Category: Fiction

Side A Flash Fiction: “What Would You Say?” by Nicholas Claro

What Would You Say? I sent flowers. There was this card too, but I’ll get to that. My initial thought was roses. My next thought was too funeral-ish. It wasn’t supposed to be that kind of bouquet. What do you think? I said to The Florist. We were on the phone. What’s the occasion? he…
Astrophil Press Novel Excerpt: WAITING FOR JONATHAN KOSHY by Murzban F. Shroff

From the author of Breathless in Bombay and Third Eye Rising comes an intensely engaging novel about life, family, friendship, and duty. In the heart of Pali Hill, the Beverly Hills of Mumbai, four friends await the arrival of Jonathan, a man “greatly appreciated for his wit, his effervescence, and his indignation,” a man exiled…
Short Story for Side A: “Dead Calm” by Jim Daniels

Dead Calm The clumsy enormous leaves of banana trees rattled in the sea breeze on their hotel balcony. “They look fake. Where are the bananas?” Rick asked. “Where are my sunglasses?” Their margaritas sat in absurdly large salted glasses sweating on a small plastic table, slowly warming like a shallow pond of scum. He squinted…
The Future: “HolyLand, USA,” a short story by Ron Burch

We’re having trouble getting the Red Sea to part, and my boss is flipping out. It’s our highlight and finale. Written about across the country. Our most expensive exhibit, oh yeah. Through an expanse of dirt, our Pilgrims approach the ride, an outside body of water. The water’s resting on the surface, and it looks…
Exclusive Excerpt from And Yet, a book-length speculative essay by Jeff Alessandrelli

An innovative work of speculative fiction, Jeff Alessandrelli’s And Yet interrogates contemporary shyness, selfhood and sexual mores, drawing out the particulars of each through personal history, cultural commentary and the author’s own restless imagination. And Yet builds off the work of authors as disparate as Michel Leiris, Marguerite Duras and Kobo Abe, while quoting from and alluding to texts…
Side A Flash Fiction: “Another Life” by Darci Schummer

Another Life In another life, I am married to a Japanese man who was born in Toyko. “Moshi moshi,” he says when he answers the phone. We fell in love because he had a pompadour and wore leather pants, could play a hollow-bodied Gretsch guitar behind his back. At night, his dexterous hands made a…
S.R. Ponaka: “Just a Letter in the Mailbox,” a flash fiction for Side A

Just a Letter in the Mailbox My niece wants me to write a love letter to her father. They are visiting from New York, and all the rooms have been taken over by suitcases, so I’ve set up my laptop on the kitchen table, where I’m finishing up some urgent work emails before I can…
“The Woman of His Dreams,” a flash fiction by Kimm Brockett Stammen for Side A

The Woman of His Dreams He’ll meet her when he’s sleeping in the right bed. He’s planned out what to do: he will grab her. Gently, carefully, of course. He is not exactly sure how hard one has to grab to catch hold of a dream. But he will grab, nonetheless, and hold on, and…
Fiction for Side A: “Feast” by Andrea Marcusa

Feast The double-wide steel door clanks shut. I stand next to the man who collected me from the waiting room. We are the only people in the huge elevator. I am naked except for my thin gown. The man barely looks at me. He rolls back on his heels and digs his hands into his…