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TO THE MANAGER OF THE RESTAURANT WHO WAS SO DISAPPOINTED IN ME FOR STEALING HER PULLED PORK by Benjamin K. Drevlow Jul 9, 2025 Fiction To the manager of the restaurant who said she was so disappointed in me for stealing 25 dollars’ worth of pulled pork sandwich and loaded mac and MY COUSIN DIED AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHIRT by John Crawford Jul 8, 2025 Fiction Richie wears his dress and runs the fashion show for the boys over here and he stands tall on the chair and looks pretty and we want him to wear APPOINTMENT WITH SCOTCH by Avee Chaudhuri Jul 2, 2025 Fiction I decided it was time for ZH to grow up. He had been spending all his time at Sea World, promenading from one attraction to the next covered head to RIGHT, JUST A REGULAR HEAD BUT A TINY MOUTH LIKE ONLY A STRAW COULD FIT by Dan Weaver Jun 27, 2025 Fiction That’s how I would describe it. Only a straw. I would describe the mouth as just super tiny. Like a pea. There was a regular jawline but I think WOLVES by John Biron Jun 26, 2025 Fiction The clouds hawk rain and drum up distant thunder rolling as if they was alive but even more than that, a singular superbeing and coughing and PARADISE COVE GOLF COURSE by Tex Gresham and KKUURRTT Jun 25, 2025 Fiction Darren went shopping for golf clubs because his old ones broke. And by broke I mean he snapped all of them in half on his knee and threw them into BOMBS??? by Matthew Washington Jun 20, 2025 Fiction I own around a thousand bombs. I keep them stored in the basement of my home like any other responsible and intelligent individual would have them. THE KNIGHT OF HIDDEN INWARDNESS by Jon Doughboy Jun 17, 2025 Fiction My uncle was describing in graphic and inappropriate detail how he “titty-fucked” this real estate agent on their first date last week. Graphic I'M ON THE FENCE ABOUT SAM THE 10-FOOT RAT by Arik M. Jun 13, 2025 Fiction Maybe I do come to a decision though. Because the other night I put the Xbox on pause like I have to pee and I go to the kitchen drawer and pull out OCTAHEDRON — (R)EVOLUTION by Arundhati Charan Jun 10, 2025 Fiction & Criticism A cubist explication of Nathalie Sarraute's 1972 novel DO YOU HEAR THEM THUMPER by Avery Gregurich Jun 6, 2025 Fiction I ran over a Bible with my car. It was early in the morning, out on the county highway, somewhere between the tractor plant and the boarded up THE CODE by David Luntz Jun 3, 2025 Fiction In 1949, the President overheard a story about the movie director Fritz Lang in which Fritz Lang had broken into the Berlin Zoo in 1930 and had let THE HOUSE OF THE CUBIST MISERABILISTS by Addison Zeller May 30, 2025 Fiction She is still on the stairs. With no light at the top of the stairs switched on and the light at the bottom switched off, we see her only when the PLASTIC BUTTONS by Luca Demetriadi May 27, 2025 Fiction Patch has a beer in the smokers. The pokies are through the glass doors. A little thing with dusty blonde hair escapes the restaurant area and gazes THE BLACK HOLE by Steve Gergley May 21, 2025 Fiction There is a coffee shop in town where everything is coated in black paint. The walls, the floor, the chairs, the mugs. The only thing that stands out Two Stories by Dizzy Turek May 16, 2025 Fiction I MADE THE POSTER FOR MY PLAY WHICH I WROTE, DIRECTED, AND ACTED IN + YOU SHOULD COME SEE MY PLAY WHICH IS RUNNING THE NEXT THREE WEEKENDS IN MAY WHEN HE CROAKS by Z.H. Gill May 12, 2025 Fiction When he passes (croaks, expires, kicks bucket), Papa is to leave me a substantial sum of money (the amount, I know not); only then shall I become an ON THE NATURE OF VISION by David Luntz May 9, 2025 Fiction Before I lost my right eye in a ditch by the rail tracks, I heard some pigs lament their squandered destiny. I laughed. “How the fuck do you THE OTHER CHILDREN'S TOYS by Andrew Boylan May 7, 2025 Fiction A strange, smiling kid on the floor with a mouth full of crooked teeth doesn’t say anything. By the look on his face, he definitely wanted you to YOU CAN UNDERSTAND YOUR STRINGS BUT NEVER SEVER THEM by Alex Rost May 5, 2025 Fiction They called his death a passive suicide, which I guess just meant he regularly shot enough heroin to kill him or whatever. “There are rumors that I STARVE by Kevin Richard White May 2, 2025 Fiction I’ve taken my teeth — these fully yellowed cavitied teeth — clean through this meat while you complain about your responsibilities. I’m listening to GHOSTS OVER OPEN WATER by Eric Subpar Apr 30, 2025 Fiction ​Maricopa City