Original Archives - Page 14 of 43

Fiction

Last Night at the Sideshow

This story started life just over nine years ago—October 30, 2013, to be exact—as an assignment in an online workshop taught by Craig Clevenger. We’d been focusing on escalation of events and status play between characters, so the jockeying that surrounds gendered expectations, especially involving sex, seemed like a good place to start. Beyond that, I’ve always found carnivals unsettling because of their atmosphere of blatant disguise, so the theme and setting fit hand and glove for horror.

In Jan. 2023 (Issue 124)

Fiction

To Cheer as They Leave You Behind

by James L. Sutter

Author spotlight

She comes early, forcing you to reschedule meetings from the car as Alan drives, white-knuckled. You don’t mind—sending contract notes while in labor is the sort of story the partners will tell for years. Delivery is an athletic event, but you understand those. You ran cross-country in college, before law school took over. You understand pain, how to bear down and force your body into submission. And then it’s over. They put her in your arms, swaddled and squalling, and she is exactly as you imagined.

In Jan. 2023 (Issue 124)

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- Narrated by:
  
  Judy Young
- Duration:
  
  48:31
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Nonfiction

Still Breathing

by Chris DiLeo

It’s difficult to make sense of death. Intellectually we understand it, but emotionally there is uncertainty and fear and grief and anger. This essay was an attempt to process those feelings. Since writing this essay, we lost two more cats, one to old age, the other to lymphoma. Both were euthanized because that’s how you show mercy to animals in pain. One of them suffered an allergic reaction to the sedative and in his final moments he was dizzy and vomiting, yet the other nestled in his cat bed and drifted off. Two more deaths, two more dead who continue breathing.

In Dec. 2022 (Issue 123)

Fiction

Wallers

by Mari Ness

Author spotlight

The day her mother brought Mr. Nelson home, Martha faded into the wallpaper. It seemed the safest thing to do. Martha had never met Mr. Nelson, but she had met the others, and she knew what they could do to her. Had done to her. And her mother. It was possible that this one was different, but Martha did not want to take that chance. “Martha?” called out her mother. She was clinging to Mr. Nelson’s arm, Martha saw, and swaying a little. Just as she had with the others. “Martha?”

In Dec. 2022 (Issue 123)

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- Narrated by:
  
  Judy Young
- Duration:
  
  20:22
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Poetry

Three Symptoms of a Disaster

by Angela Liu

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s run in the family—both paternal grandparents had it, now my father, and it often feels like a neurological heirloom waiting for me. I wrote this poem after accompanying my father for his monthly Parkinson’s checkup and wanted to convey how surreal a doctor’s diagnosis can feel when it’s essentially telling you your body will eventually feel like a stranger.

In Dec. 2022 (Issue 123)

Fiction

Break the Skin If You Have To

by Emma Osborne, Jess Essey, and Cadwell Turnbull

Author spotlight

The base of my skull buzzes as I pick up some bleach and a new scouring pad from the market. I’ve been away from my house for too long. When I get back, I must remember to clean the oven, clean the stovetop, clean the sink. In the checkout queue, I drop my basket onto the counter, and then I see her again. The new girl. So many have come and gone through the years that I barely remember them. Their polite gazes always slip off of me when I come through their checkouts.

Australian Shadows Awards finalist

In Dec. 2022 (Issue 123)

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- Narrated by:
  
  Janina Edwards
- Duration:
  
  30:26
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Poetry

For You Were Strangers in Egypt

by Elizabeth R. McClellan

This poem is one in my @notaleptic series of poems where the Twitter bot of the same name provides the first line or lines. I wanted to put a Jewish hero into one of my “creepy off-planet work assignment” poems, with the help of a Jewish sensitivity reader. I’m very pleased with what resulted.

In Nov. 2022 (Issue 122)

Fiction

Only When You Laugh

by Amanda Song

Author spotlight

Twenty-four hours to go. The Ultus Theater was all lit up, the marquee emblazoned with his name, glowing in the haze of the heavy rain. Laffing Farm Final Show: Mitch Williams! He chuckled to himself. Mitch, Mitch, born in a ditch . . . The last time he was outside in a downpour was ten years ago, that night by the lake after his treatment. He had been jittery with withdrawal, teeth chattering in his head, as loud as the waves crashing against the shore. Look at him now. 2,800 seats, sold out.

In Nov. 2022 (Issue 122)

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- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  27:20
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Fiction

Devil Take Me

by Gordon B. White

Author spotlight

The caveat is that I’m going to lie to you. That’s how confessions work, isn’t it? There are those things that even though we want to confess, we can’t confront, and so we talk around. Lying isn’t even second nature; it’s our primary condition. The best I can do is tell you the truth about when I’ve lied. Let’s start at the beginning. I come from a deep and worn-out notch on the Bible Belt, the only child of Peter and Trudy Cadigan. Well, no. You’d need only look at the graves to know that’s not entirely true.

In Nov. 2022 (Issue 122)

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- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  42:59
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Poetry

Ritual

by Okwudili Nebeolisa

This poem is inspired by what I call “the miracle industry” in Nigeria, where pastors carry out exorcisms on their congregations. Because I have been taken to certain pastors to supposedly cast away demons inhabiting me, I thought of writing a poem mocking pastors who engage in that act.

In Oct. 2022 (Issue 121)