COVER ART BY Cate Petty   FICTION RABBITS BY KATHRYN KULPA IN FLORE BY ARDEN SHOSTAK PANDEMONIUM BY JEREMY MAUSER AFTER THE GIFT BY MATHIEU PARSY   NONFICTION AUDITION BY SHARON GOLDBERG …

The Smart Search List of the Day is: Personal Narrative Nonfiction feat. @ploughshares.bsky.social @narrativemag.bsky.social @pitheadchapel.bsky.social @offbeatlit.bsky.social‬ et al. https://duotrope.com/search/smart/nonfiction/personal-narrative-nonfiction-lnOv1U8P

Erin Vachon I tell my friends it will get bad, then better. Soon. A timeline sketch. Summer, then. We will conquer. At protests, we flex such chants into religion. I. I. Believe. Believe. That We. …

Author of “The Golden Apples of Little River, Alabama” in The Kenyon Review

Edie Meade My son gripped his left index finger in a coil of righthand fingers so anyone in the urgent care waiting room could see the punctures go purple before their eyes drifted onto me, the mot…

Erin Vachon I tell my friends it will get bad, then better. Soon. A timeline sketch. Summer, then. We will conquer. At protests, we flex such chants into religion. I. I. Believe. Believe. That We. …

Erin Vachon I tell my friends it will get bad, then better. Soon. A timeline sketch. Summer, then. We will conquer. At protests, we flex such chants into religion. I. I. Believe. Believe. That We. …

Michael Pershan I called up Melody and told her she had to wear the wings because her mother died in June. I reminded Melody of her bad fortune—that just three weeks after the funeral she herself l…

Erin Vachon I tell my friends it will get bad, then better. Soon. A timeline sketch. Summer, then. We will conquer. At protests, we flex such chants into religion. I. I. Believe. Believe. That We. …

Edie Meade My son gripped his left index finger in a coil of righthand fingers so anyone in the urgent care waiting room could see the punctures go purple before their eyes drifted onto me, the mot…

COVER ART BY TREVOR CUNNINGTON   FICTION AND TREEBEARD SAID, “I MUST DO SOMETHING, I SUPPOSE” BY ERIN VACHON MELODY HAD TO WEAR THE WINGS BY MICHAEL PERSHAN BORDER ROAD BY LISA BEECH HARTZ WAT…

Sydney Koeplin Later, they will debate who saw the snake first. The girls won’t agree on whose shout warned of the danger in the water, though Renee will insist that whoever it was screamed like a …

COVER ART BY TREVOR CUNNINGTON   FICTION AND TREEBEARD SAID, “I MUST DO SOMETHING, I SUPPOSE” BY ERIN VACHON MELODY HAD TO WEAR THE WINGS BY MICHAEL PERSHAN BORDER ROAD BY LISA BEECH HARTZ WAT…

The Smart Search List of the Day is: Essays feat. @willowswept.com @pitheadchapel.bsky.social @januaryhouselit.bsky.social et al. https://duotrope.com/search/smart/nonfiction/essays-AdrYRuzW

Travis Flatt On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at Studs, his taut biceps and pecs oiled, his flanks brushed to a sheen, where he’s got a stable of regular fans—customers, rather—to cheer at his …

Francesca Leader I hear her say she didn’t mean to cut so deep. That her father left his razor out (though I begged him to be careful), so she took it, just in case. She tells me the blade’s sharpn…

Kathryn Reese   When you were born, I was sent away to the witchdoctor/my grandma’s house/the place where they teach babies to sleep. You, a bundle in my arms/a portacot/still in my belly. Me, a pr…

Beth Gordon   Some days it’s easier to tell the people I love that there’s a palm reader in my head: a parlor of empty nests: a pile of rusted bikes. My heart is a tapestry of moonshine. It’s …

Liam Carnahan Ask me how my mother died, and I’ll tell you it was an infection. Ask me how my mother died, and I’ll tell you it was inaction. We made a promise to her before the surgery, but we cou…

Lisa Thornton   The boy I met on a rooftop in Nepal, the one who pushed a rowboat onto the lake in the middle of the night while monkeys screamed at us from the trees, calls me in a dream. He …

Zary Fekete   The mirror in the airplane bathroom is too small to see my shoulders, so I only look at my eyes. Outside the window, it is winter, and everything below us is the flat, gray white of M…

Chris Dodds   Fourth missed call from the same unknown number. No message. My wrist complains when I flip the phone onto its face on my desk.  I rub the joint, which makes my other wrist ache. *** …

Beth Gordon   Some days it’s easier to tell the people I love that there’s a palm reader in my head: a parlor of empty nests: a pile of rusted bikes. My heart is a tapestry of moonshine. It’s …

COVER ART BY JH LUCAS   FICTION ACTS OF GUILE, ACTS OF GRACE BY DODGE ZELKO ORPHANS BY SARP SOZDINLER BEARS BY JACOB SCHRODT THE KEEPING BY JEFFREY-MICHAEL KANE   NONFICTION Unknown Calle…

The Smart Search List of the Day is: Short Stories feat. @necessaryfiction.com @pitheadchapel.bsky.social et al. https://duotrope.com/search/smart/fiction/short-stories-A0oRqumk

Ausiàs Tsel   My son leaves the bread upside down because he is six and the world is a surface you can rearrange. It’s a barra—too long for the plate, too warm for patience—resting on the tab…

Samantha Vargas I once met a vegetarian who had no problem shooting starlings that flew over her father’s vineyard. They’re pests she said. You’re a fucking pest I told her. I did…

Deirdre Danklin Seeking shelter from political podcasts, I started listening to the blues. I got kind of obsessed with watching a long-fingered musician play his guitar. My husband asked me what I …

COVER ART BY CHRISTOPHER GARLAND   FICTION The Sex Appeal of the Blues by Deirdre Danklin In the Wind by Christopher Lee Chilton Zachary by James Keith Smith Lost and Found by Katherine Plumho…

Katherine Plumhoff Before Nico moved to this apartment She spent two years in a children’s home, where the police sent her after she called them herself, and before that, she spent six years alone …

COVER ART BY CHRISTOPHER GARLAND   FICTION The Sex Appeal of the Blues by Deirdre Danklin In the Wind by Christopher Lee Chilton Zachary by James Keith Smith Lost and Found by Katherine Plumho…