Fiction

The skies are a pitch-black void—cold, empty, unforgiving. Far from home, the rivers of heaven have run dry, the starlight scarce in this part of Father’s empire. Passing comets die out with a pathetic fizzle, and the migrating flocks of magpies care not to bridge the gap between star-crossed lovers.

2024 Shirley Jackson Award finalist Shirley Jackson Award finalist

In Nov. 2024 (Issue 146)

Fiction

She Sheds Her Skin

by Raven Jakubowski

Author spotlight

Cora has left her skin lying out again. It’s the first thing I see when come in. Open the door, hang up my coat, kick off my heels, turn on the lamp, and there it is, slouched in the mid-century chair by the ratty sofa. Her empty skin, deflated, black sockets staring at me.

2024 Stoker Award Finalist Stoker Award Finalists

In Nov. 2024 (Issue 146)

Fiction

NotRob

by Isabel Cañas

When my daughter was a newborn, I found I only had the attention span to write micro and flash; I wrote a lot of it. I was also sleeping very little at night and crashed most afternoons, which for me is when the weirdest dreams happen. “NotRob” was one of them.

In Oct. 2024 (Issue 145)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki + Janina Edwards
- Duration:
  
  0:12:05
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Perfect Water

by Simon Gilbert

Author spotlight

Something tells you this two-pump station isn’t a contactless kind of place. Google Maps gave up the ghost several miles ago. You go inside and pay in cash. Diolch, you add, your one word of Welsh; the cashier replies with something you don’t follow.

In Oct. 2024 (Issue 145)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  0:18:53
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Little Horn

by Gemma Files

Author spotlight

This whole business, it all started right about when I burned my church down. Not one I went to, or ministered at—I mean the one built around me, raised by my very own personal worshippers, so they could do their sacrificial reverence to me in private.

In Oct. 2024 (Issue 145)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Janina Edwards
- Duration:
  
  0:42:45
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

House of the Hidden Moon

by Sam W. Pisciotta

Author spotlight

My mother sits at the kitchen table in the moonlight, gazing at her folded hands. “Has your father returned with Lilah?” “You know he hasn’t.” The tremor she had before she died is gone. A tube runs from the oxygen unit, through her laced fingers, and up into her nostrils.

In Sept. 2024 (Issue 144)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  John Rubinstein
- Duration:
  
  0:27:47
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

What Happened to the Crooners

by Russell Nichols

Author spotlight

On an unmarked road somewhere in the Appalachians, a midnight blue Cadillac rolled to a stop, gravel popping under tires, headlights peering out into the discord of dusk. Outside the car, in the shadowy thicket, cicadas and crickets hollered.

In Sept. 2024 (Issue 144)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Mirron Willis
- Duration:
  
  0:37:44
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Queen of the Rodeo

by Cody Goodfellow

Author spotlight

We hear you laughing as you speed by on the interstate. In spite of what you might think of us, we are a proud town. We don’t need your understanding. We don’t explain. You couldn’t handle the answers.

In Aug. 2024 (Issue 143)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Nan McNamara
- Duration:
  
  27:15
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Painted Surfaces

by Guan Un

This is a retelling of a Chinese folktale that I couldn’t get out of my head. It’s been through a lot of revisions. The two things that helped it come into its final form were cutting half the word count, and finding a voice for the main character that suggests that the horror is not only in what is happening, but those who might be complicit in the act.

In Aug. 2024 (Issue 143)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Arthur Morey + Nan McNamara
- Duration:
  
  0:12:37
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Butter

by Erin Brown

Author spotlight

Kayla watched the hot, empty cake pan smoke on the kitchen counter. It was her husband Henry’s birthday, and she’d planned a little surprise for him. A party, just the two of them, the way he liked it—no one to take any of her attention away from him.

In Aug. 2024 (Issue 143)