“…The antagonism is so obvious, and so far-reaching, that it extends to the smallest thing. The cultured, highly-conscious person of today loathes any form of physical, ‘menial’ work: such as washing dishes or sweeping a floor or chopping wood. This menial work is an insult to the spirit. ‘When I see men carrying heavy loads, doing brutal […]
Fiction
LIKE A TIGER by Maya Kóvskaya
The waiting is intolerable in the soupy Beijing heat of Liang Huiping’s sixth floor flat. She glares at the hourglass spinning endlessly on her computer. The screen glares back—a palimpsest of her warped reflection in the curved glass of the monitor, superimposed on her Instant Messenger. She clamps her legs together and squeezes, looking down at her black […]
ALLEY by Paul Crenshaw
Ben and I drink five pitchers of Michelob Light at the bowling alley. Outside, Ben pisses on a car tire. It is Friday, near midnight. On the interstate not far away headlights sweep past. I search for my keys under arc-sodium lights. Ben has a cigarette in his mouth, his head tilted back so the […]
FLAVAMERICA: an excerpt from Stephan Clark’s unfinished novel, The Flavorist
Location: Battle Station, New Jersey Date: April 24, 1999 The week my anxiety medication started to work, I was in my office at the computer, working on an invoice for a company that promises its customers “a cappuccino machine in every can.” Sales had been down six quarters in a row. We’d been asked to […]
CHODE! a frequently-impolite excerpt from the forthcoming novel by Mark Spitzer
Old Cappy, also known as Christian Klinefelter III, Captain in the Royal Navy, stood at the helm staring off at the horizon with a posture so stiff he looked as if someone had stuck a stick up his arse. It was 1789 and The Ophelia was somewhere off the Russian coast. Where they were, he didn’t have […]
BRONWYN STEELE TALKS LUNCH MONEY by Kyle Minor
Dear Kyle Minor, Maybe after fifteen years it won’t mean so much to you, but to me it means everything to write and say that I did not leave school three weeks before graduation because I was pregnant, and I did not leave because I stood on Principal Ratliff’s desk and renounced Christ, and I […]
NUMBERS MEAN SOMETHING by Steve Davenport
Black Guy and Bald Guy are buddies. Black Guy tells Bald Guy things. Every morning. 4:40. Stagger out of bed, glance at the clock as I go by. The numbers are glowing at me. 4:40. I have to pee. That’s some clockwork, man. Okay, sure, maybe not always 4: 40 on the nose, but 4:40 […]
THE LATEST BUDDY TEAM CASHING IN by Steve Davenport
Black Guy and Bald Guy are buddies. They play city-league slow-pitch together. Bald Guy plays shortstop and averages one home run every four or five games, which means he has just enough power to keep his on-base percentage from doing the team much good. Not as strong as Bald Guy or any faster, Black Guy’s […]
SLOWEST, FATTEST CURVE BALL IN HISTORY by Steve Davenport
Black Guy and Bald Guy are buddies. Which means nothing more than that. Couple of guys. Hot-shot Hollywood actors hanging out being guys. Batman and the Green Hornet. Lone Ranger and J. Edgar Hoover. Black Guy and Bald Guy. Just a couple of guys watching each other’s back. Buddies. Except that when someone thinks it […]
OCTOBER by Paula Carter
When your young sons come to visit, we decide to go camping—last time we went to the apple orchard and before that the circus. We are new to this state, new to living away from your sons, so we choose a campground by way of the map. The road curves and curves and curves again […]
