On Monday I wore a cowboy hat to work—just to see if I could.
Employees at Brick Albert seldom break the unspo…
Fiction
New Fiction by Brian Conlon: Gretchen the Dog
Gretchen had been a fighter pilot. I mean, she wasn’t actually, but she barked at the planes—loud. She was originally…
New Fiction by Lacie Grosvold: Tora Bora Bargain
It started, and it ended, with a bad bargain in the mountain caves of Tora Bora. I have nothing but time now for the …
New Fiction by Eldridge Thomas III: Glitter
Sometimes I wonder if there’s more Elvis in Vegas at Christmastime or if it’s just my daddy getting to me again. They…
New Fiction by Adrian Bonenberger: Calvary Hill
Captain Abibalus was troubled. Walking up the dusty, cypress-lined path from Kyrenia’s harbor, Abibalus’ practiced ey…
New Fiction by David James: The Infiltrators
Barabbas walked hurriedly down a dusty side alley in the old city of Jerusalem, glancing side to side before furtivel…
New Fiction by Michael Carson: The Childhood of Barabbas
My first memories are of the hills outside Judea. A small lizard, with a black stripe and black eyes, staring at me a…
New Fiction by Tod Denis: “Drilling Position”
Brendan always felt smaller than the other guys in the locker room. Probably it was their triceps, military tats, and…
New Fiction by Josh Bates: Excerpt from The Baghdad Shuffle
The patrol was unsettling. The initial ‘liberation’ euphoria had soured. It was all bad vibes from the second we exit…
New Fiction by Neil Allen: The Scar
The two boys creep towards the edge of the crater and stare across.
…
New Fiction by David James: Oxenstone
Dark clouds were building over the mountains to the north, like Giorgione’s Tempest. I bought a glass of red at the r…
New Fiction by Kevin M. Kearney: Freelance
The HYPR Dryver Manual was clear: a Dryver should not, under any circumstances, touch a customer. Simon read and re-r…
New Fiction by J. Malcolm Garcia: Pleasantries
The gauze bandage had come off in his sleep, and he touched a bare patch of warm skin and the tight line of ten stitc…
New Fiction by Matthew James Jones: Excerpt from Predators, Reapers, and Deadlier Creatures
I'd been in Afghanistan for three months when I saw the woman in the marketplace die. Thirty or forty men haggled the pr…
New Fiction by Eugene Samolin: Narcissus Mask
Olly stood on a chair in his studio with a noose around his neck. “I’ll never love again,” he moaned. He stared at th…
New Fiction by Nathan Nicolau: Returns
Does anyone knock anymore? Even at a friend’s house, an office, or my bedroom, I would knock. No one can be too caref…
New Fiction by Abu B. Rafique: The Madman of Sheen Bagh
The little mountain-village known as Sheen Bagh sat right on the border. So exact was the placement that the people i…
New Fiction by Paul Rabinowitz: Little Death
Each night our mascot—a black and white cat—sneaks into the base searching for a warm lap and scraps of food. Tonight…
New Fiction by Michelle R. Brady: Thirty Broken Birds
I. Valley of Quest Before what happened to Christine, before arriving in Iraq, before even leaving Nebraska, all we k…
New Fiction by Jake Bienvenue: Chasing Colonel Sandro
Dr. Maldonado fiddled with the picture of his hot wife and blonde sons, making sure I noticed. Hot professors are rar…
New Fiction by Robert Miner: Shades of Purple
Danny Llewellyn hadn’t shit himself since he was a toddler, back when nobody minded. Since then, he’d joined the Army…
New Fiction by Jesse Nee-Vogelman: Improv
The terrorist sat down at the cafe at a quarter to one. She had always been punctual. Beneath her clothing was a bomb…
New Fiction by Dwight Curtis: “The Thirty-Two Fouettes”
The chair came to a stop and with great effort, haltingly, the figure lifted himself to his feet. He took a single j…
New Fiction by Adrian Bonenberger: “Checkpoint”
Every two or three months Jon and Steven would meet for lunch at the McDonald’s outside the town center where Main S…
New Fiction by Dion Wright: “Your Land”
“Drone up,” said Lieutenant Levi. Heads turned and eyes followed the drone’s swift ascent to the sequoia canopy 350 f…
New Fiction from Matt Jones: “The Fisherman”
