By Ralph Sassone Whenever Maize snuck away to see Hal Jamesley, there was always a blissful moment where she hardly recognized herself. It happened at the receptionist’s desk in the guidance suite where a smoked glass partition separated the secretary’s cubicle from the counselors’ offices. Maize would stop to check herself out in the partition [...]

By Aria Beth Sloss The taxi from the airport smelled like cough syrup and old socks.  I pressed the button to power my window down but there was only a soft whirring noise; the glass stayed put, smoked over by a thin layer of dirt.  Blurry masses of land dipped and rose.  There were no [...]

By Caitlin Macy
One’s an up-and-coming Hollywood actress. The other’s a small-town waitress. If not for the way both of them handled a lecherous drama teacher, the roles might be reversed. There’s still, however, a couple of endings left to write.

Emma Copley Eisenberg’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast and Cutbank, and her essays and journalism in The Rumpus, Full Stop, Meridian, Different Skies, Land That I Live, Truthout and Wonderful West Virginia magazine. Maile Meloy chose her as the winner of Cutbank’s 2013 Montana Prize for Fiction, and Ander Monson named [...]

By Porter Shreve

Would it be Carter or Ford? Daniel and his family were rooting for the Democrat. Of course, Daniel also hoped he might get to kiss Cleo. A first kiss? A Democrat in the White House? Was it all too much to hope for?

By Rajesh Parameswaran ELEPHANTS IN CAPTIVITY (PART ONE)1 I don’t have much time2 so I must dispense with the obvious.3 Helicopters clatter overhead, men with cameras4 leaning from their open doorways. Their footage must be numbingly familiar to you, and might by now be all that remains of me. Please know that the contemporaneous accounts [...]

By Kevin Canty The summer he almost killed his brother, Lander spent working at the front desk of the University library, watching the girls go by in their summer shorts and dresses. There was almost no traffic at the checkout counter, but the girls would come in early and late to check their email at [...]

By Tania James All throughout childhood, my older brother refused to jump from the high dive, a phobia for which I gave him constant hell.  “Amit is a chickenshit!” I’d yell, while leaping flamboyantly off the board.  At twenty-nine, he dove off the roof of his buddy’s three-story condo.  Later, he couldn’t recall his reasons [...]

By Peter Orner The faces of the pallbearers are always the same. Gallant and not trying to seem proud, but at the same time not unproud. That’s the fine balance, and when we hoist, it’s not our muscles but our sorrow lifting, our sorrow straining. My father lifts his sister. There are five other pairs [...]

By Robert Anthony Siegel
Alvin had a complicated relationship with his father when he was alive. When dad had a sudden heart attack, however, it freed his emotions and he was able to write again. But what would this mean for his relationship with his own family?

By Pauls Toutonghi “The thing you need to know about Cairo,” my taxi driver said, “is not the traffic. It’s not the pollution. It’s not the dust.” And here he extinguished his cigarette, grinding it into his ashtray. “It’s the bread.” “The bread?” I said. It was July 25, 2008. My driver kept glancing back [...]

By Leni Zumas
As a high school sophomore, Horace found his father dead in the garage, a suicide. Now it’s up to his sister to keep Horace from the same fate. She’d have an easier job if Horace could find inspiration somewhere, anywhere.

By Nancy Mauro When Burwash is abducted by the former Commissioner of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, he remains rolled up in his nest of duct tape. He doesn’t tongue at the strip across his mouth, loosen it with spittle, or even try to edge the blindfold off. It’s a blindfold that’s been [...]

By Wells Tower
Dad’s memory was failing, and he tried the patience of his family. But there was one thing he was right about.