Fiction

MEANWHILE

Sasha Fletcher -

Catherine comes home to her parents asking ‘How was school today?’ and Catherine she says ‘Today we discussed bears.’ ‘Bears?’ says her parents. ‘Bears’ says Catherine. ‘Why in...

If You, Too, Know the Words to “Super Bass”

Shannon McLeod -

The journalist, Rikesh, sat me beside my living room window. He said the lighting was perfect. I imagined the sunlight casting shadows along my...

Absentees

Kenny Kelly -

Already, the drunk optimism of December is gone. The wind sighs as if to say, I’ve already been as good as I’ll ever be. This...

Carriers

Derek Mascarenhas -

“Look at that one, he's got a big butt,” said my sister. “Ants don't have butts, Ally. It's called an abdomen.” “How can they not have...

Lucky Frank

Jenny Xie -

My parents, who had all day nursed an injured silence between them, united to teach me a lesson. I had lost my miniature koala bear,...

Kindling

Kerry Cullen -

I am collecting mothers. Mothers with loose blonde hair and glossy mouths, mothers with dark bobs and plum lipstick and freckles scattered across pale faces, mothers...

The Soft No

Kimberly King Parsons -

Days this hot belong to us. See us run both sides of this street, every lawn our lawn. We are sprinkler kids, shoeless and soaked...

Skywalker from Belgium

Jonathan Crowl -

Eight years later, Janne comes to America. She emails an old account: Is three weeks notice enough? I say I left Seattle, I’m back...

An Aesthetics of Rat Bites

Stacy Hardy -

Always, I am overcome by their beauty. My lungs tighten in my chest and the color of my blood brightens. I run my hands over...

Far Gone Conclusions

Hilary Leichter -

On the last night of the revolution someone somewhere was making soup, and for them, the people who ate the soup, that was the...