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BRUISER'S Best Small Fictions 2027 Nominees Read them below. Submit to BRUISER.

“I’m gonna continue living my life alongside this.” Our New/Next Takeover continues with Rat Film director, Theo Anthony, talking to Marnie Ellen Hertzler about her Opening Night film, Eternity One

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 30/09/2026

NEW/NEXT TAKEOVER “It’s not to say I don’t have an ego — I do — but I realize that with great collaborators you make a better project.” First up in our series of New/Next interviews, Baltimore filmmaker Michael Lentz chats with the one and only Sam Pollard about THE LORRAINE

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 29/09/2026

I still delight in the radio. It can and should be free to hear for anyone with a transistor. When it works its charms on me, chance and the moment play into hearing a transmission, a letter received. @timkabara.bsky.social In Praise of IN THE PIT WITH IZZI BAVIS: www.bruisermag.com/kabara_weird...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 24/09/2026

ANOTHER ONE BRUISER ZINE 012: ELECTROCUTION IS A PORTMANTEAU, a brilliant work of nonfiction by @johnwaddy.bsky.social. Read the excerpt today. Copies will be available tomorrow at the BRUISER x Broken River Books reading at Floating Bookshop in OKC—online orders live now. Let’s rock! ↓

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 21/09/2026

cut myself on an onion, can’t tell what made me cry. tomorrow is a new day, forever. Four Poems by Carly Zoladz

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 17/09/2026

“The seagull is a common and perhaps vulgar creature ruled by natural cycles, but also a symbol of the freedom glimpsed in the pursuit of romantic and artistic passions.” @ironhandslil.bsky.social on Twenty Somethings’ DIRTY BIRD, a Chekov rendition www.bruisermag.com/merrill_db

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 16/09/2026

NEW ZINE BOND, the first collection from NYC/Maryland poet Michael Baruch Copies will be available at our Baltimore Book Festival reading this Sunday--online orders live now: shop.bruisermag.com/product/bond

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 16/09/2026

Television really does make everything better. ESCAPING THE ALIENS by Emily Spacek www.bruisermag.com/spacek_aliens

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 15/09/2026

My 1990s friends were quick to groan; “Dude, why buy the single? You already have that song!” My retort was swift. “But, dude… what about the B-sides?” This week @timkabara.bsky.social flips over a 1993 single from Baltimore's CANDY MACHINE: www.bruisermag.com/kabara_weird...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 10/09/2026

“It has to do with holding onto analog media as tightly as possible as they try to take everything away from us and replace it with a dry oatmeal box directed by ChatGPT.” Jess Bither talks with Caroline Kopko (a.k.a. Scumbalina) about her DIY filmmaking in Delaware

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 09/09/2026

The Butcher had a word for this kind of sunset: marbled. Three Poems by Ty Holter www.bruisermag.com/Holter_Three...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 08/09/2026

It made sense, of course. Punk shows should be held at the skatepark. @timkabara.bsky.social returns to Anything for a Weird Life with RIP AND RUN: A BALTIMORE PUNK ROCK SKATE PARK STORY: www.bruisermag.com/kabara_weird...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 07/09/2026

“Bring the child,” they said as I reached the window . . . ARRIVALS by Nora Rawn www.bruisermag.com/Rawn_Arrivals

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 03/09/2026

“It was so obvious as we were writing this that we were writing ourselves.” @alexlei.bsky.social talks with Avalon Fast and Jillian Frank about their messy, beautiful, and heartbreaking portrait of young adulthood, DRINKING AND DRIVING

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 02/09/2026

when i buy things god sighs and opens his mouth and goes ca-ching Three poems by Sadie Balsom www.bruisermag.com/balsom_three...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 01/09/2026