Deputy James Archuleta desirous of experience and a scientist of the human soul stood at a payphone on the corner of Philomena and SOMETHING BIG by Sheldon Birnie Apr 28, 2025 Fiction It was a bullshit assignment, mostly gladhanding a pair of accounts that we had next to no chance in keeping anyhow. That ship had sailed. But it NOTICE ME, SENPAI (GOD) by J. Robert Andrews Apr 17, 2025 Fiction The first time I used hallucinogens was with Bobby Baloney. Bobby and I met in college. I mentioned to our whole Intro to Silly Nonsense lab how the THE MAKING OF KUBRICK'S 2001, BY JEROME AGEL by Sarp Sozdinler Apr 16, 2025 Fiction Dear loyal members of r/thekubricksociety, If I may…I’ve been RACKING my brain for a good while to find this SPECIFIC image of the master. And I LAST DITCH EFFORT by Grant Wamack Apr 10, 2025 Fiction You stole the ostrich leather wallet for your boyfriend, hoping the last-ditch effort would improve your relationship and prove the depth of your PRISON by Steve Gergley Apr 9, 2025 Fiction I had become exhausted by the excruciating and banal conversations I was forced to suffer through each day in communication with my milquetoast REMEMBERING BIRTH by Caleb Bethea Apr 4, 2025 Fiction His hand’s just below the water surface, leaned over the artificial rocks, reaching for one of the stingrays. The noise of the aquarium leans THE GENIUS IN LETTING IT FALL by Ryan Bender-Murphy Apr 3, 2025 Fiction There was a time in my life when I knocked over the sandwich boards outside of all the businesses in my neighborhood. I had seen one go down on a MISSED CONNECTION by Will Ballard Mar 26, 2025 Fiction One night Gurkan came back to the caves with a sled full of mysterious goods — cooked grains and meat in silver packets, boots made of a material no NO INVENTES by Julián Martinez Mar 21, 2025 Fiction My father, I’m told, was an engineer at a nuclear power plant. One night, my pregnant mother came home from the hotel, fingernails blue with REVIEW: MASSIVE by John Trefry Mar 20, 2025 Fiction & Criticism Lucas Mancini takes on Trefry's impossible doorstopper of a novel HENRY MILLER EATS AN ORANGE by Dani Shoemaker Mar 14, 2025 Fiction Henry Miller is going to eat an orange. He is going to prove that it is his orange and that everyone who has said otherwise is wrong because it is JEFF SAYS by Daniel Miller Mar 7, 2025 Fiction Jeff says this knife is his favorite, his everyday carry. When he flicks it, the loose, chipped blade snaps open. Jeff says he has more knives at BOOK REVIEW - EPISODE 3328: IAN SHARP by Steve Gergley Feb 13, 2025 Fiction & Criticism Z.H. Gill takes on the SCAFFOLD editor's newest novel SOCK by Jonathan Tuttle Feb 12, 2025 Fiction They gather at the center of an intersection. There is a little light in the sky now. One of them raises his shoulders and exhales into the collar BETTER GIT IT IN YOUR SOUL by John Crawford Feb 10, 2025 Fiction A night on the town in Baltimore with a young punk on the run I HAVE THIS RECURRING SEX DREAM WHERE I'M A PORNSTAR FIFTY YEARS INTO THE FUTURE by R.C.H. Jan 30, 2025 Fiction After a certain age there are particular roles I never get offers for. Roles like Slutty Student. Or Dirty Babysitter. Instead I get picked for Hot CAVIAR DREAMS by Daniella Nichinson Jan 29, 2025 Fiction Smoked fish and whole fish and fileted fish and unborn fish line the levels behind the glass display. Vermilion and charcoal, bulging, oily eyes. COPS ON VACATION by dave k Jan 22, 2025 Fiction #1 St. Augustine, FL - Seen walking unsteadily from the hotel in direct violation of the open container laws he’d enforce in his own jurisdiction. TWO FIELD GOALS AND ONE EXTRA POINT by Steve Gergley Jan 17, 2025 Fiction A big guy wearing a green hoodie stabbed me in the stomach just outside my apartment building today. I was listening to the most recent See You Next CALAMARI by Remington Lamons Jan 13, 2025 Fiction I watched the pale squid thrash in the snow. It would thrash, then rest with this awful breathing motion. Then it would thrash again, though a bit Two stories by Sean Ennis Dec 19, 2024 Fiction SUFFRAGE & CRAZY OF THE DARK TILT by Tom Preston Dec 6, 2024 Fiction The cliff rises. Kissed by oily waves. It is a stain on the seamless horizon. Glimmering, gnarled canvas. At the bottom the water laps, and CHEESE DAZE by Alex McNicoll Nov 18, 2024 Fiction The office is crisp, like the kind you’d find in a commercial for a national coffee chain or an ulcerative colitis medication. You’ve seen it THE SNAKE by AW Donnelly Nov 15, 2024 Fiction The man knew, quite