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FICTION

Image is a color photograph of two pairs of garden gloves on a weathered wooden deck; title card for the new flash fiction, "Sweet Knife," by Dana Brewer Harris.

Sweet Knife by Dana Brewer Harris

January 19, 2024

  When Ford made love to Calla, she felt something in him fight. It wasn’t against her ugliness. That matter was settled business, though Calla, in her youth, had held onto the idea that she was a winter-apple sort of…

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Image is a color photograph of foggy mountains through the windshield of a car; title card for the new short, "Stick Shift," by Jawziya Zaman.

Stick Shift by Jawziya Zaman

January 12, 2024

  After the texts fizzled out with the fifth guy in six weeks, Naz finally gave up and changed her app settings to full-on gay. Self-cannibalism would’ve been less painful than having a conversation with these one-neuron fools and she…

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Image is a black-and-white photo of a coming storm; title card for the first-place winner of the CRAFT 2023 First Chapters Contest, "The Bad One" by Sonny Buttar.

The Bad One by Sonny Buttar

December 15, 2023

  Prologue   There is a story our parents told us, only once. When they received their immigration papers from America, they considered leaving one of us behind in Pakistan to live with relatives, believing that one child would be…

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Image is a color photograph of a notebook with a pencil and pencil shavings; title card for the second-place winner of the 2023 First Chapters Contest, "The Golden Suicides" by Melissa Yancy.

The Golden Suicides by Melissa Yancy

December 8, 2023

  “It is possible to control Los Angeles by being the one with the most vivid fantasy about it.” —Theresa Duncan, The Wit of the Staircase   1992 My brother joined the world’s smallest cult. There were precisely two members:…

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Image is a color photograph of an NYC subway car pulled into a station; title card for the third-place winner of the CRAFT 2023 First Chapters Contest, "My Demons" by Jill Rosenberg.

My Demons by Jill Rosenberg

December 1, 2023

The night before I start treatment at Harrington, Raffi and I go to Foxy Night at the Cock in the East Village. We have to wait in line to get in. It’s eleven, and it’s dark, but it’s lit-up city…

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Image is a color photograph of a landline next to a couch; title card for the microfiction stories "Sacrament", "Living on Stilts" & "Oh my god your voice sounds so haole" by Melissa Llanes Brownlee.

Sacrament, Living on Stilts, & Oh my god your voice sounds so haole by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

November 17, 2023

  Sacrament Pua shifts in the pew as the water and bread are passed out by the chosen boys, her mu’umu’u scratchy and stiff against her skin. She wonders if it will be white or wheat bread. Her mother pinches…

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Image is a color photograph of baby socks on a clothesline; title card for the short fiction story "Wet" by Jaclyn Desforges.

Wet by Jaclyn Desforges

November 10, 2023

  Mother, this house is full of babies. From the mouth of the kitchen I hear their cooing and from the top of the staircase I hear their cooing. I stand and hear their cooing from the living room. I…

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Image is a color photograph of a clothesline outside an apartment building; title card for the first-place winner of the 2023 Short Fiction Prize, "Blackbird" by Chinonyelum Anyichie.

“Blackbird” by Chinonyelum Anyichie

October 27, 2023

  Ifunanya called you ugly, and you answered her with a slap. A slap so charged it was the envy of thunder, and you didn’t even care you were in Chuckies, the school restaurant, teeming with people eating, laughing, coming…

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Image is a color photograph of the silhouette of a bird on some tree branches; title card for the second-place winner of the 2023 Short Fiction Prize, "A Line of Wings" by Uyen Phuong Dang.

A Line of Wings by Uyen Phuong Dang

October 20, 2023

  Dau used to live in the apartment below me. He had skin so dry it fell like leaves on a windy day, so much he pixelated his floor with tiny fog-colored flakes, each thin and flappy as a plastic…

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Image is a color photograph of a sign above an elevator; title card for the new flash fiction story, "The Gateway" by Kathy Fish.

The Gateway by Kathy Fish

October 18, 2023

  John and Lara’s daughter had up and married a perfect stranger. She’d met the fellow at a gallery opening only two weeks before. The nuptials had taken place in a courthouse. On the phone Liza told them sure, of…

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