Queen Maud Gulf, Nunavut, Canada April 28th, 38°F, wind: 15 m.p.h. “You’re the expert, Lydia,” Scott says as they stare out at the expanse of Arctic sea. Where there were supposed to be sleek sheets of ice, there’s now mostly slush. “What now?” Scott’s nose and cheeks are red, a bad mix of cold and […]
Fiction
Turn Around
When the Bough Breaks
by Lesley Bannatyne
I am watching my daughter nursing the baby. She is incandescent, my daughter, like a Renaissance Madonna. Her skin is alabaster and her hair haloes in the sunlight that slips through the kitchen window and slides off the bones of her face. It’s the gorgeous hair some women get while pregnant—mine grew six inches during […]
Gin
by Kate Faigen
Mom and Dad are in the basement playing gin. “Your deal,” Dad says. Mom pours Tanqueray into one of the milk cups we used as children. “GIN,” she shouts, slamming it down.
Newlyweds by Miklós Vámos
translated from the Hungarian by Ági Bori
Newlyweds Four passengers occupied the narrow, second-class coach of the train bound for Lake Balaton. A young man, a young woman, an old-age pensioner, and a middle-aged goose. They formed two pairs: the dewy-eyed newlyweds were on their way to their honeymoon, while the second pair headed to a wedding. As for the goose, he […]
Mind’s Eye
by Michael Pearce
“A simple description, Lewis, that’s all I’m asking.” He bangs that ridiculous cane on the floor, thunk thunk. Vertical strokes meant as punctuation, little jabs to splash some color on his words. Only sometimes the jabs get loud, angry. “Is that too much for you?” He says it with a giggly quaver to let me […]
Icarus by Vraiux Dorós
translated from the Spanish by Toshiya Kamei
Don’t under any circumstances read this book, I said to myself.
And the world was created.
Izokumi by Alexy Dumenigo
translated from the Spanish by Toshiya Kamei
Izokumi For casualties and survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki It began with a flash. A chalky light filled every corner of the small hospital room and pierced the girl’s closed eyelids. Her nightmares that had haunted her since the night before faded as she woke. However, the intense light around her prevented her from opening […]
Transcriptions
by Kathleen Jones
Mary isn’t a great internet name. When she introduces herself to someone new, she always assumes they’re picturing the lady who birthed the baby Jesus or a different Mary washing Jesus’ feet or a pious and forgettable woman circa 1610 or 1743 or 1872. She wears muslin skirts and a mop cap and goes about […]
Baba Yaga and the Bird
by Sophie Panzer
Baba Yaga lives deep in the Hudson Valley in a house on chicken legs. She studied sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design back in the ’50s and transformed the stilts holding the home up over her backyard pond. Her lot is surrounded by an ancient fence studded with bleached skulls—deer and squirrel bones […]
Caterpillar by Dragana Mokan
translated from the Serbian by John K. Cox
Agnica was sitting in a pink room that smelled sweet. Mama had sent her to the neighbors to get a bouquet. She accepted a plate of cake from Miss Jovanka.
