My neighbor says flooding would prove less problematic if trucks would stop sending waves through his doorway. Omaha Steaks have overtaken my mailbox. The bank sold my mortgage to a company called Mr. Cooper. Previous homeowners elevated my house eleven inches, and the crawlspace is littered with hand-sawed struts, concrete shims, cracked four-by-fours, rusted cans of Raid. →
“On the Nextdoor App”
The Bridport Prize Anthology 2023
I bought a four-band puzzle ring from a shop beneath the Al Asad stadium. The proprietor asked if I was sure the ring was all I wanted or if I might also be interested in a designer suit, fabric straight from the factory, a fraction of retail, custom fit. I told him I was not absolutely sure about anything except that a custom suit would not fit for long. →
“FPO AE”
Sweet
Mac sat his grandfather at a table beneath a massive royal palm while we debated dessert options. Landscape lights shined halfway up the trunk, leaving the fronds as dark as the sky above the strip mall. →
“Old Man Shadow”
X-R-A-Y
“Off Krome”
Passages North
(Neutrino Short-Short Prize finalist)
My quasi-boyfriend was having a great time mocking me in front of his friends, so I made my own way back through the graffiti labyrinth—what everyone called the Krome insane asylum but what was actually a government missile launch site abandoned at the tail end of the Cold War. →
Auntie was cutting vegetables like they weren’t even there, asking why I was worried about who would ride the Ferris Wheel with whom when these girls out here—hacking the back end of a butcher knife through the side of a sweet onion—were always wearing some too-tight torn-up see-through something over popped-up nipples like it’s cool to be cold. →
“College Boy and the County Fair”
Lost Balloon
(Best Microfiction 2024)
M was rounding the corner of Briny and Fifth, speeding to catch the end of Sunday mass, westbound and wondering where she went wrong, rehashing the reasons she couldn’t afford a car for her stepdaughter’s sixteenth. →
“Between Breakfast and Lunch”
Southern Indiana Review
For seventeen convoys, in the helpless passenger seat behind layered glass and the streaming world, he said nothing when things went antic. He said nothing when their truck fell behind and out of radio range. He said nothing when the turret gunner’s faulty headspace caused the fifty to jam during small arms fire. →
“Laurel and Patina”
AGNI
I’m about to be sick on the front porch. Granddad is at the back, beating his cane against the screen door to scare the Muscovy ducks. The neighbors understand—nobody wants duck mess on the walkway. →
“Fifty-five and Older”
X-R-A-Y
Views, Reviews, and Interviews
Broward Arts Journalism Alliance
Tales of Lauderdale →
SmokeLong Quarterly
Flash from the Past: “One Degree of Safety” by Andrew Gretes →
American Literary Review
Grackles: Red Rocket
The Paris Review
Staff Picks: 02/12/21 • 02/19/21 • 02/26/21 • 03/05/21 • 03/12/21 • 03/19/21 • 03/26/21 • 04/02/21 • 04/09/21 • 04/16/21 • 04/23/21 • 04/30/21 • 05/07/21 • 05/14/21 • 05/21/21 • 06/04/21 • 06/11/21 • 06/25/21 • 07/02/21 • 07/09/21 • 07/16/21
In the Gaps: An Interview with Keith Ridgway →
A Jackpot in the Archive →
Game, Set, Match: Tennis in the Archive →
Ring around the Archive →
Vestal Review
Company K: WWI in Flash →
North American Review
Fences and Fax Machines →
SmokeLong Quarterly
Smoke and Mirrors →
The MFA at FAU
Tom Sleigh Workshop Series →