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Michael Czyzniejewski

Monster

Michael Czyzniejewski
Monster

The last couple times I took my boys to the playground, there was this guy there. He looked harmless, nice even, a baseball cap, jeans, T-shirt. He could have been my age, maybe ten years older or ten years younger—his long, untended beard made it hard to guess. While my boys hit the slides, the swings, and the monkey bars, I’d sit, let them do their thing, on hand in case they fell or decided to wander off. The guy with the long beard, though, he was all in, rotating kids on the little … [Read more...] about Monster

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CURRENT ISSUE

American Short Fiction Issue 82

Featuring

New stories by Lydi Conklin, Annie Liontas, Kyle McCarthy, Carrie R. Moore, KJ Nakazawa-Kern, and Colleen Rosenfeld.

MFA for All Spring 2026: New classes from Jonathan Lethem and Katie Kitamura. Register now!

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