Featuring new stories by Lydia Conklin, Darby Jardeleza, Matthew Neill Null, Roger Reeves, Eric Schlich, Caroline Schmidt, Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, and Emma Törzs. Lydia Conklin, "Belong to the Night" A hangover was already running her down, her lungs full of fiberglass. En route to the subway, a rat skittered from under a bulkhead door down the sticky, empty street and into the neon light of a taco sign. The rat carried a mouse in its teeth. The mouse’s eyes were points of light straining … [Read more...] about Issue 75
Our Family Fortune-Teller
The sign in my window says “Card Reader.” It is small, fuzzy, and lit up in a shade of 1960s pawnshop neon that implies my lack of card-reading expertise as well as a dwindling interest in the so-called future of my business. Still, people knock on my door and come inside. And come back. And ask me for the kind of giveaway they receive at espresso drive-throughs: one free session for every ten. Nothing, it seems, is more trustworthy than irrelevance. Except to a landlord. Today, mine is … [Read more...] about Our Family Fortune-Teller
Down There
One summer night in 2030, in the garden of a nursing home, two old men began remembering. As a little boy I thought that dried apricots were ears, and I’d wonder who the unlucky soul was who’d had them chopped off. When I was forced to try one, picking it out from a Christmas arrangement of dates and candied fruit, I said to myself: “So this is what ears taste like.” I, on the other hand, believed in a magic powder that, if dissolved in water and drunk, would protect me from bad dreams—and … [Read more...] about Down There
I’ll Give You a Reason
I met Maria back in the fifth grade. She was this skinny girl whose mom would always pack her salami sandwiches for lunch. When I think of Maria today, I think of those slices of salami stuffed inside a hardened Kaiser roll. No lettuce, tomatoes, or cheese. Just belch-inducing salami. This was back when Mom would slap my stomach to remind me to suck it in. Back when she was buying me outfits two sizes too small and pinching the fat rolls spilling over my tight jeans. That year I was hungry … [Read more...] about I’ll Give You a Reason
The 2021 American Short(er) Fiction Prize Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners for this year's American Short(er) Fiction Prize, judged by Susan Steinberg. Thank you to everyone who submitted—it is always uplifting to read your work. Congratulations to the winners! _____ First-Place Prize: "My Beautiful Bearded Wife" by Eric Schlich Judge Susan Steinberg writes, “‘My Beautiful Bearded Wife’ is a wonderfully written piece on the often-gendered competitions, roles, and power dynamics in a marriage; the narrator’s fragilities and … [Read more...] about The 2021 American Short(er) Fiction Prize Winners
Ricky
Carla felt sure she was the only rich girl to ever work the counter at Glazy’s Ham Depot. Carla hadn’t always been rich. Before Ed, she and her mom had once lived in a minivan for a year, so Carla remembered the ins and outs of being a have-not. Plus, her name was Carla, which was—at most— middle class. Her mother had chosen Carla before she’d understood the power of Margaret or Paige. Because of this, Carla could hold her own at Glazy’s. She parked her black Saab behind the Kmart. She left her … [Read more...] about Ricky