Category: Side A

The rule: send ONE standalone poem, essay, story, comic, manifesto, anomaly to “Side A.” Published works appear alongside short-form interviews and, if possible, YouTube audio.

Side A Essay by Gabriella D’Italia: “How to Get Dressed in the Dark”

At a recent art exhibition titled after my recent memoir, I overheard a group of women: “What does Getting Dressed in the Dark have to do with anything? I don’t get it. Oh, it’s the title of a book. It still doesn’t make any sense.” They joked with one another, unaware of my presence. I…
Side A Flash Fiction: “How I Forgot the Picture of Us as Babies” by Niles Baldwin

How I Forgot the Picture of Us as Babies My cousin said would I like to burn a picture of us from when we were babies? I said no. My cousin said but if we do then we will remember it more. I said we don’t remember it, we were babies, we just remember it…
Hybrid Essay for Side A: “Post-Mortem Report No. 0607-EX” by Atreus Fong

POST-MORTEM REPORT NO. 0607-EX EXAMINER: [REDACTED]SUBJECT: Male, 29 years old.DATE OF EXAMINATION: Ongoing. I. EXTERNAL EXAMINATION The body presents no visible or any obvious trauma. Facial musculature is disciplined; trained into neutrality. No signs of impact, struggle, or force. No outward signs that anything is, or even could be, wrong. This is typical. Observed behavioral…
Laurie Price for Side A: Two Poems

Star Shining to get to the trees.Of light, of exact evening.A crescent whistles, scissorsin a narrow path. A long transitpasses at night pluckingat its verges. Who goes there?Who? Who gets to seam insidewith its out? A white lily like a talisman. Its light. Planted a little, partlyblack or walled—or buried. Justnot there in the dark,…
Side A Flash Nonfiction: “High Maintenance” by Jade McGregor

High Maintenance After my mentally ill ex moves out, I, also having moved the mental illness goalpost right off the soccer pitch, start doing things again: using bar soap, taking milk-less jugs to the return-it depot, vacuuming. I drip water all over the bathroom counter if I want. I pull the crown off the tub…
New Hybrid for Side A: “Like the Air Is a Needle” by Kate Catinella

So the kids turn it into some sort of game with a lot of screaming. “How many balloons did you” POP AHHHHHHH “Did you say you bought again?” “Fifty, but it was a deal where you” POP AHHHHHHH “Let’s just say” POP AHHHHHHH “Let’s just say there was a lot for the taking. Had to…
New Side A Short Story: “Nobody Cares” by Jacob Austin

Finding himself with a rare Tuesday off, Laramie decides to catch a movie. He had been told the local theater offered five-dollar matinees on Tuesdays, and while there is not anything playing he particularly wants to see, he had been at Target the other night and smelled the popcorn from the snack stand and has…
Side A Short Story: “My Oncologist” by Trevor J. Houser

My Oncologist After being told I had a year to live, I decided one evening to visit my oncologist’s private residence in Pacific Heights. It is a very nice neighborhood. Homes like state capitol buildings clad in armor of Italian cypress. When I arrived at my oncologist’s address, a stream of people in costume was…
New Side A Prose Poetry: “A Meditation on Birds and Other Things After Watching It Was Just an Accident” by Sarah Dickenson Snyder

A Meditation on Birds and Other Things After Watching It Was Just an Accident I know very little about Iran, and yet there are familiar crow sounds in the beginning of the movie where cars dart on busy roads and one man digs a dusty grave in the desert. Nothing feels safe there. Crows squawk…