🚨 𝘼𝙉𝙉𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘾𝙄𝙉𝙂 🚨 4 sʜᴏʀᴛ ꜰɪʟᴍs ʙʏ Cᴀʀᴏʟɪɴᴇ Kᴏᴘᴋᴏ ᴡ/ ᴀ ʟɪᴠᴇ sᴄᴏʀᴇ ʙʏ 🥩𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒃 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒕🥩 Tᴜᴇsᴅᴀʏ, Sᴇᴘᴛᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 15 ᴀᴛ Nᴏʀᴍᴀʟ’s 7ᴘᴍ • $10 ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴏʀ ⓝⓞⓣⓐⓕⓛⓞⓕ

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 31/08/2026

I don’t know what he saw, but I know what I saw. BOBS YOUR UNCLE by Garret Fopma www.bruisermag.com/Fopma_Uncle

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 27/08/2026

“The rain picked up again, adding to the purr of the projectors.” Jess Bither reports from Current Space, where Baltimore’s DIY filmmakers gathered for the latest edition of New Works

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 26/08/2026

He goes forward whose love is past beauty; Amen, amen to my girl’s city. UN AÑITO EN BALTIMORE by Hanna Karras www.bruisermag.com/Karras_Anito

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 25/08/2026

“It is because of my devotion to Reality that I hate Realism, that inhuman corset that turns off all the lights of the marvelous.” Luke Shuffield on the new Aira translation from New Directions: www.bruisermag.com/shuffield_aira

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 24/08/2026

The scene’s so small you could reach in like the hand of God to open the windows, close the oven, turn off the gas burners, and pluck all the paper from the door cracks. Three prose poems by @jackbedell.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Bedell_ThreeProsePoems

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 21/08/2026

My mouth bleeds for you. I swallow my own tooth. WE ARE TOO TALL by Fran Kursztejn ↓ www.bruisermag.com/kursztejn_tall

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 20/08/2026

“Tough not to think of Tetris, the great Russian video game. It is this freedom that Tarkovsky himself represented.” An excerpt from Scout Tafoya’s (@honorszombie.bsky.social) book The Otherworld: The Mythic Dimensions of Christophe Gans

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 19/08/2026

Fish made entirely of eyes fly in the air above. Birds without feathers swim in the mirror sea. IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES 1, 3, & 5 by Nathan Steinman ↓ www.bruisermag.com/steinman_lan...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 18/08/2026

The beautiful thing about the East Coast is that most bands can be linked to one another through bills, geography, or some odd mix of the two. There’s a continuum, and I’m grateful to God to be standing at its feet. welcoming the BRUISER ALL AGES DISPATCH: www.bruisermag.com/jackg_allage...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 17/08/2026

I found the first bone shortly after noon. We weren’t looking for remains. ANCIENT GREEK STAGE ACTING by AJ Speier-Wallace ↓ www.bruisermag.com/Speier-Walla...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 14/08/2026

My spine became a zipper made of velvet. You pulled it down to see the stars inside. Six prose poems by @leonardzinovyev.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Zinovyev_SixProsePoems

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 13/08/2026

“My biggest fear is that we’ve been totally wrong about death all along” Alden Nagel talks with Ghouls in Love author @ericsubpar.bsky.social

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 12/08/2026

there’s not enough blood to satisfy my ego Three Poems by @trshboyoli.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Scialdone_ThreePoems

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 11/08/2026

Effective immediately, BRUISER accepts submissions of physical media for review. These will be assigned to our burgeoning critics bullpen. INTRODUCING: BRUISER REVIEW: www.bruisermag.com/review

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 10/08/2026

Concern citizens noted his red spiked hair resembled a cartoonish iteration of the the Devil’s horns. Others drew parallels between his name and that of Beelzebub. THE LOST DARK HISTORY OF BOZO THE CLOWN by Caleb Bethea www.bruisermag.com/Bethea_Bozo

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 07/08/2026

Somewhere Danny DeVito is asleep and perfectly happy UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA by Cristiano Cardone www.bruisermag.com/Cardone_Unexpected

