Fiction

The explosive charges worked fine. The wall caved in as expected. But the specs were wrong, or a decimal disappeared somewhere. The slight possibility of a wrong address, some dyslexic…

Evening had arrived for the forest. The time of year when autumn became a tangible emotion. This summoned recollections out of the gloom, influencing those with inward inclinations. In the…

“The rats are everywhere,” the exterminator says, rolling up the blue sleeves on his overall. I tell him he doesn’t have to take off his shoes, but he quickly reprimands…

If Mark didn’t study tonight, he would fail the Abnormal Psychology test tomorrow. And he couldn’t afford to fail that test. He was already on academic probation. If he started…

[Image Credit: Detail of “So Pretty” by Carlos Luna, 2009] The trains weren’t really in sync. They were a few minutes apart, despite the schedule on BART’s digital display screen.…

—It was supposed to be breezy this afternoon. —And now it’s hot. —Wait up. —Hurry up. —It hurts. —What hurts? —Everything hurts but it’s my foot at the moment. I…

The flight of birds, one bird of one species crossing a flock swirling, breathing together with their wings, a musical instrument of movement based on air—what does that mean to…

Chapter One: The Royals, Game One We were being careful with me. No loud noises, no extraneous stimulation, no horror movies, no rich food, no major decisions, no nothing. But…

[Image Credit: Auguste Rodin Prométhée / Prometheus Fusain] The men and women shivered, huddled together, in the night cold, in the deep dark, the howling of animals around them, the sounds…

I recorded birds in the studio on the day my wife left me.  The set-up: a single condenser mic attached to a feeder.  Newspaper on the floor to eliminate the…

“I came into the room and I knew immediately. It was the smell of him, of his room, after he had been sleeping, in the mornings, when the room was…

[Photo Credit:  “Crane Into the Sky” by Riven] I. A young man stands in an open room; there are windows all along the back wall that look out at the…

Christopher Woodall’s November (Dalkey Archive) is a big book. I knew that going in, and, frankly, its length (just a little  over 700 pages) contributed significantly to its allure. Yet…

[Image Credit:  “Common Space” by Cintra Vidal] Translated by Laura Vena Sunglasses She found them in a shop window, mounted on a metal display with others, which, even upon close…