Fiction

Can’t Dance

Erica Peplin -

My mom took me to get a spray tan. She showed me how to step into the stall. She told me to close my eyes....

This Is Not from Outer Space

Becky Adnot-Haynes -

I’d had men want me before, but never someone like Luke. The meteor man, I called him jokingly in a text to Louise, my...

The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs

Leah Schnelbach -

Staying at Chloë’s house meant heat, the sister’s voice like a buzzsaw, her stepdad’s friends’ comments, roaches flying in the bathroom, yellow American grilled cheese. I...

A Dozen Stomachs

Tom Thor Buchanan -

1 A stomach is an organ in a moving body. It is pale pink in colour and shaped like a crooked knuckle. It is able...

Back Home in Ida County

Katie Young Foster -

Lara, anxious, unable to dream, rose from her bed at midnight. She stepped off the porch. The screen door clipped Marco’s breathing. The darkness around her was graded:...

The Wallaby

Corinne Manning -

My farmer neighbor asked me if I wanted to meet his wallaby. I’d just moved to the land adjacent his property and was working all...

The Fence

Richard Rosenbaum -

Congratulations to Richard Rosenbaum whose first collection of short stories, Things Don't Break, is now available from Tightrope Books. Joyland published a story from this collection...

Spying

Taylor Larsen -

With his notebook already open, Daniel scanned the yards in front of us for the most interesting thing to take note of. The air was...

At the Gates of the Kingdom

Stephen Tuttle -

The first door was taller than seemed necessary. It was eight feet, at least, but narrow. It was made of heavy, dark wood, and...

T-Rex

Susan Berman -

Veronica sits in the meager shade of a bush in the Van Nuys World War II Memorial Park. Her fellow contestants stand behind a portable...