Chris Leslie-Hynan, “Black Sugar” “It wasn’t until almost the end that she knew she would be a song. All through the summer she was nearly certain their life together would prove too dull to write about. His music was such a constant procession of ménages à trois in club bathrooms, of course he would turn out to be a homebody. And yet it could have really been like that, hour after hour of fashion wear and fellatio—she thought him the only man in America about whom the revelation of a … [Read more...] about ISSUE 60
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Issue 71
ISSUE 71 Featuring new stories by Brandon Hobson, Melinda Moustakis, Patrick Nathan, Tracey Rose Peyton, Anne Valente, and Rachel Vogel. Subscribe now to receive the Summer issue. Tracey Rose Peyton, “The Last Days of Rodney” He was known most everywhere—a face, a caption, a grainy video clip—but it had been over twenty years now, and he was still trying to forge a new chapter unconnected to the first. Wishful thinking, he knew. It would always be connected. No one would ever bring up his … [Read more...] about Issue 71
ISSUE 62
Porochista Khakpour, “Kingdoms” “Years after it happened, her rapist was trying to get in contact with her. In the same week her dog arrived. Lucy called the local Greyhound Rescue chapter months before. She had filled out an application promising that she would be able to walk it at least three times a day, that she would never let it off a leash, that she would feed it regularly, that she would return it immediately should she no longer be able to act as a capable owner. She had had a … [Read more...] about ISSUE 62
ISSUE 63 – Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Issue
Bret Anthony Johnston, “Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses” “His daughter’s first horse came from a traveling carnival where children rode him in miserable clockwise circles. He was swaybacked with a patchy coat and split hooves, but Tammy fell for him on the spot, and Atlee made a cash deal with the carnie. A lifetime ago, just outside Robstown, Texas. Atlee managed the stables west of town; Laurel, his wife, taught lessons there. He hadn’t brought the trailer—buying a pony hadn’t … [Read more...] about ISSUE 63 – Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Issue
ISSUE 64 – The Novella Issue
Max Ross, “Nobody Remains in the Garden” “No, it wasn’t raining yet. But the clouds were coming in, and Mark Ross, convinced that rainfall contributed to his baldness (he’d read about this in one of the three newspapers he subscribed to), popped open his umbrella. As they walked around the lake, his and his wife’s shoulders touched beneath its dark green canopy, which fluttered slightly, like a wing, in the pre-drizzle breeze. There wasn’t much hair left to protect—a sparse brown-gray … [Read more...] about ISSUE 64 – The Novella Issue
ISSUE 65 – The Emerging Writers Issue
Emma Copley Eisenberg, “Ray’s Birthday Bar” “At Ray’s Birthday Bar, we specialize in birthdays. A free shot if you can show me a driver’s license that proves it’s your day, two free ones if the address on said license is South Philadelphia, and if you’re a lifer with ten years of loyal patronage, the number’s three, and Ray will turn on the disco ball. I read somewhere that you have to get twenty-three people in the same room before there is a fifty percent chance that two of them will have … [Read more...] about ISSUE 65 – The Emerging Writers Issue