certainly, that there was a snake living within the burrow of his body. He had known this for some time and made peace with it. THE HUMAN TUMBLEWEED by Jon Doughboy Nov 1, 2024 Fiction The Human Tumbleweed grew bored and bumped and bounced his fat roly-poly ass right out of the circus, zipping out of his tent under the ringmaster’s TEXARKANABAMA'S REVENGE by Mike Itaya Oct 17, 2024 Fiction Last Wednesday, Ms. Wanda had soured on me inside our love lair, Room 122 of the Lewd Dude Motel. In a pique of passion, Ms. Wanda hopped off our WOOD by Georgia-May Stone Oct 10, 2024 Fiction To: [email protected] From: [email protected] 22 July 2024 at 14:34 Hey girl heyyyy! I hope you’re having the BEST time in Costa Rica. FOR THE LOVE OF THE MASK by Michael Zunenshine Oct 4, 2024 Fiction I was content, hibernating in my apartment after a breakup I didn’t see coming and wasn’t ready for, streaming B-horror flicks on Tubi and HALF TIME by Dan Williams Sep 26, 2024 Fiction You see it’s all about strategy, strategy! Long, short, tall, thin, wide, fat, spiked, smooth, ridged, ballooned - it’s strategy. Strategy, JAKE DEPREE AND THE CASTLE OF WORMS by Andrew Buckner Sep 25, 2024 Fiction The chateau de vers, or the Castle of Worms, sat on a mountain of bodies and bones eaten by the title invertebrates in La Mort Valley, Paris, BABY BROTHER DEAD by Nadim Silverman Sep 19, 2024 Fiction Jerry died and everyone started coming to me, asking what designs I had for revenge. Poor boy was found with his eyes taken out of his head, his HUNTING by Miller Ganovsky Sep 18, 2024 Fiction Patience had a chipped tooth from when he was a child and shot a rabbit. The recoil fattened, bloodied his lips. Belle kissed them lightly when she MY SISTER WAS TELLING ME THAT OUR FATHER HAS CANCER NOW by David Gladfelter Aug 30, 2024 Fiction My father considered himself a pagan christian. A wiccan of some kind. Adjacent to a wizard or a shaman. I was eleven and my stepmom nineteen when MOON MAGGOT by Courtenay Schembri Gray Aug 28, 2024 Fiction The wood panels flap like meat falling from the bone. Momma shivers in the corner, rocking back and forth, reciting bible verses. Sis’ and I play PARADE by Sydney Maguire Aug 22, 2024 Fiction The first m&m hit the back of my eye, I saw green and fructose. Everything was sweet, including the pain. My little sister grabbed them by the MANIC PIXIE DREAM HELLBENDER by Emily Baber Aug 21, 2024 Fiction “She’s hot but she’s fucking crazy,” one said to the next, a refrain so common he digested it like soup let out too far. He winced down the rest of MY BACKYARD, IN THE FLESH by Alan Keith Parker Aug 13, 2024 Fiction The flesh crept in about a year before my diagnosis. At first it was just a mound of muscle tendons on the other side of a fallen silver maple that 2:49 THEME AND VARIATION by Audrey Coble Aug 6, 2024 Fiction In October, in the Fairbanks dark, a person can get lost. When I’m shaken awake by the racing of my own heart it’s 2:49 AM and everything is still REEK by Rayna Perry Jul 11, 2024 Fiction The man behind the convenience store counter took all of fifteen seconds to find and scan the barcode on Stevie’s bottle of Mello Yello, waving it FIVE FRAGMENTS by Tim Frank Jul 10, 2024 Fiction #1 Say farewell in a coffin of law. Reluctance to comply will lead to a wiretap crash, swooping like a dream in a blender. #2 Trust no one but the THE OGRE OF CASCADING ACRES by Danny Anderson Jun 27, 2024 Fiction On the side of a mountain, at the southern edge of town, we built a shopping plaza, knowing damn well that an ogre lived in those hills. If, years AN UNSPOOLING OF GLASS SELVAGE by Daniel Dykiel Jun 26, 2024 Fiction In deep dreams sink the crater-lake that doesn’t drown. The us that sinks is Gregor Valentine. He falls cylindrically, space darker than space. He 13 ANGELS BEAT YOUR ASS TILL YOUR ASS STARTS TO LOOK LIKE A FLOPPY SACK by Tyler Dempsey Jun 18, 2024 Fiction The angel reaches in my coat in a crack between the buttons of my shirt into a scab I haven’t stopped picking into the interveinal meat separating TO MAKE OF THEE A NAME by Andrew Buckner Jun 13, 2024 Fiction “Andrew Buckner is a hack,” the voice of one bee exploded in my brain. “He has to be the most overrated writer, if you can even call him that, of all time.” "Gatorbear" by John Biron Jun 7, 2024 Fiction Him was laid up behind the shed in a big white box diamond shaped too bright to blinding when the sun hits on it just so barely fitting him in "Bob's on Fire" by Alex Tronson May 23, 2024 Fiction I went out to Bob’s house in