in defense of my yankee boyfriend i want nothing more than randomized curvature from yours then his then yours again feign my line of questioning to drain chromosomal sacks of malcontent from every whatever i spit to flame. from the underbelly i settle hard swallows gauzed in sweat or other. i carve […]
Featured Content
In Defense of My Yankee Boyfriend
When You’re Back
by Rachel Stempel
When you’re back, look to your left there’s a great deal of it spread thin though I’d like to scoop & saver, too, slather on the skin I had at seventeen. Bone dust setting spray keeps your ears pulled back keeps you younger than you need a certain charm […]
Twelve Steps Ahead
by Evan Lavender-Smith
This is one of two instances in your life when you will receive these instructions. There is only one step you’re allowed to hear this time—the last one. It will be the first thing you hear when you’re born and it will be one of the worst things a human being could ever be told. […]
The Only Thing Missing Was the Howling of Wolves
by Rachel Swearingen
The following is excerpted from Rachel Swearingen’s debut story collection, How to Walk on Water. Her stories and essays fiction have appeared in VICE, Agni, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. A recipient of the 2018 New American Fiction Prize, Swearingen has also won the 2015 Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in Fiction and […]
Interview with Salvation Day Author Kali Wallace
by Chase Erwin
Kali Wallace was born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She attended Brown University, where she took an undergraduate degree in Geology, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she completed a Ph.D. in Geophysics. Additionally, she is a graduate of the prestigious Clarion Workshop for SFF writers. Her short fiction has appeared in a […]
Sam Cohen Interviewed by Raki Kopernik: Queer Jewish Writers
In Sarahland, a collection of stories woven together by characters named Sarah, Sam Cohen brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us. The cast of Sarahs finds ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and they discover new possibilities for life itself. In each Sarah’s refusal to adhere […]
STICK ME IN THE TRUNK AND DRIVE ME AROUND AND TALK TO ME
by Kari Teicher
Hello doctor, I’m having bad thoughts. I want to call you on the phone and tell you about bleach and corn and suffering. I want you to tell me what to do, but don’t make me do it. Here is the problem: What if we don’t like each other tomorrow. What if we drive each […]
PULP
by Kari Teicher
A fat black raccoon falls, plunges dives into the compost bin. You let him. Why shouldn’t he have a little pleasure. A little oil and vinegar, a little dry cake. Everyone has been baking, so there are no more poppyseeds. Should you plant a field of opium, so you can make the lemon muffins that […]
Gender Neutral
by Sarah Terez Rosenblum
Every semester I get the same email from my program’s artistic director: “Hey Creative Writing Instructors! Introduce yourself to your students!” The survey requests my favorite quotes about writing. (Chekov: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”) It invites me to share practical advice. (“If there’s […]
My Cup Runneth Over
by Barbara Schwartz
1. After each successful night, a vampire bat regurgitates his nutrient goop into the mouth of his co-sleeper’s throat. Next time, one sister-in-the-struggle may fly forth, wings agape signaling triumph, and the once-sung hero, (now down-in-the-mouth) will have to wait 2. for her. My friend donated religiously when she was […]