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 06/08/2026

“I love wrestling at PRODUCE, it’s fucking exciting. This is some new shit, some new energy. No one knows where it’s gonna go yet. So, all we can do is kind of watch in anticipation.” - @darksheik.bsky.social Inside PRODUCE Vol. 2: www.bruisermag.com/produce_vol2

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 05/08/2026

“Uh-oh. Looks like we’ve got a little trouble here.” THE WHIR OF THE DRILL by Jon Doughboy www.bruisermag.com/Doughboy_Whir

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 03/08/2026

These scraps from your habitat betray your habits. You think they'll help it get to know you. HOMUNCULUS by Michael Baruch www.bruisermag.com/baruch_homunculus

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 31/07/2026

After utility ceases, the things that remain become primarily archival in nature. Two poems by Christopher Blackman www.bruisermag.com/Blackman_TwoPoems

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 30/07/2026

“Tortured by the omnipresent, oppressive sense that “the sun is right above us and the world is on fire” he proceeds with all the routine toil and mundanities…” @ironhandslil.bsky.social reports from Adult Film’s alt rock rendition of WOYZECK

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 29/07/2026

By evening, the creature still refuses to resemble itself. They lead it to the edge of the field where the wind is kept in a gutter. Four micros by @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Sozdinler_FourMicros

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 28/07/2026

"I watch this match and still get the same feeling in my stomach that I did when I was a kid staring at the cover art for the ZZ Top song Sleeping Bag." JR & Phil from Segunda Caida on a bloody JUNKYARD DEATHMATCH: www.bruisermag.com/segundacaida...

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 27/07/2026

at the council meeting on the one-month anniversary of the first ostrich appearing Ms. Judy Brown eloquently articulated that the town had reached a “saturation point” and that emergency measures should now be considered necessary HISTORICITY MOMENT #21 by Daniel Joseph ↓

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 24/07/2026

Enjoy these rare and strange visual art offerings from Steve Gergley, SHIPPING LABELS FOR CONTEMPORARY USE www.bruisermag.com/Gergley_Shipping

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 23/07/2026

Building the potato cannon is the ritual before the ritual, and then you are standing in a field at some point holding a length of PVC pipe that is also a mouth, also a throat, and wants to say something very loud RITUALS by Jack Sovelove www.bruisermag.com/Sovelove_Rituals

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 22/07/2026

how long have we been in the forest anyway? the eye wanders, topples over itself in densely coiled figure eights. ON A DAY LIKE TODAY by @buffalowing66.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Kempton_Today

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 21/07/2026

‘Who's the money guy? Are you the money guy, or is somebody else the money guy?’ And I'm like, ‘I'm the little money guy. @brndnstrssng.bsky.social on the inaugural show from PRODUCE —with a cameo from Abel Ferrara: www.bruisermag.com/produce_vol1

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 20/07/2026

His mind is full of noise and confused images from the day before. Marcelo drags his feet across the dirt. NATURAL POSSESSION OF THE COMMON TYPE by Maximiliano Guzmán www.bruisermag.com/Guzman_Natural

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 17/07/2026

Writing’s a lot like selling a mirror online; no matter how you do it, there you are. Three Poems by @ewenglass.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Glass_ThreePoems2

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 16/07/2026

“For Oklahoman filmmakers, this state is all they have, and they will wring every last drop of meaning and aesthetic choice from it.” Elijah Bigler reports from OKC at the DeadCenter Film Festival

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 15/07/2026

Someone is knocking on the door. I want to reload the game. I want to unload the clip. GUN SURGERY by @kuragesyndrome.bsky.social www.bruisermag.com/Peyton_Gun

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BRUISER @bruisermag.com · 14/07/2026

They knew they were watching a long match, that "something happened", but they didn't know. They were intrigued by the Mystery. An early-Covid era match performed for nobody, now watched together. This week Segunda Caida returns with Fujita vs. Shiozaki: www.bruisermag.com/segundacaida...

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