The first time I met you I fought your father in the driveway. He fisted a tire iron, but he’d been drinking and he o…
Fiction
New Fiction from Gregg Williard: “Zone Rouge”
I got off the bus and a woman kept pace. Skinny black jeans with a fat silver belt of keys. “I know how you feel.” “I…
Fiction from Peter Molin: “Cy and Ali”
The following short story is based on the myth “Ceyx and Alceone,” as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Cy busied hi…
New Fiction from Rufi Thorpe: An Excerpt from ‘The Knockout Queen’
The following excerpt of The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe is reprinted with permission by A.A. Knopf. When I was ele…
New Fiction from Ken Galbreath: “Checkpoint”
In high school, I was invisible–acne and braces, last year’s wardrobe. I didn’t have close friends. My grades w…
New Fiction from Matt Gallagher: Excerpt, ‘Empire City’
Reprinted with permission from Atria Books. Mia Tucker woke before the alarm. She usually did on weekdays. She was a …
New Fiction from Robert Alderman: “Shaved”
This is how the fight happened: earlier that morning, while waiting on reveille to bugle from the loudspeakers across…
New fiction from Taylor Brown: Excerpt, ‘Pride of Eden’
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Taylor Brown’s newest novel, Pride of Eden, out March 17th, 2020.…
New Fiction from John Darcy: “Sorry I Missed Your Call”
An hour before the drive, Bubs finds himself sucking down an edible. A big blowout blowtorched dab of a brownie. He c…
Fiction from Peter Molin: “The Brigade Storyboard Artist”
Captain Alex Athens had been the undisputed master of PowerPoint storyboards within the brigade headquarters since th…
New Fiction from Amy Waldman: ‘A Door in the Earth’
Excerpted from A DOOR IN THE EARTH Copyright © 2019 by Amy Waldman. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company…
The Spotlight Trial
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” -The Gospel of John One day you’re a teenage girl in the…
New Fiction from Brian Barry Turner
“So, you feel the earth rotating under your feet?” As Specialist Torres grasped tightly to the doorframe of the CO’s …
New Fiction from Daniel Ford: BLACK COFFEE
Excerpted from the collection Black Coffee by Daniel Ford, September Sky Press, June 2019. “Are we ever going …
New Fiction from Roz Wiggins: “Lucky”
I. Under a ceiling topped by swirling fans and surrounded by walls whose windows had no glass, the Private lay…
New Fiction from Mike Freedman: KING OF THE MISSISSIPPI
The shine and swagger of a new day. Great Recession? Not Houston. And yet, and yet there had been a speed bump in Se…
New Fiction from Steven Kiernan: “All Your Base Are Belong to Us”
For the amputees of Walter Reed Army Hospital, Segways were the new fad. It had become common to see roving gangs of …
New Fiction from Adrian Bonenberger: “Special Operations World”
No more than 10 percent of the United States military was special operations when I got out. Being in special operati…
Japanese Poetry Never Modifies
August 2011 I remember when you first joined, I used to tell you that the Army would be four years, the way that coll…
New Fiction from Ulf Pike: “Title and Price”
It was not rare to see horses on Main Street when I was growing up in this town. I was spindly and spry then, …
New Fiction: Beethoven and the Beggar
A handsome couple strolled arm in arm down Central Park West. The man, tall and athletic with a thick, well-brushed m…
New Fiction: The Sandbar
The morning of day three, Kelly decided to go out on a jet ski. She’d been resistant at first for all the usual reaso…
Flash Fiction from Amanda Fields: “Buffalo”
When I was a child, and my father had just begun to be noticeably strange, my mother took me to the zoo. It was July,…
New Fiction from Jennifer Orth-Veillon: Marche-en-Famenne
The following is an excerpt from Jennifer Orth-Veillon’s work-in-progress, The Storage Room. Here, she interspe…
