for them. None dare to protest because the husbands are ready to say, ‘But you’re used to it!’”
Oran, City of Stone
by Peter Newall
“Oran, city of stone, stony-hearted city, we were born here, we made you what you are, but now you don’t want us any more. Which means you’re not Oran any more. Well, fuck it, as Luc would have said.”
Mrs. True Love
by Cam Mackie
“The man stared at Marcy Love. His name was Peter Lewis, not of Lewis & Clark & Builder & Miller & Sons fame (that was a coincidence), but a clerk from two floors up—and he was in love with her.”
Luna is a Good Girl
by Keith Kopp
“‘Luna has had multiple seizures this morning and though that in itself does not necessarily mean anything, she has also had a brain bleed.’
‘Shit,’ Kim whispers.”
Animus
by Anna Kornfeld
“The house was always haunted; it just took me a while to find all the ghosts.”
Cover Letters
by Daniele De Serto (translation by Wendell Ricketts)
“The fact is that I was once an exceptional writer. Back when I wasn’t writing, I mean. I had thousands of novels floating around in my head, and I meticulously refrained from writing a single one of them.”
Drinking Whiskey in the Backyard
by Joe Kilgore
“I’m sitting here with a tumbler of Maker’s Mark in my left hand and a Colt Single Action Army Peacemaker in my right. The glass of Kentucky straight bourbon feels particularly comfortable.”
Muffin or Something
by Alaina Hammond
“Before the ink was dry, we made our plan.”
The First Star at Twilight
by Sophia Krich-Brinton
“Then I saw him, like the first star at twilight.”
The Regular Reasons
by James Callan
“I watch them from behind the bar—the regulars with their regular antics. Some of them call me the mixologist, others, the bartender. Most of them call me Frank.”
The Bravest Fly
by Lindsay Comer
“Spider-spider, please tell my family… I was the bravest fly.”
The Scent of Orange Juice
by Swetha Amit
“Before the arguments and silence intruded into our home, making orange juice was a ritual that kept us connected.”
Nasturtiums
by Susan Alpert
“At a local greeting card store, she found the stationery that she would use to write them. It was heavy card stock with botanical illustrations of red, orange, and yellow nasturtiums printed around the border.”
The Hot Rod Trio
by Glenn Lucas
“The boys were practiced arsonists whose victims included army men, Gumby, Batman, and the Joker action figures, as well as Wolfman and Frankenstein models. The difference was that they always worked in a controlled environment, placing bricks or cinder blocks around the victim. This fire was going to be out in the open.”
I Dreamed a Lifetime
by J.D. Lewis
“My last breath escaped and was engulfed by the fire of your aurora. And all was light.”
A Eulogy for Caramel Staxxx
by A.M. Castro
“He turned Mötley Crüe’s hedonistic headbanger and tweaked it into what it was, a dirge for decadence, a riff-driven catharsis about over-consumption, a retrospective reauthoring that looks at the world dead in the eye, looking for a Friday night fight.”
Reflections in the Ice
by Anthony Kleem
“Satisfied, Michiko dried the nib and filled the pen with blue-black ink. She opened the shoji and watched the snow fall on the garden stones.”
Mother
by Mykyta Ryzhykh
“My finger is all pricked, it hurts, because I can't see well anymore, so I pass the needle by. But that's not important.”