SHORT STORIES
“Key Concepts in Ecology” by Michelle Ross
Invasive Species: a species that is non-native to an ecosystem and that is likely to cause harm to native species. The creature had been spotted again, and this time, accounts came from two unrelated individuals. The sightings had taken place…
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“Red” by Katie Knoll
“Antlered does of the genus Capreolus usually bear small, poorly developed, irregular “freak” antlers which remain for the most part permanently in velvet without being shed.” George Wislocki, “Journal of Mammalogy” Before, we were blue. Bluer than robins’ eggs, bluer than the tiny veins…
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“The Lure” by Matthew Lansburgh
In a matter of weeks, it seemed, Stewart’s mother had become obsessed with the dog. Despite—or maybe because of—the fact that he, Banjo, didn’t belong to her. Things like that didn’t matter to Heike: who was the rightful owner of…
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“Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses” by Bret Anthony Johnston
His daughter’s first horse came from a traveling carnival where children rode him in miserable clockwise circles. He was swaybacked with a patchy coat and split hooves, but Tammy fell for him on the spot and Atlee made a cash…
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“The Beast” by Megan Cummins
Twenty years had passed since I’d last seen the Beast. We were seventeen and embarrassed of one another back then. I’d asked him to prom. He agreed on the conditions that I would cover expenses, and that we would have…
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“The Renaissance Person Tournament” by Clare Beams
The tournament is the highlight of our year at the Simmler School, figuratively and literally: Abe Larson, math teacher and advisor to the tech club, uses acid-bright bulbs in the auditorium spotlights. He likes to make the contestants sweat. Abe…
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Singles by Kate Petersen
Lisanne had known Mike-who-worked-the-door for so long that they no longer said anything to each other, and though he’d stopped carding her years ago, she still took hers out of her wallet and cupped it in her palm as…
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“The Station” by Elizabeth Gaffney
Louisa twisted herself in the cord of the old black wall phone. It went once around her body and five times around her arm. The thing was long enough that you could talk on the phone while rooting through the…
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“Tidings of the Apocalypse” by Patrick Ryan
You try not to get caught up in the prophesies of this world because they all stem from the idea that one omniscient God has decided to destroy what he’s created, while the more interesting prophecies come from other worlds…
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“Cathedral” by Michael Sheehan
The pamphlet they got from La Fonda said the trail was only 3.5 miles long, but they’d been at it for almost four hours by the time they realized something was off. They had seen no cathedral and worse, the…
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