HOMEBOY: New Fiction from Mark Galarrita
I went home to Jersey only once since the enlistment. I had to see my Ma. Back in the summer of 2011 I finished Basic…
New Fiction from Patrick Mondaca: “The Ministry of Information”
Too often your mind wanders back to those places where God has turned his face away. For example: the prison your pla…
New Fiction by Matthew J. Hefti: “Jean, not Jean”
Jean, not Jean by Matthew J. Hefti When I look in the mirror, I think I look stupid. Otherwise, I don’t even t…
New Fiction from Andria Wiliams: “Polecat”
Camp TUTO, Greenland 1960 When Paul, a nuclear operator, had arrived in Greenland, the reactor at Camp Century was st…
New Fiction from Patrick Hicks: Into the Tunnel
Editor’s Note: “Into the Tunnel” is the first chapter of Patrick Hicks’s new novel, ECLIPSE. …
Fiction from Sara Nović: After the Attack
Well, nothing at first, not right after. In those initial moments panic is still optional. At the grocery store, the …
New Fiction from Ulf Pike: “Welcome Home, Brother”
My arm burned red resting out the window in the summer sun as I drove east out of the mountains. I passed through the…
New Fiction: Excerpt from Hilary Plum’s Strawberry Fields
An excerpt from the novel Strawberry Fields. Alice, a reporter, and the detective Modigliani are both working on the …
New Fiction from Ulf Pike: Son of God
I. Esses The warmth of his voice makes us wary of his intentions. He bears our sin of greenness like a precious burde…
New Fiction by John M. McNamara: “The Mayor of West Callahan Creek”
A bare bulb in a hooded fixture illuminated the sign. Fog obscured the wooden placard, and as Joseph neared it, the b…
New Fiction: The Lost Troop by Will Mackin
We had a dry spell in Logar. It was December and the weather was dog shit, so a degree of slowness was expected. But …
New Fiction by Helen Benedict: WOLF SEASON
STORM The wolves are restless this morning. Pacing the woods, huffing and murmuring. It’s not that they’re hungry; Ri…
New Fiction: Excerpt from Taylor Brown’s The Gods of Howl Mountain
There was the stone pagoda, three-tiered, built on a small hill over a stream that shone like pebbled glass. The plat…
New Fiction: Excerpt from Jay Baron Nicorvo’s The Standard Grand
The veterans of the Standard had been back from their wars for some time, trying to figure out how to live lives in t…
New Fiction: “Plink, Rack” by Steven Kiernan
There are many moving parts in a gun. There’s the trigger, which most people mistakenly believe is what fires the who…
FOB by Daniel Ford
An excerpt of the debut novel Sid Sanford Lives! by Daniel Ford Sid stepped into the desert surrounding the cramped f…
Excerpt from “Brave Deeds” by David Abrams
“Excerpted from BRAVE DEEDS © 2017 by David Abrams. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher, Black Cat, …
New Fiction: “East New York, After the War” by Gregory Brereton
I miss the fragrance of Polish women. I have not encountered anything quite like it. This tender unwashed gras…
New Fiction from “Still Come Home” by Katey Schultz
The following is an excerpt from Still Come Home, Katey’s novel set in Afghanistan. A few weeks ago, it wasn’t …
New Fiction: “The List” by Andria Williams
Author’s note: I began this story in 2013, but eventually set it aside because I feared it would seem unrealistic, or…
New Fiction: “Old Wounds” by Therese Cox
The YouTube walkthroughs have names, like action movies or episodes of a serial TV show. Judgment Day. Suffer With Me…
Fiction: “Float” by Teresa Fazio
What I really want to say, Alma, is how Remy looked on the beach that first night, his teeth perfect in the glow of t…
New Fiction from “The Midnight Man” by David Eric Tomlinson
The sousetrap north of the courthouse is one of those expensive, contrived places doing its best to look like a dive—…
New Fiction – “Iqbal” by Dan Murphy
Across the eight-lane roadway from the observation post was a gas station where Iraqis waited for days, siblings and …