Fiction

C’est la guerre

Danniel Schoonebeek -

Excerpted from Danniel Schoonebeek's second book, C'est la guerre, which will be published this fall by Poor Claudia. Brooklyn, NY • October 2 The question is...

This is Stability

Anabel Graff -

I pick up the phone to call Peter because I don’t want to talk to anyone else. Because James has just left, this time...

Black Forest

Valérie Mréjen (translation by Katie Assef) -

Excerpted from Forêt noire (Black Forest), published in France in 2012 by Éditions P.O.L. * The seven-and-a-half-year-old girl (and she is more than a little...

Olympic

Keith Wagstaff -

We woke each other in the night. We lit stolen cigarettes in strange places. We lied. We sent each other notes signed with lines...

We Want Impossible Things

Jess Taylor -

I had a hard time falling asleep because I knew I couldn’t possibly be pregnant with his baby. And yet I was four days...

Examination Room

John Thornton Williams -

Rebecca was in the examination room with her father when Dr. Marshall told Walter his obesity was finally going to kill him, and soon....

The Nudists

Anna Prushinskaya -

Shelly Bowman had to save her mother from the nudists. One summer day Shelly’s father informed her that Margery Bowman, who previously had been best...

Norse Gods, Venice Beach

C.E. Hyun -

Once I was a god, and I had many brothers. Thor, god of thunder and protector of humankind; Vidar, god of silence and revenge;...

Buddy

Daniel Lanza Rivers -

NuBot arrived on a Monday. A custom model designed by a specialist out in Appalachia, she had Bluetooth connectivity, a soft nest of auburn...

Franny

Cynthia Arrieu-King -

I’m stuck Googling Franny’s name every six months on my hometown newspaper’s obituaries site, checking to see if she’s died yet. I haven’t returned...