Category: Bad Survivalist

“The Things You Think When Not Taking a Dump,” Bad Survivalist list fiction by Steve Gergley

1. Jesus 2. Shit 3. Goddammit 4. This is ridiculous 5. Two more sets of push-ups and then it’s on to the squats 6. But seriously why is this even happening? How the hell can food keep going in when nothing comes out? 7. It’s not like you’ve skimped out on your workouts or eaten…
“Survival Kit,” an executive summary by Craig Foltz for Bad Survivalist

I. Large bodies of water intrude into every sentence. Somewhere, over the horizon, a burst of mist; particles whose surfaces bristle with the memory of daytime. It’s night, the moon will not relent and pulls the ocean along after it. Up and down your street, power-walkers of all shapes and sizes parade past your porch.…
Bad Survivalist: “Born Again,” a flash fiction by Victoria K. Gonzales

Five years ago, I decided I would have sex with every man I could before I died. This meant long euphoric nights, giving and getting sultry kisses. This meant deep, sweaty moans, and, don’t stop, whispering in my ear. It meant giving my heart to lonely, scared men, but never allowing my heart to break.…
Bad Survivalist: “Hobby,” microfiction by Tyler Dempsey

I’m not even sure you’ll get this. They’ll convince you it’s from Earth, ancient. They (those in power). History’s changing. Eventually, no philosophy (maybe there already isn’t) suggesting we were a species of action. It was politics. Started in politics. Create emotion. Reactionary. Like a soccer game. Left, Right, hobbies. The home team. Candidate most-viral…
Bad Survivalist Microfiction: “Chess Problems” by Steve Chang

—after Diane Williams and James Robison Brian returned from the world and found Charlene was deceiving him again. He liked visiting her in her studio, a short distance from his mind. “That’s enough,” he said. “Charlene.” He was raspy and eager, but with a prickly thumb. It now prickled. She was beside the window, scribbling…
Bad Survivalist: “A Neutralized Threat,” comic fiction by Analeah Loschiavo Rosen

It does not seem overly harsh to say the men and women who work on atomic weapons distance themselves from the moral implications of what they do. But me? I make sure they pass through clearance and are able to find parking spots. Not so much separates us when you think of the worst-case scenario.…
Nance Van Winckel: “Hole in the Fence,” a hybrid collage/graphic/poem-story excerpt for Bad Survivalist

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Nance Van Winckel’s fifth book of fiction is Ever Yrs., a novel in the form of a scrapbook (Twisted Road Publications, 2014); her eighth book of poems is Our Foreigner (Beyond Baroque Press, 2017, winner of the Pacific Coast Poetry Series). A book of visual poetry entitled…
Lucy Zhang: “Raising Wings,” a flash fiction for Bad Survivalist

It happened slowly at first. Slits tracing shoulder blades down a pale canvas back, blood trickling like paint from an over-saturated watercolor brush. Feathers and bone and cartilage poking their way through the epidermis. At some point, my over-sized green eagle sweater could no longer hide the protrusions. I said my stomach hurt, I had…
Alice Hall: “O SONG BOX,” a visual poem hybrid for Bad Survivalist

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Alice Hall is a poet and educator currently pursuing her PhD in the Poetics Program at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Before Buffalo, she taught poetry and writing in Portland, Oregon, where she earned her MFA. Her poems are published or forthcoming from Cleaver Magazine, Prelude, Dream…