Jen Julian

Jen Julian’s recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Milk Candy Review, Okay Donkey, SmokeLong Quarterly, Jellyfish Review, and JuxtaProse, among other places. Her debut short story collection, Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses, was winner of Press 53’s 2018 Fiction Prize. Currently, she teaches creative writing at Young Harris College and lives with a very fluffy ginger cat in the Georgia Appalachians. You can find her at jenjulian.com or @jennicjul.

SEVEN IS A HOLY NUMBER by Jen Julian

And yes, that is how many children she has, and I’m talking of course about Mrs. Goth, who every year selects one of her children to be her favorite in a ceremony she performs for us: a blessed clique of friends and neighbors. She lines the children up on the lawn in white folding chairs, and we like to watch their faces brighten with tension, their shoulders rigid, and we like the springy carnal heat of late June, which makes us feel pagan. Mrs. Goth is not intentionally pagan. The truth is, she schedules the ceremony while her husband is…

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