Fiction
BEYOND STORYTELLING? Introduction to Issue 44 Fiction by Edwin Riddell
Identifying new trends in literature is always a hostage to fortune. But with no effort on my part, there seems to be a pronounced element of social and political comment in this issue. Sitting alongside some sharp, often wicked humour, it’s a potent mix. That word “story” seems hardly to suffice in some instances. God [...]
Fiction
God is a Teenage Girl by Channa Goldman
Up here, it’s nothing like it is down there. There’s no light and dark or day and night “In the beginning” kinda moments.
Fiction
Ronald Regan and the Angels by Peter Bailey
Susan saw the rich asshole through a gap in the stage curtains. Rich was only a guess, but she thought a pretty good guess because he was wearing a very smart suit that was probably worth more than she made in a year.
Fiction
Bullet Story, 1974 by Douglas Kolacki
It made all the difference, what she carried today in her purse. A tiny thing, no bigger than her fingernail, sheathed in its .38 caliber revolver
Fiction
When las primas decided to rob a bank, they each wore a lilac beret from their favorite corporate chain. They were protesting capitalism.
Fiction
We Must Have Blood by Todd Guerra
“Good golly, that’s a fat man,” said Tyler. He was a precocious scamp and didn’t know any better. You know how kids are.
Fiction
Kids These Days by Matt Flintoff
Jay Greer leaned back in his chair. He was a veteran of many a parent teacher conference evening
Poetry
Mimi ni Mwafrika by Charissa Cassels
Narrated by Charissa Cassels I am African I am clicks of tongue I am clay, hardened I am gold, mined And gold mines I am untold stories Suppressed history I am hands, clapping Hips gyrating I am feet stomping Backs arching I am mouths singing Lips whistling I am bodies shaking, Moving to rhythms only [...]
Poetry
Universal City by Heather A Davis
I dreamed about a city you designed A second tier city twisted in progressive renewal born from urban theories planned in university towns Standing in its square, I begged for pennies While all around me you built alternative solutions Transit stations and bike paths, brick by universal brick Stop, I said, the city’s taking over, [...]
Poetry
Land of the Optimistic Poets by Steven Croft
Narrated by Steven Croft At city's end, away from its central towers, traffic light after traffic light, billboard after billboard, past strip clubs liquor stores bad neighborhoods to the broken edge of the built environment, and on, riding now the scrape of diesel train wheels past smoking factories, brownfield tank farms, on past roundup crops [...]
Poetry
End Credits by Gretchen Tessmer
Narrated by Cretchen Tessmer I’ll expect a classy end, you know… big bang deconstruction post-modern soirée black holes with ties undone and everyone drunk on star smoothies swirled with fire, ice and screaming silence (sure, a little violence) followed by the orchestra rising brass sounds trumpets and percussion with a big band to play us [...]
Poetry
Narrated by Jonel Abellanosa In this airless expanse I’m not spacewalking, my helmet a space with a dome. Neither of light, nor with weight, I’m carried by my body’s earthly hum, my suit a jealous lover. Blue in this deep space of my mind is brighter than solitude or land masses thousands of miles below [...]
Poetry
Beneath the shelter of a quilted sky, the gurgle and slurp of lively springs too deep for hearing the reach and stir of buried roots too slow for knowing, Earth rests. but ever moving, forever changing, and sure as death, the turning comes when heat unlocks the ground, and hidden leaves awake to the [...]