the suburbs to see the damage. His house was impressive. A big lawn. A two-car garage. But the front picture window was "A Sadness that Sings" by David Hay May 20, 2024 Fiction The spectral light that haunts train station walls, sings with such a bony sadness that a heart too accustomed to grief can barely withstand its "The City" by Ryan Bender-Murphy May 17, 2024 Fiction The highway was full that day — you could see a line of cars stretching for miles in both of its lanes — but because everyone was driving at the "The Depth of the Abrasion" by David C. Porter May 15, 2024 Fiction Soft clunk of the emergency brake engaged and the car jerks to a halt, it’s on the damp grass by the edge of the lake, deep green and not recently Beyond Periphery by Ada Pelonia May 8, 2024 Fiction Blood pools in the sink, and Brie flumps onto the tiled floor. Her whimpers echo around the large bathroom, bereft of joy and dancing footsteps that “Barricade” by Will Marsh Apr 25, 2024 Fiction This morning, God shows up at my parents’ house, and before I can even open the front door, he’s rattling off instructions: “We cut strips from an "Deconsecrators" by Terence Hannum Apr 5, 2024 Fiction a story from Hannum's collection Our Dead Age, a companion piece to Locrian's new album End Terrain. "Pottery Fragment, early 21st century" by Jennifer Stark Apr 4, 2024 Fiction You kill the ignition and pull on your waders, crunch the stones along the foreshore of the river. We see you looking. We see you with your hands on "Octopus Facts" by Chris Heavener Apr 3, 2024 Fiction Best practice is to tell a new recruit about the octopuses when his first assignment is already underway, the shoreline shrinking into the horizon. "The Executive Pool" by Steve Gergley Mar 29, 2024 Fiction There is an Olympic-size swimming pool in the shape of a silver dollar located on the roof of Lenny’s Manhattan office building. During lunch, "Gigantopedia" by Alexander Gradus Mar 27, 2024 Fiction Before I was born I was a minuscule thing. I remember it as plants remember the soil. I heard the world as thrums in the earth. It was still a hum "Rows of Jaw Bones and Worn Down Teeth" by C. Morgenrede Mar 21, 2024 Fiction years ago today, in the past, seven orange cones set on top of a wet tarp for a burial ceremony, a fog rolls in, rocks tumble, things become blurry, from "Founders' Day" by Arzhang Zafar Mar 20, 2024 Fiction an excerpt from Arzhang Zafar's story "Founders' Day," available now as BRUISER Zine 003 "Nothing to See Here" by Bernard Reed Mar 14, 2024 Fiction It was a glorious July day. The sun was right overhead the swimming pool. On the diving board a shrimpy little boy stood with his back bent, Two stories by Robert John Miller Mar 11, 2024 Fiction "Tips for Avoiding a Call from the Office of Risk Management as it relates to Ladder Safety" & "Real True-Life Rejections I Continue to Suffer" "March Madness" by Parker Wilson Mar 1, 2024 Fiction They stand below the rim in a group and reach their fingertips to bump the ball toward the rim or away from it, toward another rim. Gispelli "At Hirschmann Hospital" by Jan E. Stanek Feb 29, 2024 Fiction At the twice-daily service in the chapel, he always sat next to Frederick Dewitt because neither of them would kneel: he because the chapel was in "Greetings from the Milky Way" by Bethany Cutkomp Feb 23, 2024 Fiction Here’s what I know: subtle truths of the universe are not meant to be viewed with the sober eye. Only those inebriated enough are fortunate to "Hilarity" by Kyle E. Miller Feb 8, 2024 Fiction We were searching for the treasure chest / reliquary / suitcase / computer / man or woman / dragon / temple they called God’s Voicebox, rumored to "Beyond the Iron Gate is a Garden" by David Hay Feb 7, 2024 Fiction A crow’s song (if ears can fly to hear it) sinks beneath an endless rain of grey light. The bird, big balled and far too proud of itself, lands, "Seaside Condoes of the Minneola Coast" by Travis Dahlke Feb 2, 2024 Fiction While I’m carving a dick-sized hole out from the pizza box, Joan Heart closes her eyes and says the condo has weird energy. I’m not going back in Your Descent into Violent Candy Feb 2, 2024 Fiction & Criticism Alex Youngman reviews Tex Gresham's 2023 story collection "The Big Light" by Joshua Vigil Jan 25, 2024 Fiction When Phillip and Althea reached the front of the food pantry line, they were again talking about the bright lights they’d seen roving over the "Canine" by Rhys Jan 12, 2024 Fiction canine /ˈkeɪnʌɪn,ˈkanʌɪn/ adjective adjective: canine relating to or