SpaghettiOs

The Longest Day of the Year

By Jeff Harvey

“After watching The Gong Show, my younger sister and I enjoyed popsicles made from cherry Kool-Aid that were frozen in a plastic tray Mom received for hosting a Stanley Products home party where she spent twelve dollars on snacks and didn’t make any sales.”

black and pink train

The Abbreviated Kafka

By Ryan Griffith

“Kafka is born. You can trace his origins back to smoke, the stillness of staircases, the pallid sleep of bloodless dreamers.”

Tehran skyline during an orange sunset

A fire of her own

By Pegah Ouji

“When Fatimah tugs at the peeling bark of a one-hundred-year-old eucalyptus tree, one jagged edge pierces her supple thumb, one drop of blood, red and round as Tehran’s setting sun streaking the sky red

person fishing on dock

Well Situated

By Angela Townsend

“I have not seen that man in a number of years. I wonder if he is still in the crawlspace of his bi-level, with the wind report in one hand and the edicts of AccuWeather in the other. All he wanted was a fair fight with the flukes of Barnegat Bay. You can fish in the rain.”

black upright piano next to a brown leather padded chair

My Father Singing

By Jeff Friedman

“Most evenings, my father sang in his chair in the living room, even though he often didn’t know the words to the songs he was singing. He’d hum the melody or sing nonsense syllables to replace the words.”

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The Abbreviated Kafka

The Abbreviated Kafka

By Ryan Griffith

“Kafka is born. You can trace his origins back to smoke, the stillness of staircases, the pallid sleep of bloodless dreamers.”

read more
A fire of her own

A fire of her own

By Pegah Ouji

“When Fatimah tugs at the peeling bark of a one-hundred-year-old eucalyptus tree, one jagged edge pierces her supple thumb, one drop of blood, red and round as Tehran’s setting sun streaking the sky red

read more
Well Situated

Well Situated

By Angela Townsend

“I have not seen that man in a number of years. I wonder if he is still in the crawlspace of his bi-level, with the wind report in one hand and the edicts of AccuWeather in the other. All he wanted was a fair fight with the flukes of Barnegat Bay. You can fish in the rain.”

read more
My Father Singing

My Father Singing

By Jeff Friedman

“Most evenings, my father sang in his chair in the living room, even though he often didn’t know the words to the songs he was singing. He’d hum the melody or sing nonsense syllables to replace the words.”

read more
English Teachers

English Teachers

By Sophia Carroll

“There was the one who always picked the same girl to be Juliet. He read for Romeo. Called her “statuesque.”

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White Cold Winter

White Cold Winter

By Willow Campbell

“In the stillness of my apartment, I boil water to watch something move. I like bubbles when they grow into noises I can notice like the ghost of someone’s laugh.”

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I Once Was a Witch

I Once Was a Witch

By Joanna Ruocco

“The broad-shouldered kombucha brewer holds a brain in a jar. His raincoat is boring. There is no one else in the coatroom. Beyond the coatroom, the potluck is raging. I hear a crack-crack-crack, the gluten-free table buckling under the weight of… what?”

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Husband, In My Dream

Husband, In My Dream

By Frances Gapper

“In my dream I sleepwalked downstairs and found you seated upright on the sofa, typing, typing. Couldn’t sleep, you said, because of the full moon’s horrible brightness.”

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Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero

By Todd Clay Stuart

“Kenzie thinks the sun is a hoax but has no problem believing her cat can tell when she’s pregnant.”

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Hotdogs

Hotdogs

By Hugh Behm-Steinberg

“We’re sitting beneath blankets on the upstairs porch, watching the river of tigers. In ones and twos they trickle, and then in columns they saunter. It’s purposeful, as more arrive, a parade strolling through our town.”

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Who By Fire

Who By Fire

By Laila Amado

“In this story, we don’t die by fire. We don’t wake in the middle of the night to the screeching of the warning sirens on the phones under our pillows.”

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Cool Moon

Cool Moon

By Katie Coleman

“I thought of stopping the car, taking a ladder to chip off a fat chunk of cool moon. You’d pass me a chisel and I’d break off a specimen.”

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City. Night. Bursting.

City. Night. Bursting.

By Tommy Dean

“Look, I know I shouldn’t be looking, but the city heat has me out on the streets, the dusty air pushed between buildings by gliding cars, windows open, soft music orchestrating their growling engines down the road, bumper to bumper, red lights sending messages to the twinkling skies, exhorting their ownership over the land.”

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Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes

By Kathryn Kulpa

“Summer. Night. Your hair smells of OFF! The flat pillow smells of OFF!, the damp sheets. Still they sneak in. The buzz. The whine. The slap. Gagging a little when you see the curl of black legs, the smear of blood.”

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If You Must Know

If You Must Know

By Barbara Diggs

“You saw your lil friends drown in a whirlpool of white, one by one, or sometimes one by two like when Tay-Tay got shot during a pickup and the bullet passed through his neck and hit Raymond in the shoulder as he was running away.”

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Things That Are Easy To Lose

Things That Are Easy To Lose

By Lisa Alexander Baron

“His questions and routines were now devoid of any impressions, substance, or the least bit of meaningful weight. His every word, every gesture—all too easy to ignore. Like a wet paper towel. A wrapper from a peppermint candy, minus the mint scent.”

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In the Dark

In the Dark

By Ali Mckenzie-Murdoch

“Their names in lights, bright as their burning bodies, in the 1800s, ballet dancers often went up in flames. Gauzy tutus brushed flickering lamps, a pirouette of torched limbs, and incandescent hair.”

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Bind yourself to us with your impossible voice, your voice! sole soother of this vile despair.

—Arthur Rimbaud, “Phrases

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