STORY OF THE WEEK

STORY OF THE WEEK

The Third Bird By Kaitlin Roberts

The Third Bird

By Kaitlin Roberts
What they needed was to be themselves. To be among their kind. I had tried to prove myself through sacrifice, but the real test was letting go.

POEM OF THE WEEK

POEM OF THE WEEK

The Arborist By Timothy Leo

The Arborist

By Timothy Leo
Some say there’s a skeleton out here somewhere, a symbol of cleanliness, spread ashes, a cherry tree there is a drop cloth, tyvek.

FINAL 2 WEEKS TO ENTER

FINAL 2 WEEKS TO ENTER

FINAL 2 WEEKS TO ENTER
Deadline: Fri., June 26, at 11:59 p.m., PST.

Open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts.

Please see the Guidelines.

FICTION

FICTION

Shards By Vivian Carmichael

Shards

By Vivian Carmichael
In the past four months he’s yelled, called us names, slammed doors, and thrown things at walls, but this, us being here like this, is a shock.

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

Private Planet By Dina Kleiner

Private Planet

By Dina Kleiner
Picturing herself in the future was a comfort because it was a confirmation. She believed any confirmation at all, desirable or undesirable, was favorable over the unknown.

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

Regional Hospitals By Alice Ryan

Regional Hospitals

By Alice Ryan
She has no recollection of any restaurant, but she knows how important it is to her father that his old life connects to his new life, so she nods into the pitch-black of the car park of the regional hospital.

STORY CONTEST WINNERS

The Day of the Dog By Maria Giesbrecht

The Day of the Dog

By Maria Giesbrecht
Working. That has been our entire world for the two months that we and other Mennonite families have come from Mexico to work in Canada. “Good, honest, godly work,” Father says. “We’ll be blessed.”

FICTION

CLASSIC

FICTION

FICTION

Boulder City By T. C. Boyle

Boulder City

By T. C. Boyle
Four words—Your mother passed away—coming at him from the realm of anonymity, the lips of a stranger speaking through the inert slab of a phone hundreds of miles away.

CLASSIC

CLASSIC

The Weary Blues By Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues

By Langston Hughes
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Portrait of a Child with Fruit and Rot By Aldo Amparán

Portrait of a Child with Fruit and Rot

By Aldo Amparán
Night—a cricket’s metronome. His breath rasps the air with grit. She arches her back for support. Her muscles: fists. But the man who will never be your father unfolds her.

POETRY

POETRY

Deer House By Sarah Bates

Deer House

By Sarah Bates
Like any good Girl Scout, I keep having the same dream where the troop meeting was canceled, the buses came early. I can hear my mother on the phone screaming at the thought of it.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life By James Ciano

The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life

By James Ciano
The angel was draped as if cast in stone the moment at which grief began its sudden and exact ossification of the body.

POETRY

POETRY

This Wednesday By Katie Condon

This Wednesday

By Katie Condon
Where is the door that will take us to the inner world, the one where memory lives unburdened by our ability to recall it? It’s easy to take stock of this place, this Wednesday in a library.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

His Last Days By Dan Gerber

His Last Days

By Dan Gerber
He saw each bird as a kind of feeling he’d known, imagining its movements as his own. Thrill of cool water finding its way between feathers and let himself become feathers.

POETRY

POETRY

Wood Ducks Again By Sydney Lea

Wood Ducks Again

By Sydney Lea
They come to our pond every April. No need to tell me it makes no sense for me to feel mild rage at their obstinacy. I turn from my desk and they’re here. The drakes will battle until one prevails.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Monologue of a Ghost By David Mason

Monologue of a Ghost

By David Mason
I stood in laced boots. My foot felt strong. I had that feeling of being young again, immortal, wearing a magic war shirt.

POETRY

POETRY

Eve on Her Making By Ivana Mestrovic

Eve on Her Making

By Ivana Mestrovic
What did Adam think when he awoke and saw a bloody clump fresh from taking? Did he recoil or recognize the flesh as his?

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

My Daughter’s Daughter Is Sad By Luisa Muradyan

My Daughter’s Daughter Is Sad

By Luisa Muradyan
My mother’s mother had to keep her mother on the tenth floor of our Soviet apartment building. There was no elevator and no way for her to get outside during the day.

POETRY

POETRY

That Spring By Lo Naylor

That Spring

By Lo Naylor
spring came all the same. announced itself like a woodpecker on bark. my heart barked in my chest. each morning, I didn’t dare go back to sleep—couldn’t bear to wake twice.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

A Posteriori By Ananya Kanai Shah

A Posteriori

By Ananya Kanai Shah
Now the years recant in a clean, even stroke. In the annex of the mind, a chair. From it I watch the city swirl into renaissance, toad-like cars chasing their own vapor.

POETRY

POETRY

The Legend of Zelda By Brian Tierney

The Legend of Zelda

By Brian Tierney
All we wanna do is play Nintendo till it’s dark out and can’t, the grid’s still down. Blackout to last another day and the heat for three and the Phils are blowing a wildcard chance, WHYY reports.

GRAPHIC STORY

GRAPHIC STORY

GRAPHIC STORY

My Father By Shannon Wheeler

My Father

By Shannon Wheeler
In 1967 he adopted an Open Land Policy: anyone who wanted could come and live for free.

LEARN!

FEATURES

LEARN!

LEARN!

Letters to a Young Writer By Richard Bausch

Letters to a Young Writer

By Richard Bausch
You can make your own way in the world, and in your own life make sure you never utter one epithet that takes away another human being’s dignity.

FEATURES

FEATURES

Best Advice By Kirstin Valdez Quade

Best Advice

By Kirstin Valdez Quade
The fiction writer must merge with the character on the page and see things clearly though the character’s eyes.