Fiction | JOYLAND PUBLISHING

Blunt Force

Lynn Steger Strong -

There had been a string of blunt force beatings in the neighborhood to which we’d just moved and though no one had died, though...

Lazarus Woman

Tega Oghenechovwen -

I The secret to letting your dead sister know you miss her is simple. Never let go of the grief. Look for her in strangers....

Pride Bound

Micah Stack -

I didn’t want to hit up any Pride events, but I agreed to the parade because that’s what Patrick wanted; he was so hype...

Birds of the Mountain

Iain Rowan -

It was one small moment, but that’s how everything like that always is. There was no reason for it to happen. The rock was...

First Light

Andrew Palmer -

The First Light Fishway sat just upriver of a hundred-foot-tall hydroelectric dam. It consisted of a small brick open-air shelter and an underground viewing...

Dark Social

Alex Webb Wilson -

I can’t say if it’s worth trying to track anything in our reality. I know every three winters we have these patterns where it...

Maintenance Requests

Ben Sandman -

Date: June 4 11:13amTo: Linda (Rockland Realty)Subject: Recycling binHi Linda, Good to bump into you coming back from The Comet (and sorry if I was...

Disembarking

Andrea Ruggirello -

This was the summer before 9/11. They still let cars on the Staten Island ferry back then. Forty-two at a time. It was my...

A Stomach Full of Clenched Fists

Timea Sipos -

I’m on the toilet again when I answer my mother’s call, urine dripping out of me like hot sauce from a long-neck bottle. She...

The Bartender’s Cure: An Excerpt

Wesley Straton -

The following is an excerpt from the novel The Bartender's Cure by Wesley Straton. The Bartender's Cure is available now from Flatiron Books. You’ve seen bars like this....