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Scar Tissue by Sabrina Hicks
The night we played twenty-one questions, you asked me to tell you something real about myself then laughed and said, even though you have no heart.
Negotiations by Beckie Dashiell
It is a ghost who whispers in my ear at night: it’s not natural to share a bed with the same man for so long.
Lambda by Mandira Pattnaik
The night before my parents moved to Delhi, Lambda reclined on his armchair, bony legs like long strokes joined at the knee.
Tonight What Faces by Rick Bailey
I’m looking in the mirror, wondering if I can be an honest best man. Outside the October air is balmy. In the distance I hear lawnmowers.
Aftertaste by Susmita Bhattacharya
I surf cookery videos on YouTube. Watch how potato chips are fried. Follow the step-by-step of making hot, puffed up chapattis. I feed my cravings with my eyes only.
Used Hearse by Sandie Friedman
She bought the hearse used from the Highlands Funeral Home, and the first time she drove it home to show Patrick, she felt invulnerable.
Dear Leo #11
French Fry MFA And getting on your “dark and twisty—” by Leonora Desar Dear Leo, I am a failure. A charlatan. I call myself a writer, but I spend most of my time on Twitter, drafting tweets (and this is on a good day). I had some success a few years ago, but now I am...
Special Issue: Winter’s Tales
Featuring new flash by Meg Pokrass, Misty Urban, Audra Kerr Brown, Jason A. Zwiker, Karen Jones, Emily Devane, Al Kratz, Mary Thompson, and Leonora Desar.
Dear Leo #10
When I Was a Teenaged Witch and other stories practical advice by Leonora Desar Preface to a crafty blog entry Dear Leo, Nobody loves me. I mean, people love me, like my boyfriend and my cat, but they’re kind of under obligation. The folks that count—the...
Dear Leo #9
The Misfits How writing outsiders can make you truly, truly outrageous by Leonora Desar I am not talking about the punk rock band. I am not talking about a Flannery O’Conner character, or even the Misfits, the rival all-girl group in my favorite 80’s cartoon ever, Jem...
Dear Leo #8
Betty and Veronica— or how opposites attract (the reader) by Leonora Desar Opposites are in. This is in the tradition not only of Paula Abdul, but of film, literature, comics, TV shows. Infomercials, probably, too. There’s Betty and Veronica (Archie). Mike and Eleven...
The Dear Leo Call for Questions
Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about the writing process? Or maybe you’re curious about the submission process? Maybe you want to know why LEO never wears matching socks, why she’s obsessed with ice cream, why she never takes a normal bio pic. ...
Negative Capability by Josh Russell
After her wife dies (cancer, brain, sudden), she watches lectures her wife recorded for her students, videos she’d never seen while Pam was alive.
Protrusions by Misty Urban
They’re called mandibular tori, and yes, since you’re asking, they do hurt, a little, often, not in a take-me-to-the-dentist-immediately way but in an ongoing, low-grade, what-can-you-do-but-learn-to-live-with-it kind of way.
Trip-trapping by Sara Hills
The autumn I turn ten, we leave my dad and the crusted expanse of Arizona desert, hard-packed sand dotted with dried grass and shriveled cacti, for the suburbs of Chicago.
Pigs Die by Constance Malloy
I envied the pigs their voice. They weren’t silenced. Well, not before the electrocution or before the Hog Sticker with his 18-inch blade sliced the swine’s throats as they hung upside down.
En Aeropuertos by Pat Foran
I’m in a line, a line of lines, waiting to check in for my flight to Monterrey. The line isn’t moving.
Uncle by Anthony Varallo
Uncle says we are not to disturb him when he is in the basement. Because the basement is his place. His. Got it?
Last Day by Briana Maley
You wake up thinking not about dying, but about Trina DeMartini and the inside of her warm mouth and all the places you want her to put it, and maybe if you’re being honest a little bit about your Algebra teacher.
Issue 22
Featuring new flash by Madeline Anthes, Anthony Varallo, Constance Malloy, Lucy Zhang, Josh Russell, Pat Foran, Daniel Roy Connelly, Briana Maley, Sara Hills, and Misty Urban.