Short Stories
- A.C. Wise, "Tekeli-Li, They Cry" (horror).www.thedarkmagazine.com Tekeli-li, They Cry - The Dark Magazine
They tell me the future is broken. Will be broken. Has always been broken. I was wide awake the first time they spoke to me and have been every time since. They come from there, then, when the future is broken. Which is now because the break stretches in every direction. That’s what they tell […]
- Margaret Atwood, "Widows".www.theguardian.com Widows by Margaret Atwood – read the exclusive short story
Nell is coming to terms with life after her beloved partner Tig’s death in a story from Atwood’s first collection since The Testaments jointly won the Booker prize in 2019, and since her own partner, Graeme Gibson, died in the same year
- Mariana Enriquez, "My Sad Dead".www.newyorker.com “My Sad Dead”
“I stay because my mother lives here. Can I say that about a dead woman?”
- Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, "The Crevasse" (horror).lovecraftzine.com The Crevasse, by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
Art by Peter Szmer: – click to enlargeWhat he loved was the silence, the pristine clarity of the ice shelf: the purposeful breathing of the dogs straining against their traces, the hiss of th…
- Miranda July, "Roy Spivey".www.newyorker.com “Roy Spivey”
From 2007: “It was startling to see such a famous face look so vulnerable and empty.”
- A.C. Wise, "The Children of Main Street".clarkesworldmagazine.com Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy
Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: The Children of Main Street by A.C. Wise
- “My Cheesecake-Shaped Poverty,” by Haruki Murakamiwww.newyorker.com “My Cheesecake-Shaped Poverty,” by Haruki Murakami
We picked this place to live in for one simple reason: it was dirt cheap.
- Hilma Wolitzer, "The Great Escape".electricliterature.com The Last Story in a Long Marriage - Electric Literature
the-great-escape-by-hilma-wolitzer
- Julia Armfield, "The Great Awake".www.thewhitereview.org The Great Awake - The White Review
When I was twenty-seven, my Sleep stepped out of me like a passenger from a train carriage, looked around my room for several seconds, then sat down in the chair beside my bed. This was before they became so familiar, the shadow-forms of Sleep in halls and kitchens, before the…
- A.C. Wise, "The Stories We Tell About Ghosts".www.thedarkmagazine.com The Stories We Tell About Ghosts - The Dark Magazine
Growing up in Dieu-le-Sauveur, my friends and I told stories about ghosts—the Starving Man, the Sleeping Girl, and the House at the End of the Street. The summer I was twelve, I saw my first ghost for real. That was the summer my little brother Gen disappeared. The first official day of summer, the ...
- The Sensitivity Reader, Andrew O'Hagangranta.com The Sensitivity Reader | Andrew O'Hagan | Granta
‘Human nature is not improved by concealment, especially when it comes to the past.’ A short story by Andrew O’Hagan.
- Alice Munro, "The Bear Came Over The Mountain".www.newyorker.com “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” by Alice Munro
A man loses his wife to Alzheimer’s disease. Does he also have to lose her to another man?
- C.R. Foster, "Saffron Farm".splitlipthemag.com Saffron Farm — Split Lip Magazine
Sergio’s lovers give him many gifts. His two-bedroom luxury apartment is a recent milestone in his relationship with Cass; he’s only lived there for a year and it has yet to feel like home, but he doesn’t complain. He knows what it’s worth.
- Diane Oliver, "Spiders Cry Without Tears".americanshortfiction.org Spiders Cry Without Tears -
“Here comes Meg now.” Sally waved to the woman shaking her umbrella in front of the shop’s glass door. Meg passed the refrigerated case of variously colored gladioli and smiled her greeting to the manager. “Aren’t you disgusting!” Sally said, circling Meg with a swoop of her hand. “Here everybody el...
- Leila Mottley, "Sea to Sea".www.marieclaire.com "I Am Beckoned to the Shore of Everything"
For 'Marie Claire's Makers issue, author and poet Leila Mottley pens an evocative piece of short fiction, 'Sea to Sea.'
- The Guest by Albert Camuswww.theatlantic.com The Guest
Algerian-born, Nobel Prize winner ALBERT CAMUS is the author of THE STRANGER, THE PLAGUE, and THE FALL.
- McKenna Marsden, "Toxins".pitheadchapel.com Toxins
McKenna Marsden The year we were thirteen years old, I got pertussis and my best friend Dani became obsessed with cigarettes. She liked French New Wave movies and Audrey Hepburn and The Velv…
- A.C. Wise, "Sharp Things, Killing Things". (Horror)www.nightmare-magazine.com Sharp Things, Killing Things - Nightmare Magazine
We saw the first billboard while driving along Lake Road. We’d driven the road a hundred times before, because it was the only road out of town that went anywhere worth going, and there was fuck-all to do in town except get drunk, get stoned, and get in trouble. Lake Road let us go ice fishing in th...
- A Recipe for Life, A Tonic for Grief- Christopher Blake.strangehorizons.com A Recipe for Life, A Tonic for Grief
This variation on the elixir of life pairs the flavour of roasted roc with the medicinal potency of the philosopher’s stone. But buyer beware: this dish isn’t for everyone.
- Manuel Munoz-That Pink House at the End of the Street on the Other Side of Town.www.vqronline.org That Pink House at the End of the Street on the Other Side of Town
Silvio, whom everyone called El Sapo, had been coming the longest, but only during the wet times when the fields ran muddy and no one else would brave the kind of cold that would lock your knuckles, no matter how thick the gloves.
- Kelly Luce, "The Ugliest Girl at Marcy's Wedding Pavilion".coloradoreview.colostate.edu The Ugliest Girl at Marcy's Wedding Pavilion - Center for Literary Publishing
About the Feature Author: Kelly LuceGenre: Featured, FictionPublished: Summer 2023 Photo by Graham Holtshausen on Unsplash After Carl left me for a woman he met buying manure off Craigslist, I put in for an out-of-state letter carrier transfer with the postal service. I wanted a fresh start, a cha...
- Maureen McHugh, "Liminal Spaces".reactormag.com Liminal Spaces - Reactor
An engineer who frequently travels for her job, suddenly finds herself in airports other than the one she arrived in...
- Lauren Groff, "The Wind".www.newyorker.com “The Wind”
“Mama, we need to drive, my mother said. We need to drive now. We need to go.”
- Bonnie Jo Campbell, "My Sister Is In Pain".staging4.kenyonreview.org A Story by Bonnie Jo Campbell | Kenyon Review Online
"My Sister is in Pain," a story by Bonnie Jo Campbell on KROnline.
- Nathan Ballingrud, "The Maw" (horror).www.nightmare-magazine.com The Maw - Nightmare Magazine
Mix was about ready to ditch the weird old bastard already. Too slow, too clumsy, too loud. Not even a block into Hollow City and already they’d captured the attention of one of the wagoneers, and in her experience you could almost clap your hands in front of their faces and they wouldn’t know it. E...
- Spirit of the Night by Tom Maddox (Science Fiction)
A cyberpunk story originally published in 1987! Kind of interesting to see that era's depictions of cybersecurity and AI.
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantastic writer of speculative fiction and the author of the earthsea fantasy series.
- There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is bloody brilliant writrer of Fahrenheit 451)
- Not All Rot Is Ruin – E.A. Petriconemagazine.metaphorosis.com Not All Rot Is Ruin – E.A. Petricone
It started when Leda lifted her head from her pillow and a dead fly tumbled onto her pillowcase.