Hannah Smart

Hannah Smart’s short stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, West Branch, The Boston Globe, SmokeLong Quarterly, Berkeley Fiction Review, and Cleaver, among other outlets. Her work has been shortlisted in The Masters Review Chapbook Open, nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and discussed in The New Yorker. She is the founder and editor in chief of experimental journal The Militant Grammarian. Her debut novel Meat Puppets is forthcoming from Apocalypse Confidential in May 2026. You can follow her on Twitter (@fowlinghantod), Instagram (@howlingfantod), and Substack (@howlingfantod).

City Limits by Hannah Smart

April 20, 2026 · Fiction

“They’re saying it hurt a lot.” “Well, yeah. Dying tends to do that.” “But this wasn’t, like, a typical death.” Four people sit at the table next to mine—two men and two women. One woman is blonde; the other is brunette. The guy talking has black hair gelled straight backwards. The diner loudspeakers blare some decade-old Taylor Swift tune. “Dumb Teenager Dies in Car Crash,” the blonde says, making flashing motions with her hands to signify BREAKING NEWS. “More at eight.” “Are we sure it was a car crash?”—the other guy. His face is that of someone who takes steroids…

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