Jorge Enrique Botero
Translated by David Feller Pegg
We have been under attack for over an hour and I have yet to fire a single shot. It’s almost dawn and old Gala will soon notice the R-15 fluttering in my hands.
Prose
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Knowing Me, Knowing You
Mike Dressel
It was the summer I was into armpits.
It was the week the mercury didn’t dip below 98 degrees.
It was the weekend we didn’t get back together.
Life and Lemons
Christopher Clubb
The first time I begged for money on the street was while I was in Italy. I had been living in England, studying abroad at Lancaster University.
A Glass Jar of Hours From the Other Side of the Universe
Karen An-hwei Lee
Today, I wake up on the wrong side of the universe and realize, with a shock of recognition, my dear heavenly stars, I’m an octopus.
Kiki’s Place
Keith Carver
Mehmet first saw tits at Kiki Damron’s trailer, in Gobles, deep into summer vacation, between grades five and six. They were hers to show, and nothing seemed wrong with it.
She, Who Swims in Sewers
Jessica Love
When Lana dove into the deep end of the country club pool, she was completely submerged only for a brief moment, before her pink, plastic floaties tugged her upward by her biceps to the surface.
Elevator Down
J. Weintraub
They were alone in the elevator, and then he was gone, and she hardly realized what had happened to her as she slid to the floor, her back against the wall, and when it reached the top and shuddered to a halt, she fell forward among the broken bags of groceries.
Excerpt from Elegy for the Chinese of California
Alvin Lu
At some point it was decided there should be a hall. The idea started as a public square.
Triptych
Luisa Valenzuela
Translated by Marguerite Feitlowitz
The hotel in Marseilles has a Moroccan motif. An interesting and creative way to renovate a big old house with two rooms on every floor and a steep staircase. Luckily a young man carried my suitcase up the steep stairs.
Growing Boy
Dennis Vannatta
Mom set a can of Vienna sausage and a Yoohoo on the kitchen table in front of me. That’d been my favorite breakfast when I was a kid, but I’m fourteen now, an old fourteen it sometimes feels like although other times I think I’m just starting out. I don’t know.
Twenty-First-Century Fairy Tale
Karin Wraley Barbee
The first time I sat in the armchair by the fire, whiskey and biscuits on a silver plate, the housekeeper removed my shoes, gestured to the window with her aged brown hand at the moonlit garden, at a grizzly circling
A Tiny Orange Teardrop
Luis Miguel Rivas Granada
Translation by David Feller Pegg
Santa Claus had another shot of aguardiente, then he stood up and staggered to the urinal. Bumps and bulges swayed under his belly as he walked and his disfigured girth began to swell up above his black belt, as if his chest were spilling out.
I+zil+d=inha
Elvira Vigna
Translated by Adrian Minckley
There is a piss smell wafting from one of the corners (the left one) and, towards the front, the foot resting on the table in the black Havaianas
PeNn
Harford Hopson
I stared at the loose hair on the dash in front of me. It writhed, it shriveled. Cringed in the wind. But even with the windows open it buoyed to the dash. It was strong.
Work Always Comes to You
Luciana Erregue-Sacchi
She, an Argentinian art historian, meets a Peruvian anthropologist at a Canadian cocktail party. Looking over the Edmonton skyline from the third-floor
Wake Up, Wake Up, The World’s On Fire
J S Khan
“Wake up, wake up, the world’s on fire!”: these are the first words I recall my mother saying, and the first words I recall being spoken by anyone—but especially and specifically to me.
Opening and Closing the Garage Door
Stefan Kiesbye
When he returned from his run, the garage door clicker was gone. Troy was panting next to him, his tongue fat and purple. Richard fished through his pockets, three
Why I Want to Fuck Donald Trump
L.I. Sargis
Numerous studies have been conducted on the erotic/authoritarian appeal of Donald Trump. An extensive corpus of tweets,
Shellhead and Beaky Get Burger King
Daniel Uncapher
Shellhead went back to the counter. They’d put pickles on his burger again and he’d really specifically told
Mismatched
Anu Kandikuppa
Srini had not wanted to hit the grocery store owner—he had done it only to make his wife Priya happy. She’d always been difficult to live with and was becoming more difficult every day,
A Cut
Fradl Shtok
Translated by Jordan Finkin and Allison Schachter
People are strolling in and out of the park, each and every one of them taking even strides, while May limps just a little.
Don’t Put Lee Flann On a Pedestal
Miguel Gardel
When I saw her for the first time, she was like the sun, all lit up and radiating beauty. But it was evening, so it was more like the moon, a glow, not sunshine, softly inviting me to come closer. And the smile.
The Fraud
Jesse Falzoi
A guy I met on a train to Madrid five years ago needed a place to stay for the night. He showed up at ten o’clock in the evening, as I was trying to watch a show a friend of mine had recommended to me. I was too tired, I’d been drifting