resembling a dog or dogs. “canine behavioural problems” ZOOLOGY relating to "Household Spelunker" by Abbie Doll Jan 11, 2024 Fiction Okay, yes, I admit it. I did a dive into the dog’s water dish. Don’t ask me why, I don’t have to tell you. Fine, look, always wanted to try it out, "Virtuoso" by Sean Kilpatrick & Christopher Parks Dec 8, 2023 Fiction after Clifford D. Simak This obstreperous philharmonic effrontery derogating an audience, this persiflage trained between wines — each and every "Otherwise" by Robert Stone Dec 7, 2023 Fiction A bead of moisture struggles stubbornly down the pane of hot glass. Its progress, if it is correct to think of progress in this regard, is inhibited "Our Last Day With Orange" by Shauna Friesen Dec 6, 2023 Fiction Tomorrow the god is shutting off orange. We have already lost red on account of our wickedness. Our blood runs black as crude-oil when we are cut. "Bittersweet" by Joshua Vigil Dec 1, 2023 Fiction It was that time of year when the Japanese bittersweet strangled the elms that drowned Lorraine’s yard. During the summer months, she’d dock my rent "Warpig" by Anthony Neil Smith Nov 27, 2023 Fiction Warpig don’t care what you think of his mullet. People here in Minnesota call it “hockey hair” but Warpig never gave one shit about hockey except "Eve's Inner Witness is Not a Monster" by Dipti Anand Nov 17, 2023 Fiction On a winter night stitched together with dark clouds shrouding like funeral fabric, Eve shudders under a sizzling gas heater, intercepting the "The Stupid Railroad" by Addison Zeller Nov 15, 2023 Fiction I could complain, but it’s usually light work—not always, but usually: really, if we sat down, it’d be completely bearable, but we stand on this "Vicus Cracti" by Some Fool Nov 14, 2023 Fiction excerpt from The Latten Legend, Liber I "White Mercedes/Faith Healer" by Sy Holmes Nov 10, 2023 Fiction The white Mercedes was in the driveway, under the Catalpa trees. It was a muggy spring night, and the seed pods had been blown down all over "Shit We Don't Need" by SH Woodgeard Nov 8, 2023 Fiction Ginger brings us things. Things we don’t want. Things we don’t need. Carburetor parts. Costume jewelry. Bratz dolls. In the dim morning hours, Two stories by Sean Ennis Nov 2, 2023 Fiction "You Don't Own Me" & "The Old Rats" "First World Problems" by Jon Doughboy Nov 1, 2023 Fiction To every one of my complaints, usually about the noise of her son slamming Pogs on the coffee table or our shoddy brake pads shrieking to be changed "The Tamp Trader" by Felicia Change Oct 27, 2023 Fiction Ultra was in dire need of a tampon, the cramps a warning sign, a silent siren. Contracting and releasing with each breath. She longed to curl up in "In the Outlet Mall" by Jon Tuttle Oct 25, 2023 Fiction In the outlet mall Natalie bought two blazers, one black and one navy. The navy she wore for the first open house of her first ever listing: a "The Perfect Lawn" by James Callan Oct 19, 2023 Fiction The lawn was beyond mowing, perhaps beyond saving, a disgrace and affront to the trim and tidy expectation of a respectable community. It grew in "Superimposition" by Rebecca Gransden Oct 18, 2023 Fiction I drove through the drive thru five times because I fell asleep at the wheel and dreamed I was being indecisive on a roundabout. In the dream the "Kathy draws a line" by Will Isaac Sep 26, 2023 Fiction Today Kathy came to me with a problem and I asked her to draw a graph. The problem we can get to later. Let’s start with the graph I made her draw. "Manscape" by Jon Doughboy Sep 20, 2023 Fiction I go to my manscaper, a Somali named Pedro who cashed out his landscaping company in Málaga after he killed a man in Ceuta over a straight flush Three micros by Addison Zeller Sep 19, 2023 Fiction The birds gave up singing: now they write short stories. In trees, in bushes, on power lines the sentences run from tersely direct to syntactically "Two Micros: First Shift, Second Shift" by Jess Gallerie Sep 14, 2023 Fiction On day three of a sacred routine, Mae dabs four globs of WD-40 on their forehead, nose, and chin, and thinks: THIS IS ME NOW. They scrub into a "Lightning" by Jackson Rezen Sep 8, 2023 Fiction Clouds rolled in. The pressure dropped leaving a heaviness in the air. John could feel the electricity tingling the damp hairs along his arms. It "Where I Fold in Half" by Erin Smith Sep 8, 2023 Fiction I watch the ash drift to the ground and imagine myself buried, naked and hairless, in a volcanic plume. Bald body curled up and covered in sulfurous "Sweet Talk" by Ron Riekki