Kelly Krumrie
“I recorded them in the kitchen, changing clothes, washing their hands, played the sound back, and they’d write it down somehow, rerecord it. The echoes under there had to be god.”
Concentric Macroscope
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Autumn
Juan José Saer
Translated by Will Noah
“In its essence, toponymy represents the first verbal constellation to spread over the tortuous surface of the universe, verbal projectiles that are launched by man’s codified breath and become lodged not in places themselves but in the maps that serve as their emblems.”
Pen
Afsana Begum
Translated by Rifat Munim
“Had anyone ever heard of the spirit of a discontented ghost wandering through the packed streets of an old book market when there were so many other places to haunt people? Just like there were bookworms, there were book ghosts, too.”
The Game Warden
Michael Loyd Gray
“He’d come nosing around on Saturday afternoons, this tall, red-headed warden, because he’d taken a shine to my mother and pretended to recruit me for the conservation service. Even then, I suspected that was a front, but my mother and I were dazzled by his grin and jutting chin, a man full of the outward confidence a smart green uniform and holstered pistol on his hip bestowed.”
Current and Former Associates
William M. McIntosh
“I know it was a long time ago and I know we don’t see each other or speak anymore, although we could, and I know you’ve got a lot in your life and so do I, and I know this sort of drifting apart thing is rather common and forgivable, but do you remember me? Do you think about your old life while you’re possessing my current one?”
Take Care
Laura Zapico
“Micah called my name as I climbed the steps to the Oasis and he ran to catch up, sweating, his checked flannel shirt billowing behind him. I recognized him from my last rehab, the one with the low-rent organic meals and nonstop mindful meditation. We’d barely spoken there, but I’d felt his eyes on me in the dining hall and during Tai Chi, and I remembered how it thrilled me when I felt like a lonesome tumbleweed pinned against a rusted fence, blown and battered, miles from home.”
Plans for a Project
Bo Huston
“What follows are transcripts of interviews made sometime in the summer and autumn of 1983. I was so much younger then. I was sad, lonely, optimistic, radical (but a little too cautious to be radical). I took all the drugs that came my way, fucked with all the men who came my way … laughed a lot, but that was becoming a struggle.”
It Being Fall
Matthew Roberson
“Out and out again into the car. He’s not driving. Not. He turns for the seat belt and reaches and then lets the woman lean over and take hold and pull it to close with a click. She’s driving, the woman.”
The Waiting Dreamer
Blue Neustifter
“There were only two constants to the dreams: her and him. No matter where she was, no matter how lush or barren the landscape, he was there.”
Reflections in a Window
Cástulo Aceves
Translated by Michael Langdon
“Two men appear at the door of the airport. The first of them is the client; the second, much older, an investigator. They feel the cold air of the country they are visiting, on a continent where they are foreigners.”
Excerpt from Fieldwork
Vilde Fastvold
Translated by Wendy H. Gabrielsen
“In the institute corridors, people whisper that having sex in the field is something everyone does, but no one talks about. I haven’t asked anyone if it’s true because I’d rather console myself with the thought that fieldwork is messy and can’t be pinned down by ethical absolutes.”
Agónico Marcial 1960 – 1994
Israel Bonilla
“Agónico’s childhood belongs to myth, and it is now irretrievable. We know with confidence that he was born in Visalia. All other information has been gleaned from his letters to Segura.”
The Chinkhoswe
J.G. Jesman
“Chitsanzo, whose name means “example,” is very pleased with his outfit for the wedding. He has no idea who is getting married, but the local saying is that, Ants don’t need an invitation to enjoy sugar.”
Excerpt from Fishflies: the Men of the Riverhouse
Marream Krollos
“I waited for Otis to knock on the door of 716, I knew I would recognize the knock. I stared at the door as if … my heart, my stomach, my limbs were bats sending sonar out the door, into the Riverhouse.”
The House
Nikki Barnhart
“When my childhood was over, I moved out. There was a big, old house on the far end of town, convenient to nothing. No one wanted to go over there, much less live, but I could afford it, everything that it had to offer.”
Torch Song of Myself
Dale Peck
“The first man I was sexually attracted to was Luke Skywalker. The first man I loved shot one of his johns when he was fifteen. The first man I had sex with was my best friend in college.”
Excerpt from Marriage
Marina Mariasch
Translated by Ellen Jones
“In relationships, everything that matters is hidden and should remain so for the benefit of all major stakeholders. Dirty laundry is a research tool that allows us to penetrate the deepest folds of the conjugal fabric.”
Tijuana
By Victoria Ballesteros
“In dreams, I glide past borders and through concrete doors to reach places I have never left. I fly over green picket fences and bougainvillea trees adorned with slivers of the past.”
A Chinese Temple in California
Alvin Lu
Did the workmen who received the pieces carried by cart and mule know what they were doing? There would be, and still are, strict rules for feng shui. Did the delivery come with instructions? Or did the builders just go by their infallible memories?
In This Case, He Killed an Innocent Person
Carla Bessa
Translated by Elton Uliana
A renowned businessman was arrested unexpectedly early this Friday, after an accident in which he ran over and killed a workman in the South Zone of Rio. According to the chief of police, the driver will be charged with manslaughter (where there is no intention of killing) and drunk driving.
The Gorge
James Warner
“I remember buying Guy Dieppe’s novel—at a bookstall beside the Seine, one spring afternoon—more clearly than I recall my first reading of it. It included some enjoyable phrases, which I now forget, but made no impression otherwise.”
The Cathedral of Desire
Nina Schuyler
“Before she taped closed the box of Floor Polish Shine, she slid in her note, I miss watermelon. And with the bottle of Mold Killer, I miss pink tulips.
The notes didn’t harm anyone. Little scraps of paper, a message that there was more to the Cathedral of Desire than what met the eye.”
Excerpt from Mice 1961
Stacey Levine
“Sherrie Gagel pushed through the throng toward the head branch librarian, declaring with a patchy pant: ‘May I ask you something Miss Stroke? I’ve wanted to for ages.’”
Mistake or Accident
Laurie Stone
“I gave a man I loved a mug, a silk shirt, and a copy of Baudelaire. In time he became better at sex. After he left me, I saw him at a memorial service and wondered if he still had the shirt, the mug, the copy of Baudelaire.”
Tikibik
Dominic Blewett
“Wildly in love, we did not pause to consider failure. Ina was ready to return home and I for a new adventure. We moved quickly, recklessly, uprooting our lives and flinging them across the globe.”
The Border
Solomon Samson
“For a while, she stares at him as if he belongs to a race once thought extinct. This is not part of her job. She is just trying to go the extra mile. But the look on the boy’s face tells her that it is not time to slow down.”
Panthera onca
Jasleena Grewal
“A jaguar, like a child, indicates the health of a system. It is a keystone. In this pulse place—its body estuarine, current with blood—a jaguar plays like a cat and yolks her hunts.”
Dirk
Julia Kohli
Translated by Rob Myatt
“Attending gender studies seminars had become the new trend in the men’s forums he frequented for fun on an occasional, meaning daily, basis: a bit of reporting back and swapping notes, talking about the different types of ugliness among women.”
Nonie in Excelsis (Excerpt from About Ed)
Robert Glück
“A knock at the door. There stood Nonie’s downstairs neighbor, hands folded and face lifted in pleasure. On second glance she was sixty or so and yes, beautiful.”
Gospel of Mary
Michael Garcia Bertrand
“In the middle of determining whether two multivariate polynomials were indistinguishable, Judas Borges discovered he was Jesus Christ.”