“You coming to work, New Guy?” Sailor asks, and I snarl at my nickname. Dude gives me the creeps—somehow they …
New Fiction by Bryan Thomas Woods: “Dirt and Bones”
Somewhere near the Hải Vân Pass, Vietnam, 1969 I found her body tangled among a thicket of vines on the jungle floor.…
New Fiction by Sándor Jászberény: “Honey”
1. A rocket hit the village. I woke up to the sound of the explosion. My eyes widened, I jumped out of bed, put on my…
New Fiction by Adrian Bonenberger: “King Tide”
We’d been expecting the fascists for a few days but they’d gotten hung up on Newark. Usually they moved fast. C…
New Fiction by J. Malcolm Garcia: “An Arrangement”
I escaped to America after my fiancé, Farhid, died. He was an officer in the Afghan National Army in Bagarm when he w…
New Fiction by Jesse Rowell: “Second Skin”
Alpert Nelsen had lost a toe. He just didn’t know it yet. Not a big toe. One of the smaller ones. It got infected whe…
New Fiction by Nancy Ford Dugan: “Flow”
So, Abe, the pleasant guy who buzzes you in every week at the bubbled-roof tennis facility, takes your thick wad of c…
New Fiction by Tim Lynch: “The Skipper”
It was a typical Thursday night at the Taj Tiki Bar, tucked away off the Jalalabad – Kabul road in the hamlet of Bagr…
New Fiction by Todd Easton Mills: “When Beauty is Convulsive”
From his notebook, illustrated with a picture of a four-eyed flower: We live in a bungalow in Pasadena, California, w…
New Fiction by LN Lewis: “Her Boyfriend Felipe”
“You must really like mango.” The girl lifts them, one, two, three, and puts them in the paper bag, but it’s me she i…
New Fiction by Gordon Laws: “Make Their Ears Heavy, Shut Their Eyes”
I know a deaf man who was once shopping in a general store. A stranger in town was also in the store, and he observed…
New Fiction from Kirsten Eve Beachy: “Soft Target”
For Sallie. By Picture Day in November, Sophie had perfected the downward stab and counting to twenty. She clenched h…
New Fiction from Kate Sullivan: “All Sales Final”
GoodSouthernBoy™ is born to a RegularAmericanFamily! in Tennessee. You won’t learn where exactly, and if you do, you …
New Fiction by Pavle Radonic: Murder, War and the Dead
An old unsolved murder mystery in a foreign sea-port. Ship Captain the victim, done nobody any harm. Who killed Capta…
New Fiction from Andrew Snover: Dana and the Pretzelman
The Pretzelman died yesterday. He was shot on his corner half a block from his home, and if he has family they’ll pil…
Fiction by David Abrams: “Thank You”
Thank you Thank you for your service Thank you for going Thank you for coming back Thank you for not dying Thank you …
New Fiction by Cory Massaro: “Gran Flower”
I fill the big bucket with soap and water and start heading across the field. It’s early on a Sunday and Gran …
New Fiction from Adrian Bonenberger: “American Fapper 2: Still Fappin’”
I know what you’re thinking. What could this story possibly be about. Let me catch you up. First of all, you’r…
New Fiction by Cam McMillan: “The Colors of the Euphrates”
She came from the south, wearing a bright red dress and carrying a light blue backpack, weaving through the well-worn…
New Fiction from Eddie Freeman: “The Skirt Fetcher”
Sadie was a do-gooder, someone who was aware of the deeply rooted systematic injustices that perpetuated oppression t…
New Fiction by Bob Kalkreuter: “Unhitched”
He remembered that day. God, did he remember it! His worst day in a year of worst days, a day he’d spent the last six…
New Fiction from Jane Snyder: “Mandy Schott”
They sent us home from school early because of the snow, just hard little flakes at first. I didn’t look in the garag…
New Fiction from Lucas Randolph: “Boys Play Dress Up”
When visiting a friend’s grandpa, the Boy learned that the grandpa liked watching football games on the weekend…
New Fiction from Bailee Wilson: “The Sun Burns Out in Vietnam”
Vietnam, 1969 The world appeared like a ripple in a puddle- a Jell-O jiggle spreading across dark green jungle water.…
New Fiction by Rachel Ramirez: “The Witness”
I am in the grand room of the High Commissioner’s Residence in Manila. A crystalchandelier hangs from the ceili…