On his usual walk he came to a stretch where boulders were freshly dumped along the riverbank. No mystery: he knew this was to stop the erosion that had become a worry. There had been a public meeting about it; he’d meant to attend but forgotten. According to the account he read online, the room […]
Fiction
The River Path
A Conversation with Kalani Pickhart
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with novelist Kalani Pickhart about her debut novel I Will Die in a Foreign Land. The book provides a vivid portrait of the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine through the interconnected stories of four characters whose lives are forever changed by the events. In our wide-ranging conversation, Pickhart […]
Charismatic Youth Leader
by Joseph Nicholson
I remember being told a story about a city. It was an ancient city, a city of towers and walls in the desert. The people who lived there were rich, and they were proud. I used to imagine the men of this proud place, so far away. They wore silk clothes in the colours of […]
Okichize (Battle)
by Jim Genia
The trick when it comes to industrial sabotage is to understand just enough of the
mechanism to know where the line exists between damage and catastrophe. You want to cost the oil company money, not create a natural disaster.
white walls
by Caroline Fleischauer
I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. The nursing home had brick walls on the inside. Big glass doors. But my grandmother’s room was white, unadorned, hospital-like. Her slurred speech echoed off the empty walls. At seven, I saw my mother emerge from the room, crying. I shouldn’t go in, […]
Solitude
by 蕭熠Jackie Hsaio
Translated from the Chinese by Lauren Harper
In her present life, she had about five friends. Since she frequented nowhere, she wouldn’t necessarily have met them. They were all from past lives, and she wasn’t sure why they’d remained. Like limescale build-up in the bend of a pipe, thickening with time and the water flow. Impossible to ignore after a while. One […]
Honest Isak
by Jasna Dimitrijević
Translated from the Serbian by John K. Cox
Honest Isak The door was opened by a tiny woman with curly hair tied up in a bun, which was pinned on the top of her head like a giant chestnut. She couldn’t have been any taller than 5’3”, but my eyes still came in a good two and a half inches under the tips […]
Twenty-three Crates from China
by Prudence Hemming
FOREWARD I was asked to report on the aftermath of the deceased’s life from observations made at the final viewing. The sections below list observations of the physical remains and excerpts from documents recorded at different times in her last days. The final section is based on actual events written in accordance with her wishes. […]
Resonance
by Alison Sanders
The plastic bed is cold against Tamiko’s calves, her butt, her shoulder blades. The monstrous contraption hums, as if hungry for her. She’s heard stories of people who freak out in these things; she holds in her hand, in fact, a panic button. The earnest young technician who handed it to her wears scrubs and […]
Elephant
by Chris Naff
Warning: This short story contains sensitive content related to gun violence that may be triggering for some readers. “Is it real?” When the alarm goes off one of the third graders in the back asks Mr. Davis the question Ellison is afraid to ask. “It’s real,” Mr. Davis says. “Remember, we treat it real […]
