“Criminal”: A Bad Survivalist Short Story by Meg Tuite

MY MOUTH BELONGED TO ME. “Your head is flat as a tape worm.” We waited in line to get … More

“Lunch Break”: A Bad Survivalist Short Story by Stephanie Austin

THE SKY OVER MY CHOSEN park bench is summer and painful. Fold my hands. Block out the kids running … More

Part I: The Beginning WHEN I WAS SMALL, I had dreams of the zoo. Putting mammoth-sized kibble in a … More

THE POLICE LEFT MY iPOD behind on the hillside in front of Red Lobster with my red leather journal, … More

MERLIN KLOTZ SWEATED THROUGH HIS T-shirt with giant lettering that read, “OK BOOMER.” He questioned why he wore it … More

AT NIGHT IT FILLS MY mouth, this unnamable, unmournable ghost. I don’t know who it is, but on calm … More

IT WAS, AS IT ALWAYS is, the cat who first noticed that the number of ghosts squeezing themselves into … More

THE MAN THREADED HIS WAY down the long rows of bodies with an old wheelbarrow, careful as he rolled, … More

Tara Campbell (taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. She received her MFA … More

MY FIRST TATTOO APPEARS THE morning after Ian’s funeral. I wake up and press my hands into my eyes … More

THE YEAR THAT JACK AND I rejected everything man-made, we drove into the mountains. Our 2010 Corolla was man-made, … More

TESS IS EVE UNDER HER her coat. She made the costume last year, three felt leaves sewn strategically onto … More