Fiction | JOYLAND PUBLISHING

The Plains

Austyn Wohlers -

Every afternoon she put on a sour face and tried to ignore the groups of girls laughing across the street, the hot birds singing...

Excerpt from The Nature Book

Tom Comitta -

The below excerpt comes from Tom Comitta's novel, The Nature Book (forthcoming Coffee House Press on March 14), a “literary supercut” made entirely out...

Night Rabbits

Gracie Newman -

The petroleum truck honked at him again on the I-90. Impossible to say if the driver intended to be friendly or hostile. It had...

Palisades Parkway South

Cal Shook -

Her mother never showed for meets, so Helen was surprised when she heard her voice. During the relay. Cheering loudly from the stands. Helen...

Portrait of the Artist as a Boy Crouching

Elvis Bego -

I wake in the night and know they’re coming to get me. Something had slammed, door’s been crowbarred open, Sara asleep next to me,...

Nanohydroxyapatite

Jessica Poon -

The first time he sees her he’s thinking about another woman. She wears a crewneck sweatshirt that suggests she’s been to Harvard’s School of...

Enlightened

Robin Terrell -

I expected no one. The door buzzer startled me. No one knew I was here, except the women, and the friend who’d lent me...

Odds

Keri Bertino -

Naturally, when Lisa told me she was pregnant I wanted her to get tested, to find out our chances of producing a kid who'll...

Baba Smallpox

Eleanor Stern -

“There’s no way I’m letting Baba Smallpox get to you.” “But she isn’t gonna get me.” “Not if I’ve got anything to do with it.” I cracked...

Mr. Bananaman

Kyle Seibel -

“I’m looking for some friendly faces,” he says, popping the lid off his coffee and blowing on it. “Some students—former students, only the brightest...