Aug 29, 2023 Fiction “Wait, so you’ve all done heroin?” Nods all around. We’re in Ferndale. No ferns, no dale, far as I can see, but I can’t see far out the window, "How I Broke the Quiz" by by Daniel I. Clark Aug 24, 2023 Fiction shared by @Jemnai to /getoutofjailfree on 72.3rd/4.59 I’m your typical Farm brat: low ambition, middling intellect, but plenty of patience (or call "Errata" by Donovan Reyes Aug 23, 2023 Fiction It teemed like a black mass of beetles, constantly swarming in place. It was roughly the average size of a human female, so just half a foot shorter "A Eulogy for the Secretary of the Cleveland Chapter of the Violet Myers Fan Club's Cock" by Jon Doughboy Aug 9, 2023 Fiction As secretary for the Cleveland Chapter of the Violet Myers Fan Club, I obviously wasn’t first choice for Violet’s Brazzers exclusive series “Violet Two Stories by Steve Gergley Aug 3, 2023 Fiction I was browsing Amazon for some new bed sheets when I discovered a six-disc box set of Blu-rays chronicling the biggest bloopers and blunders from "Just Keep Swimming" by Hana Carolina Aug 1, 2023 Fiction The first time I almost died, I was too young to remember. The second time I almost died was also the first time I went into the water. I barged "Your World and I" by Patrick Sweeney Jul 31, 2023 Fiction There was an allegedly imaginary Errol Morris documentary, actually my favorite of his, that introduced the extra-terrestrials among us. The "Harbingers of the Apocalypse" by Mathew Serback Jul 26, 2023 Fiction I am the leader of the people scaling the self-checkout vestibules. We chant about our right to steal from the chain grocery store that does not "Volunteer" by Jesse Hilson Jul 21, 2023 Fiction The guy is living and walking around with his head separated. It’s on a table. The decapitated head looks bad. Really bad. You have to massage it. Three poems by Steve Orth Jul 20, 2023 Fiction I am me, a small woodland creature, sniffing bark to see if the berries are ripe. I wear a beautiful furry pelt, even though I don’t need to wear Three stories by Ada Pelonia Jul 19, 2023 Fiction Inside the exhibit, a butterfly’s opalescent wings flitter around the paintings before settling on the Corinthian order–styled frame. Below is an "The Swimming Pool" by Kim Farleigh Jul 11, 2023 Fiction The swimming pool complex resembled a penitentiary: four high walls with an opening just wide enough to allow one person through at a time. The "The Journal of Mary Gurney" by Nathan Perrin Jul 7, 2023 Fiction Michelle smiled as she was shown into the library archives. “What are you studyin’?” asked the librarian. “Mary Gurney,” Michelle sat at a table by "The Loser" by Jessie Lifton Jul 4, 2023 Fiction I am giving up on hope. In my ears there’s beating. I haven’t spoken to another human being in two weeks. My skin is bleached pale blue. The DINGO THE END SCOUT IN: "Recital" by Z.H. Gill Jul 3, 2023 Fiction My last name is Books. Never liked it. There was once a band called The Books. I’ve never heard their music, though. Bogus is a Books, too, my Fiction: "Debate Team" by Ev Young Jun 28, 2023 Fiction This is addressed to the Judge of a college debate tournament, on behalf of the Affirmative, under the assumption of fiat. Plan: the United States Fiction: "Chicken Soup for the Reformed Death-Cultist's Soul" by Jesse Hilson Jun 21, 2023 Fiction In college Noah Turbot fell in with a death cult that did all its recruiting through the mail. He paid them $30 to get the latest news about the end "The Campland Guide to Pack Fitting: 8 Easy Steps" by Kent Kosack Jun 6, 2023 Fiction On Saturday mornings Elise watches the customers swamp Campland, pouring off Route 17, into the parking lot, out of their cars, and into the store, "Installations: The Delivery" by Terence Hannum Jun 5, 2023 Fiction from an ongoing series, previous pieces published in Vice, Queen Mob’s TeaHouse Tall Loblolly pines tower above the streets of Homeland, their Fiction: "Peanut Butter Milkshake" by Matt Lee May 31, 2023 Fiction From outside, the gallery’s innocuous facade made the building appear abandoned. Brown butcher paper pasted over the windows blocked anyone from Fiction: "i've got the worry" by Tony Rauch May 17, 2023 Fiction “You’ve got the worry,” the nurse looks down on me with a grim expression. “I’ve got the worry?” I repeat, but just to myself. “I’ve got the worry,” Fiction: "Paul, Standing by at Standing Rock" by Matt Gillick May 11, 2023 Fiction Tribesmen of brown, white, black, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Apache, and