Original Archives - Page 2 of 43

Poetry

Blood-Orange

I was reading Genesis but I kept imagining everything happening where I grew up, in my childhood home. When I reached the part about Lot and his daughters, I became fixated on them. I never finished reading Genesis. This poem came out of that.

In Sept. 2025 (Issue 156)

Fiction

Safe Face

by Ash Huang

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)

Poetry

Turnip Heads

by Pedro Iniguez

I wrote this poem as a critique of certain political parties that espouse pro-life policies for “life” in the womb but won’t lift a finger to enact laws to help children once they’re actually born (anti-gun legislation, free healthcare and school lunches, etc.). They regard children as disposable fodder.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

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

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)

Poetry

The Neighbor’s Cat

by Kevin Varghese

CW: intent to harm an animal. Writing this piece felt like a hard look in the mirror. I wanted to be honest and vulnerable about feeling helpless, about the true cost of being a bystander. So, I anchored those ideas to the time in all of our lives when we have almost no agency or […]

In July 2025 (Issue 154)

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)