There is an old lady in a forest who sells lightning by the bottle. Drop five dollars and you can strike whoever you choose.
Womxn’s History Month Special Issue Fiction Runner Up: Come Disastrous Water/Rise O Deadly Sea
As she collected the fish, her foot slid into the water. Her coral bloomed, lifted off her skin. What had once been neon now glowed and pulsed color, like a cuttlefish.
Review: Writers & Lovers by Lily King
King is able to capture the particular kind of youth Casey is struggling with perfectly: one where she hasn’t lived anywhere with a dishwasher since high school, where she does not want to be infertile yet also does not want…
Important Terminology For Military Age Males
or, Cassinga—as in Operation Reindeer; as in there is no difference between civilians and soldiers when it comes to the kaffirs: “There are only targets and all that matters is whether they’re moving or still,” Pietermaritzburg said when the news…
Review: Track Changes by Sayed Kashua
Kashua explores the ideas of migration, language, and nationality through a perpetual internal monologue that at times, seems to give away too much of the author’s hand.
Flash Fiction: “On Becoming Anti-Depressed” & “Sense/Reference”
I tried micro-dosing mortared pills in squares of toilet paper, and when that didn’t work I bought an expensive machine to re-encapsulate the ground-up chemicals.
Return Instinct
A younger version of herself might have gifted her body to him, for a night. But it is herself she is returning to, and she is greedy for it, so she will not share.
Review: The Recipe for Revolution by Carolyn Chute
It is a book that dares you to grapple with it, then mocks you for the attempt.
Songbirds of Suburbia
There was another time and another place, and from that place, Jana’s mother pulls forth stories of swamps and leeches, broken bones, neighborhood dogs turned rabid, cars without air conditioning, snakes in yards.
Review: The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin
Martin’s greatest strength is in her depiction of characters, painting them vividly across the page in acute details.
Black History Month Special Issue Fiction Runner-up: “Mama Diaspora” & “Help! I’m Fine”
She washed the life-gunk from my curls, then washed again, air-dried it, combed it out. With a comb tip, she divided the hair into four squares that looked like quilt-blocks.
Black History Month Special Issue Fiction Winner: White Dog
The owner’s objectives were tactical, felt like a rush of blood at the sight of wounded game. There was an infection in the neighborhood that needed to be eradicated.