Archives

CHEST by Oliver Land

March 19, 2026

At the work Christmas party I sat with the junior staff, who were all shy and awkward. I made small talk about indie music with the shyest one, then talked to another about video games. One of the senior waitresses, there with her ex-boyfriend, was flirty with me. She wanted me to stay all night, then go home with her. She laughed too hard at my jokes. Every now and then, as she spoke to me, her live-in ex glanced at us. She pretended not to notice. Back at her table, she messaged me, suggesting we leave the party and

GRAND NATIONAL by Mitch Russell

March 18, 2026

For training, they make you sit in this grey room with a bunch of computers on a grey table. Your boss tells you she’s thrilled to have you on board but she doesn’t exactly sound thrilled. She sounds a little high strung, which is understandable, what with all the security checkpoints and facial recognition scanners and armed guards stomping up and down the corridors, back and forth, back and forth. You’d be stressed too! “This is just a little orientation presentation,” Pam tells you. “This explains all the, um, great things we do here!” A dome camera blinks in the

THE HUMANE ZOO AND HOLIDAY HOME by Pia Koh

March 13, 2026

When the guests are sitting around the table Lucien’s mom asks Lucien “Do you ever think about your dad?” If the guests weren’t there Lucien would glare bitterly at his mom then turn back to peeling the egg. But when guests are over and Lucien’s mom asks him something like this, he’s obliged to make a thoughtful expression. He says “Sometimes,” as if he’s never considered how much he thinks about his dead dad and this consideration is in itself somehow valuable. Lucien’s mother when they’re in the presence of guests and eating boiled eggs as an appetizer, chopped celery

HIS FATHER’S FATHER by Joshua D. Graber

March 12, 2026

After Lydia Davis 1. Every time his father spoke, he had questions. Primarily, which parts of the stories were true and which were false? A narrative based on a true story is a wonderful promise for people who believe in Jesus or Tom Hanks, but he was less interested in this muddled middle ground. He wanted verifiable truth or delicious lies, and to know the difference. There is infinite combinatorial explosion when multiple people tell a story and infinite doubt when only one person does. Like, for instance, the story of his father’s father walking into a bar where

DAVID SIMMONS RECOMMENDS: THREE BOOKS

March 11, 2026

The Winnowing Draw by Michael Tichy (Castaigne Publishing, 2024) “Keeping a fire alive is an act of vigilance. The darkness merely awaits.” The Winnowing Draw is like Bone Tomahawk meets The Neverending Story, with beautiful language that really immerses you in the time period. We are in 1880 where a poor teenager named Cecil is on the run after accidentally (or not so accidentally?) murdering his best friend, another boy, but from a privileged and prestigious background. Meanwhile, a colonel, his kidnapped two-spirit guide, and his band of ragtag soldiers are on a hunt for American monsters. The wild

NOTHING CAN BE DONE by Pham Thu Trang

March 10, 2026

The singing starts before dawn. Four or five in the morning, when the alley is still dark and narrow and holding its breath. The houses face each other across a strip of concrete barely wide enough for two motorbikes to pass without touching. Sound has nowhere to go here. It hits walls and comes back. She throws her doors open and sings. She is about twenty, maybe. I know she has a neurological condition—people say it quietly, with the tone that means explanation and permission at the same time. We have spoken before, in small ways—offering snacks, simple questions, asking

LEVS FIRST WORD WAS… by Angel T. Dionne

March 8, 2026

A FISH STORY: PART FOUR by Michael Seymour Blake

March 2, 2026

ELEPHANT EYES by Kristopher Monroe

February 25, 2026

When I was in fourth grade my mother disappeared and I never saw her again. At first my father wasn’t sure what to tell me but he realized that the truth was better than obfuscation so he told me she was admitted to a sanitarium which I didn’t understand so then he explained she was simply sick and resting which I definitely did understand. For as long as I could remember my mother was sick in a certain way. She’d be doing dishes or loading laundry or scrubbing the tub and suddenly become overwhelmed with sadness and break down weeping

Things I Hate A Little Bit Less Than Others By Travis Jeppesen (author For Those Who Hate a Little Bit of Everything)

February 24, 2026

The stories of Diane Williams After finishing a thousand page novel a few years ago (Settlers Landing, ITNA Press, 2023), as a way of “recovery” I started writing these very short stories, many of which are gathered in this latest book. Diane Williams has built an entire career out of writing such miniatures – I hate the term “flash fiction”; one is almost tempted to call them “fragments,” only they’re not. Williams’s stories, along with Kafka’s parables, might look like fragments; in fact, they are wholes. (When we speak of fragmentation as form, we’re really talking about texture.) Equal,