Category: Fiction

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…
Haunted Passages: “Rooftops,” a new short story by Michael Cole

Just after 9:30 in the morning on a Wednesday in June, the creature tore down Michigan Avenue, upending taxi cabs, snagging awnings from storefronts, its talons leaving three-foot gashes in the asphalt. A few minutes later, the emergency sirens began to sound. In that time, the beast had emerged from Lake Michigan, traveled alongside the…
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…
“Familiar,” a Haunted Passages short fiction by Betsy Sharp

Lara, taking the dark path behind. Lara, cold night air. Jacob in the kitchen, frying his ambition in kid-chatter. Jacob cupping plans like colored marbles, yearning for more than can fit in his two hands. He unpacks the lunchbox, Noah playing dinosaur on the back of the sofa with his jacket pulled over his head…
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…
“Bounty,” a Bad Survivalist Flash Fiction by Michele Finn Johnson

Marian’s halfway through her beginner Peloton class when she hears her husband, Luke, scream—What the hell? She slows her pedaling, listens for his lazy follow-up—Have you seen my socks? Did you drink all of the almond milk?—anything that means Marian doesn’t have to try and unclip herself from this mechanical beast. Snails? Are those snails? …
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “In the Afterlife Your Landlord Is a Witch” by Maggie Nye

She does not wear a pointed hat around the property, except in winter. And the hat is not so dramatically pointed as to be ridiculous. The underside of the brim is lined with white rabbit fur. It looks warm and stylish. Your landwitch also keeps a huge hound-sized rabbit for a pet. There are many…
Haunted Passages: “The Lamp,” a flash fiction by Scott Daughtridge DeMer

Echo’s kids asked what secrets the lamp told. She didn’t answer, just stared at the bulb, lit to full brightness. She didn’t blink. Her husband asked what was wrong, asked if she planned to go back to work. Her friends came and tried to pull her away, but she shrugged them off and stayed in…