other persuasions meet the bulldozers and foaming hounds of Standing Rock, North Fiction: "Strangely Colorado" by John Yohe May 8, 2023 Fiction Power out for the whole town of Strangely, Colorado tonight as happens tho thankfully not this last winter during the two weeks of below zero when Citizen Sleeper: Notes Toward a New Cyberpunk May 5, 2023 Fiction & Criticism a book critic's perspective on this indie game's important contribution to a played-out genre Fiction: "So..." by Jake Williams May 4, 2023 Fiction So I just got out the shower and I’m in my bathrobe and the neighbours have walked right in and they’re dragging this old lady through my hallway. Fiction: "Chicken Plucker 9000" by Alex Antiuk May 3, 2023 Fiction I was born a “free range” chicken. I lived an easy life, until one day I had to move, get a job and get an apartment. I looked all over, StreetEasy, Fiction: "An Occurrence at L'Auberge Casino Resort - Lake Charles" Apr 27, 2023 Fiction We’re warming up in the back, and Junior’s holding mitts for me. I’m not just hitting them. I’m driving through them. I feel loose and dangerous. Fiction: "The Foretold Event and Its Features in Full Relief" by Elliot Swain Apr 24, 2023 Fiction Three rather homely young nurses are gnawing with their molars on peanut brittle in the children’s temporary-sick-barn in the evening. It is hard to Fiction: "Do Not Publish This" by George Oliver Apr 20, 2023 Fiction It started to fall apart as soon as he started writing it. Writing it episodically, from every Central London coffee shop that would have him. He Fiction: "I Think It's Important to Stab Something Every Day" by Gerard Butler Jr. Apr 17, 2023 Fiction I do, I think everyone should have a ballistic gel dummy in every room of their house with a butcher knife attached to it by a bungee cord. Just Fiction: "How Many People Will Die in IKEA Tonight" by Tim Frank Apr 13, 2023 Fiction Shoppers raided IKEA at night because their homes lacked the freshness of Scandinavian forests. With their rusted broken bedsprings and wallpaper Fiction: "Campland is a Store is a System is a Sphincter is the World" by Kent Kosack Mar 31, 2023 Fiction Here is Terry, mid-dangle, mid-life. Camplanders call this “The Saturday Dangle.” The precise moment at the end of a twelve-hour shift at Campland Fiction: "Yalobusha County Idyll" by Sean Ennis Mar 23, 2023 Fiction It’s that time of year where I cut myself with the knives I got for Christmas. By accident. As gifts. It’s early baseball season. I hear Fiction: "An Evening in the Summer" by Anna Louise Steig Mar 20, 2023 Fiction Out from the corner of my lazy sagging eye, I am watching in silence as a man below is stalking his prey. He is slinking down the desolate sidewalk Fiction: "Epiphenomenon" by J. Billings Mar 17, 2023 Fiction I’m on the way back to my hotel in downtown Philadelphia and I notice him immediately as he turns out of a dirty corner bar on the other side of the Fiction: "You're Gonna Buy My Old Wooden Table" by Gerard Butler Jr. Feb 15, 2023 Fiction This is an old wooden table. Round. Old. Made of wood. Deserving of respect. Reverence, even. And for you to claim that it doesn’t “match” your Fiction: "The Rabbi, His Dominatrix and Me" by Emma Burger Feb 10, 2023 Fiction How does it go again? A rabbi walks into a sex dungeon. He finds a shiksa that looks just like me, held together by leather and lace. When he wraps Fiction: "(P) and (Q) by Dr. Darbus Richards" by Matt Gillick Feb 6, 2023 Fiction Remember to mind your (p)’s and (q)’s: an elementary saying that no one seems to know much about. There are several disputes regarding the saying’s Fiction: "Academic" by Arzhang Zafar Feb 3, 2023 Fiction My flesh wilts. I laugh. I have given up keeping time, but now am reminded of its passage by my own decay. The cruelty of inevitability engorges my Fiction by Corey Qureshi Jan 25, 2023 Fiction The start of a week in late June. The shirt’s plain, loose, and white, unimportant enough to risk the filth of cleaning a building. Dropped ceiling Notes on Dhalgren by Bill Jan 24, 2023 Fiction & Criticism Bill gives us some notes on his recent reading of Samuel R. Delany's seminal, divisive novel DHALGREN. Fiction: "How High the Moon" by David Hay Jan 23, 2023 Fiction 5 His plane landed in Manchester. He loved the feeling of those first moments when the wheels met the ground and the slight jolt it gave you, as if Fiction: "Bloodletting on E. 43rd Street" by Kat Giordano Jan 19, 2023 Fiction i don’t think i’ll ever stop writing that story of us at the party. you