“Commander Mason, Commander Roland, you’re all clear. Welcome to the purple planet.” Blaise Mason saw the first of the planet’s namesake as the purple dust began to settle. It was beyond her imagination. The wormhole was functioning. Aliens were real. Valkisba was real. And she was one of the only human beings in history who […]
Fiction
VALKISBA
Stealth Autopsies, Every Damn Friday by Dane Rook
Agarwal kept a signed Yankees baseball bat hanging on the wall in is his office, and whenever he needed to concentrate, he’d take it down and fondle it, like those little stones that dufuses keep in their pockets, for when they get worried – and worried is exactly what all of us junior guys at […]
When You Reach Out to Touch Me
by Mona Lisa
“Oh, Lee!” Nina cheered, throwing her lanky arms toward the spotless sky, “I’m in love!” I watched from the shore as she submerged herself in the Atlantic. Hunched over, I held my forearms in front of my frayed string bikini top. Nina rose from the water, singing incoherent joy as water from her bangs cascaded […]
The Mother Part
by Siamak Vossoughi
The Mother Part At the Free Palestine march, Anil saw the sign first: If you are anything like my mother, Agnes Kimber, who says that Palestinians are animals, then you are my enemy too. We couldn’t see who was holding it. They were up at the front. They wanted everyone to know. “How about […]
Portraits of Uncle in Boxers
by Aaron Barreras
This story won first place at the MAYDAY 2024 Short Fiction Contest. I don’t know why I was chewing on my uncle’s arm, but I was. As a child I don’t know why I did a lot of things, so must find meaning from a memory handed down to my not-child-self: being small, and chewing […]
Mile High Chicago
by Patrick Miller
This story won second place at the MAYDAY 2024 Short Fiction Contest. The whole idea, philosophically at least, was for it to look out onto the rest of America, to build a Promethean tower of sorts – a beam with no terminus – just light – just America – god in a building, reaching up […]
Mirrors
by Sunshine Barbito
This story won third place at the MAYDAY 2024 Short Fiction Contest. I liked the people over at detox more because they wore blankets as capes slung over their shoulders and walked around like overused mop heads, dirty and dripping. One guy came through still speeding, still mind-running. “You wanna play a game?” he asked […]
Chika at Work
by Chidima Anekwe
Chika at Work When Chika Okeke saw a fat brown cockroach scurry across the checkout counter, she was reminded of Gregor Samsa. When Chika Okeke read The Metamorphosis for the first time, she managed to develop a dark secret crush on Gregor’s character. How tragic and tortured he was. If he had been real, and […]
Souvenirs
by Amy DeBellis
The box is heart-shaped, but barely, like an afterthought. It’s got a plum-colored surface decorated with tiny dots: pinpricks imitating stars. The top comes off easily and there they are—all the items she has saved from relationship after relationship. All the train tickets and club wristbands and stray buttons she’s collected over the years like […]
The Strike of Hunger
by Prasant Kumar Mishra, translated from the Odia by Debasish Mishra
Madhu parked his rickshaw in front of his cottage and laid himself over the veranda. Startled, Chameli asked, “Are you not feeling well today? Won’t you take the rickshaw?” Madhu blabbered, “They have called for a strike today.” With apparent curiosity, Chameli inquired, “What’s that?” “Everything, I mean everything — the market, the transport, the […]
