The Spectrum of Wonders
It was 1987, and I was eighteen years old. My parents made me get a post-graduation summer job in the cafeteria of the local college, a liberal arts school…
Vibiana in the Half-court Set
Callie and I were thirteen the summer of ‘87, the summer the Los Angeles Lakers won the World Championship. During the school months, we were required to wear the…
The Floatplane
There were all sorts of holes in Moriko’s story, but for $4,000, it wasn’t my place to point them out. She claimed to be an art dealer with works…
The Watchers
Zakir could not recall when or how he first caught sight of the watchers. No more than a silhouette on a rooftop, a pair of knowing eyes in a…
Receive Us Every One
And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.…
A Little Grief
There was blood. And unspeakable pain, which rolled and clenched in hard, burning waves. Sarah spent two days in the bathroom, watching the summer rains through the window and…
Gabe Dove (2016 Fiction Prize Honorable Mention)
I met Gabe Dove when I was sad and attracting men who liked me sad. There was the jeweler with goopy eyes, the lawyer who overtexted. Men with lotioned…
Recursions (2016 Fiction Prize)
The snake is back. It’s in the middle of the living room and it has taken a bite of its tail. It’s eating itself. Or maybe not eating, just...I…
Cicada Song
Spring rains had cut little gullies into the caliche topping beyond the cattle guard. Washed out the soil beneath right down to the hardpan. I got off my bike…
The Leave-taking
That last night at home, Michael sat with his father at the fireside, barely an arm’s reach apart, the turf in the hearth between them burning shades of fox-fur…
Old Stonington, Connecticut: 1989
Each night at dusk we built our fire in the usual spot, back from the water’s edge, camouflaged by white-barked birches and scraggly pines. We sprawled our bodies across…