know. the one where i kick my boots off in the mudroom off your kitchen and Fiction: "The Rain Made Nudity Impossible" by David Kuhnlein Jan 16, 2023 Fiction I wanted to stay friendly enough to get called on the phone and, from time to time, fucked. Having feelings only takes a bit of practice. And, for Fiction: "Angel" by JA Koster Jan 5, 2023 Fiction The half-naked girl is sitting on the edge of the curb, smoking. She’s right ahead of me, which is great because it gives me something to aim for. I Audiobook: "The Goat Man" by Todd Cage Dec 12, 2022 Fiction An experimental piece of audio-fiction by Baltimore's Todd Cage in collaboration with Flynn DiGuardia Fiction: "Dots" by Alex Antiuk Dec 1, 2022 Fiction I knew at any moment during lunch I could be pushed by the wind, or slip getting back up, and that would be that. I actually didn’t mind the "The BRUISER Staff and All Their Special Sticks" by Z.H. Gill (LA Loser) Nov 21, 2022 Fiction BRUISER M. makes a graphic for the poem “Resurrected Concrete” by Z.H. Gill. BRUISER M. posts the poem “Resurrected Concrete” by Z.H. Gill, along Fiction: "Uncle Simms" by Sy Holmes Nov 17, 2022 Fiction My Uncle Simms lives alone out in the country. My Uncle Simms doesn’t drink, but he smokes. Uncle Simms went to correspondence bible college. I "What Godot Forgot" by Erwin Dink Nov 14, 2022 Fiction Show, sitting on a low fly, hurts trying to gone off his ground, ditch hurt at it with both. ESTRAGON panting Moment peers up, you know. Tries hard Fiction: "St. Thomas Memory Care Facility" by Sean Ogilvy Nov 11, 2022 Fiction The bridge of Walter’s nose is terminally scarred and bleeding from where his glasses have cut him after walking into his door each morning. Every Fiction: "Nomadic" by George Oliver Nov 2, 2022 Fiction The world changed that day. Isolation became insulation; ruin became disrepair. At least in terms of Gertrude Tarrow’s understanding of it. Her Fiction: "I became a different person" by Tony Rauch Oct 31, 2022 Fiction I know people who go through changes (some brought on by external forces, some by accident, some by design, some gradual, some that stick, others Fiction: "some more reasons why denby trashed your place" by Tony Rauch Oct 26, 2022 Fiction The blue sky. The wind swirling in the leaves A platypus in the yard. A mysterious looking platypus A girl who moves away A girl he sees from Fiction: "Sprinkles" by Alex Antiuk Oct 21, 2022 Fiction “What do-ya-do while you wait?” Jimmy asked. He was chewing with his mouth open, on a day old garlic knot the chef said he could have. Jimmy had Fiction: "A Haunting Manifestation of Musicals Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber" by James Callan Oct 17, 2022 Fiction The old lady who lives in the mansion has 1,000 cats. How many litter boxes she has, no one knows but herself and the ten hundred felines who use Fiction: "The Bad Cowboy" by Michael R. Colangelo Oct 10, 2022 Fiction The interior of the mall lawyer’s office is barren and cold and dark. Plain beige walls with strips of painter’s tape left on the door frames. Susan Prose: "Waiting Room" by Frank A. Esparros Oct 3, 2022 Fiction So this is where you start, ass planted in a blue plastic chair and eyes squinting into a room bathed in fluorescent light, terrible, and the worst Fiction: "The Pit" by Elyn Turne Sep 20, 2022 Fiction There’s no spiral and no staircase, and for those who are sentenced to work on this project there’s no way out. Such as myself. I’ve grown nostalgic Fiction: "The Shape of a Parked Car at Lunch" by Elliot Swain Sep 15, 2022 Fiction But I have to feed the meter! Yet this email chain has gone subcutaneous. “Don’t scratch it,” Walinda barks as she ambles past the plaster wall of Fiction: "The Quarterly" by Tim Paggi Sep 13, 2022 Fiction Out of respect to the departed, we refrained from cheering when the quarterly results arrived, yet waves of pride rippled throughout our division’s Fiction: "Jump Rope" by Jonathan Tuttle Sep 2, 2022 Fiction One end of a jump rope is tied to a sidewalk barrier outside the hotel doors, and the other end is tied to another jump rope, which in turn is tied Fiction: "Mold" by Jonathan Tuttle Aug 31, 2022 Fiction Each night a mold developed around her retainer, blooming from the gap between the plastic halves. She awoke to dime-sized patches of green fur Fiction: "Construction" by Jonathan Tuttle Aug 29, 2022 Fiction A new bridge, deep in the county, would complete the beltway. The crew arrived a few hours after sunset to remove the forms from the second pair of