Girl
by E. HamptonFiction
There’s nothing about her curls that I haven’t seen elsewhere in the world—I’ve watched streams and been caught in them. The way steam leaves a source of heat is one of the many ways to leave that I’m familiar with. People talk about life’s mysteries, but I’ve seen clouds from above, and descending through them, I’ve looked up.
Special Friend
by Lewis WarshFiction
It’s important to let the grass grow a little while longer. It’s not necessary to cut the grass—let it grow for a few more days. You can wait until it’s up to your waist, then you can cut it.
Lost Time
by Lewis WarshFiction
The train was delayed, but when it finally entered the station, and after I found a seat near a window and hoisted my suitcase onto the rack, I noticed that the woman sitting across the aisle was a person I had known in high school.
FÉDER or the Gilded Husband
the final installment from an unfinished novella
by Stendhal, translated from the French by Brian Evenson
Fiction
That evening, he felt still more how crazy he was; in the foyer of the Opéra, he met Delangle, who said hello to him. He underwent a movement of terror, and the big voice of the Provincial, so little made to touch someone’s soul, rang out to the very depths of his.
The Roses at the Hospital
by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Karen Gernant and Chen ZepingFiction
When I was at home, I always heard people mention “Gao-ling.” I got the impression that it was a hill, with several long, narrow little streets leading to it. On the hilltop was this city’s largest hospital. People said that Gaoling wasn’t far from my home.
The Face
by Laird HuntFiction
My job that afternoon was to rake leaves for an elderly couple who lived a few miles away from my Grandmother’s farm in central Indiana. They had half a dozen elephant oaks, each one of them a monster, some big shag-bark hickory and a giant maple with pretty red leaves.
Tragic Strip
by T. MotleyFiction
Once upon a time, a lazy grasshopper watches an industrious one gathering food for the winter.
Character and Fitness: Chapters 13 and 14
by Jason Flores-WilliamsFiction
Character and Fitness is a semi-autobiographical novel about an unemployed social justice lawyer and his nurse girlfriend living in a shitty apartment complex behind a strip mall in suburban Philadelphia, the birthplace of our democracy.
