Fiction

Safe Face

To save face, turn away from the sun. Turn away from the spatter of cold rain against the cheek, away from the hard light of the moon at its roundest, away from the snow-flecked wind, away from the barky scratch at the fork of an oak.

In Sept. 2025 (Issue 156)

Fiction

Finishing Touches

by Adam-Troy Castro

When I proposed to Caroline, I told her that as long as we lived I would deny her nothing, but I had one request for myself: that we fulfill my own lifelong dream and build a haunted mansion for us. Caroline was amenable to this.

In Sept. 2025 (Issue 156)

Fiction

Autogas Ferryman

by Champ Wongsatayanont

Author spotlight

Krungthep means “The City of Gods.” A much more charming name than the bawdy Bangkok that foreigners joke about. But to Somsak, it is the city of ghosts. He drives his taxi slowly along through the glittering blocks of shopping malls, the neon signs of Yaowarat restaurants.

In Sept. 2025 (Issue 156)

Fiction

Eight Ball

by Martin Cahill

Author spotlight

There’s an eye in the back of my husband’s head. It opens only after he’s fallen asleep, lid splitting silent as a dream in the night. My husband’s eyes are amber, no brighter than a penny in the sun. The eye on the back of his head is different. It looks out at me through his dark hair, pupil white and glowing.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

Fiction

Swallow Test

by Angela Liu

Most of us speak and eat/swallow without thinking about how complicated these processes actually are, how a single malfunction in the system can completely alter how we live or interact with others. A few years back, I accompanied an elderly family member to their first swallow test.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

Fiction

Bunny Ears

by Kristina Ten

Author spotlight

Hannah’s first impression of Colden Hills Music Camp is that, for a place with “hills” and “music” right in the name, it’s too flat and way, way too quiet, and the one thing she initially thinks must be a weird rustic flute propped up against the side of the welcome cabin turns out to be just an extra-straight stick.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

Fiction

Hungry Ghosting

by Anne Mai Yee Jansen

Used to be, you’d buy paper offerings and burn them to provide for your ancestors. Spirit money ensured they were taken care of in the underworld and wouldn’t have to roam the pitted streets of the afterlife suffering from starvation or homelessness. In this way, you could help your late loved ones avoid the terrible fate of becoming hungry ghosts.

In July 2025 (Issue 154)

Fiction

The Hearth

by Benjamin Percy

The hearth is a trope of holiday songs and stories. It’s a warm place in a cold time, and families gather around it—for love, laughter, storytelling, a cup of cheer. This short story is an attempt at redefinition. I’m taking the familiar and approaching it from an unfamiliar, upsetting angle.

In July 2025 (Issue 154)

Fiction

Asking for It

by Kristi DeMeester

The first and last time Calvin asks me about ghosts is on our fourth date. He wears green because I told him it was my favorite color. His hair is freshly cut, and his jaw still bleeding from a hurried shave. I smile at these small things he’s placing before me as an offering.

In July 2025 (Issue 154)

Fiction

Edgar Addison, the Author of Dévorer (1862-1933)

by Ben Peek

Author spotlight

For such an infamous book, the original edition Dévorer is decidedly ordinary. It is a small, clothbound book, written in French. It is one hundred and forty-seven pages long. It was privately printed by its author, Edgar Addison, in the final years of his life.

In June 2025 (Issue 153)