Fiction

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In May 2025 (Issue 152)

Fiction

Blood of the Idugan

by Lilia Zhang

What do the wicked stepmother and the innocent princess have in common? In this retelling, a lot more than you might think. I love a good fairy tale retelling, especially those that subvert the narrative in unexpected ways, and it’s high time for the jealous villainess archetype to be rewritten.

In May 2025 (Issue 152)

Fiction

Beak

by Ian Muneshwar

Author spotlight

The landlord requires proof of the infestation, and proof—per clause twelve, subsection three of the lease—must come in the form of a living specimen, safely contained. A dead specimen is insufficient, he has repeatedly explained.

In May 2025 (Issue 152)

Fiction

Glory Hole

by Neal Auch

Author spotlight

“Happy birthday, my love. You deserve this.” Bruce lifted the blindfold and waited, counting the heartbeats, as my eyes acclimated to the harsh lighting. Above us, bare fluorescent bulbs flickered and sputtered in their aluminum housing.

In Apr. 2025 (Issue 151)

Fiction

A Girl Goes on a Date Alone at Night

by Cynthia Gómez

he found the first man on Tinder, or maybe on Hinge, and the restaurant where they met was glowing with antique lamps and green brocade wallpaper and velvet couches, everything soft and inviting, not a single hint of what was to unfold in an hour or two.

In Apr. 2025 (Issue 151)

Fiction

The Witch-Doctor’s Revenge

by Nuzo Onoh

Author spotlight

My grandmother used to say that all fingers are unequal, yet equal. There are long fingers, short fingers, fat fingers, thin fingers, straight fingers and crooked fingers. She said that each finger has a function, and all the fingers work in harmony.

In Apr. 2025 (Issue 151)

Fiction

Pezcara

by Ana Hurtado

Author spotlight

It hides from me deep below. Amidst bubbles and foam, a skull of gills and scales and spine stashes away under waves of blue. Do we share the same creases beneath our eyes, the ones that feel like gashes in the mornings? Is salt buried above its cheeks? When it swims and breathes does it choke like me, now? Like me, before? And when it cries and screams does the ocean swallow it all up, too?

In Mar. 2025 (Issue 150)

Fiction

sharp house

by Samir Sirk Morató

Little is more crushing than the idea that no matter what you do, you are only capable of destruction, and everyone knows it. I wanted to weave that fear into this story, and to push tenderness and violence up against each other. How can we understand one without understanding the other?

In Mar. 2025 (Issue 150)

Fiction

The Tugwort

by Lincoln Michel

Author spotlight

They went to the island not to save the marriage—for the marriage hadn’t yet occurred—but to save the possibility of the marriage. It’d been a rough year, Carla knew. The details were banal. Stress at work and stress at home. The economy collapsing. The political system collapsing. The planet burning. Despite all this, when her fiancé, Anton, proposed a vacation, she balked.

In Mar. 2025 (Issue 150)

Fiction

In Our Skin

by Kelsea Yu

Author spotlight

Mother’s blade slides into the soft skin at the nape of my neck, sharp and eager. She doesn’t falter the way she does when it’s Maddy’s turn. No cooing or crying. No reassurances as she slices through the spot where—no matter how brief a time Mother lets me stay Awake—my skin fuses to our underbody.

In Feb. 2025 (Issue 149)