ALT: Brioche Bakery

Toby rang the doorbell again. A draft eddied leaves across the concrete porch. He reached down to the baby carrier at his feet and adjusted the blanket canopied over its handle, shutting out the wind ...

Hey Trixie, Meet us at the Fernwood Cemetery this Sunday- we’ll be passing through. Had to cut our trip short after Timmy drowned. Bummer about Duncan’s colitis- I didn’t know dogs can get that. Those...

Melissa’s baby girl has colic and huge brown eyes with thick lashes. Haley’s baby girl won’t nurse and has chronic ear infections and a full head of dark hair. Lynn’s baby boy has a large birthmark sh...

You wake up and stretch your arms in the direction of the clouds, you have gotten into the habit of sleeping on the roof, so there are actually clouds above you—you love sleeping on a roof so much mor...

First thing they do is take away her makeup. Apparently a girl can kill herself with a tube of lipstick or a wand of mascara, though Rita’s not sure how. She herself had swallowed a fistful of pills b...

once upon a time, my grandma had a stroke after giving birth to a stillborn in a crickety bed. she was taken not to a hospital, but to a church. there: the priest adorned her face in holy water & pray...

You work, you serve, you cook, you clean for others. You do what you need to, but it’s never enough. Sometimes you ask for help. For food. For shelter. For life. And yet, you scrape together what you ...

My neighbor, Rooster, is sling-shotting baby doll heads into our backyard the morning my husband says, “we need to talk,” while hunched over the divorce papers scattered across the table. I didn’t bel...

I sliced my hand with a steak knife the day after Christmas, sneaking leftover pie. The wound stung and pulsed. I made my way to the sink, rinsed my hand over the piled dishes. It hurt. The water ran ...

Casablanca is a film of famous lines—“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” “Play it, Sam,” and my favorite: “We’ll always have Paris.” Rick says this to Ilsa in their last scene together....

My childhood best friend was beautiful. For many years, she had to wear a back brace. It gave her a dignified air, as if a string were attached to the top of her head, pulling her up tall. She glided ...

Mathieu Parsy You wake with a stitched crescent on your lower abdomen and a new part inside you, a quiet pulse you cannot feel but trust. The doctors say successful. They say numbers. They say go l…

Kathryn Kulpa   This is the origin story you don’t need to hear. Child of my heart! There would not be enough ewws in the world. You want us bravely stepping forward. You want intention. I can only…

Obituary Sneha Subramanian Kanta To say exasperation out loud is equal to one breath out, two breaths in. I’m telling you; a country can take out your teeth. It is possible to keep a body fr…

By Rachel Newcombe

by Hannah Grieco...It isn’t normal, the way you smell. The way your body responds to fear...

by Jan Stinchcomb...After the rupture your parents become great storytellers, but they only want to talk about each other. As you get older, the stories mutate into tall tales.

Let us not begin at the beginning, nor even at the archive,  Derrida says. As when I had a child after miscarrying, I began to see my father everywhe...

Sandrina Dorigo Listen to Sandrina read her prose poem When we are lost and far from home, somehow, without courage, without knowing, we find the way we need to go through night, streets and steppe…

Bronwen Griffiths Listen to Bronwen read both her prose poems The Walk From Tenterden It was a hot day in August, the sky blue as an eye, when we set off down the path. But we lost the signs and th…

Sumitra Singam Listen to Sumitra read her prose poem The Lulu Lemon women talk of Romeo and Juliet between sets of bicep curls because Lovefool comes on over the speakers and they remember studying…

Safe Enough by Tracie Adams Author’s Note: This story is part of a collection I’m currently writing called Stories from the Lighthouse Motel. The narrator is a teenager on the run with her mother...

Same River Twice  by A.E. Weisgerber   Author's Note: I get caught up in how Eagle conveys his love for characters when he puts them in old run-down places, then packages them like gifts in boxes...

Visual Art by Koss