Today on our @BendingGenres blog, @AmitSwetha0627 interviews poet/ author Beth Winegarner about her new collection, Swim Poems: https://t.co/oJQ4jh4Taw

by Elissa Field...I eye one under glass in diesel green, iridescent like rainbows on petrol. Laser embossed handgrips in swirls of vining flowers. I’d fired yours at the range. First time I heard a sh...

There comes a moment, looking at the artist’s dense worlds, in a new exhibit at the Whitney, when the eye stops decoding and the mind begins to surrender.

Grief Algebra We sit in silence around a table of four. We’re only three, because someone is missing. His chair is empty and will remain silent until someone visits and sits there, unaware of the v…

Bending in the Breeze [Vaughan, Robert, Marques, Amy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bending in the Breeze

He wasn’t really our Dad, I called him Larry because his van smelled like Limberger cheese. And he wore brown slacks to match his wheels, the fabric sagged, and his velour shirts always reeked of reef...

Here’s what’s coming up from your your friendly neighbourhood freelancers, lit mags and awesome independents over the next couple of months.

Bending in the Breeze [Vaughan, Robert, Marques, Amy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bending in the Breeze

by James Montgomery HE’S SWEPT AWAY SUDDENLY. After a one-hour car journey became four. After two emergency toilet stops for their three- and six-year-olds, plus one more to refuel with bags of gia…

How do you compete with a tech giant like Amazon? By rallying a community. In this exclusive Forbes interview, C-Suite Unscripted host Maggie McGrath sits down with Bookshop.org Founder and CEO Andy H...

In case you missed any of the pieces we appeared during the 2026 FlashFlood, here's an index to everything.  Sadly, the 'Blog Archive' sidebar list maxes out at 100 titles per day, so use this as your guide to the complete 2026 Flood.... Happy Reading!   2026 FlashFlood   *    *   *   *   *   *   * 'Whisper' by Karen Arnold  * 'Lunch' by Madison Ellingsworth  * 'Evergreen' by Athena Law  * Debut Flash: 'Bird Tag' by Nicole Savage  * 'Soybeans' by Jeremy Nathan Marks * 'Night Swimmers' by Karen Regen Tuero * 'Philodendron' by Emily Hall  * 'Lost Connection' by Sudha Balagopal  * 'All That Was Left to Do' by Matthew Jakubowski  * 'The Roller Derby Girls Skate Circles Around My Teenage Heart' by Travis Flatt  * 'When We Traveled 1,200 Miles for Forest Bathing' by Beth Sherman  * 'Shimmy' by Abigail Myers  * Debut Flash: 'Natural' by Leigh Ann LeBoeuf  * 'Territorial' by Shana Naugle  * 'The Hard Part' by Tatum Schad  * 'The Invisible Woman' by K.C. Selby  * '1993' by M.C. Schmidt  * 'All the Ways We Died' by Sumitra Singam  * 'Coffee Talk with Mr. Ackshually' by Jim Parisi  * 'At the Drive Thru' by Chelsea Stickle  * 'What if We All Woke Up with Amnesia?' by Corrie Haldane  * 'Denial' by Christy Hartman  * Debut Flash: 'Eight scenes of cherry blossoms' by Angeline Tyler  * 'Exposure Exhibition on Monday' by Carol Ann Parchewsky  * 'Key Finding' by Lisa Ferranti  * 'Chickenshits' by Jay Parr  * 'Cutting' by Tom Weller  * 'Thereafter' by Christine H. Chen  * 'Butt Dial' by Jan English Leary  * 'When my mother was at Lourdes' by Helen Kennedy  * 'Toaster' by Timothy C Goodwin  * 'The Question Bag' by C. Oulens  * Debut Flash: 'The Shopkeeper Who Stayed' by Vikesh Mirchandani  * 'The Pain Bar' by Sharon Hoffmann  * 'A Dance Of Dark And Light' by Jaime Gill  * 'My Miracle Boy' by Sandy Krausnick  * 'My Sister’s Body' by Finnian Burnett  * 'Terms and Conditions' by Rachel M. Hollis  * 'At the Margin' by Andrea Damic  * 'The Day I Finally Learned to Let Go' by Rathin Bhattacharjee  * 'Burying The Blue Ox' by Kellan Jansen  * Debut Flash: 'Things That Sing of Death' by E. Murray  * 'Smoke, Clacking, Bitter, Spaghetti Squash' by T.L. Tomljanovic  * 'A Fly in Amber' by Sylvia Petter  * 'How many bags of crisps for your melancholic soul' by Rachel Smith  * 'Dina in the Dusk' by Kendra Cardin  * 'A Boy, A Mother, Nature' by Mandira Pattnaik  * 'the history of truthiness' by Ben Starr  * 'Standing Still' by Laila Miller  * 'The Moment You Learned There’s No Such Thing as Grownups' by D.E. Hardy  * 'Heart' by Birgit Solvsten D'Alpoim  *  Debut Flash: 'Crusader' by Marinela Davies  *  'Star Signs' by Chloe Paige  *  'Lifting the Veil' by ME Kretschmer  *  'It was a time' by Vijayalakshmi Sridhar  *  'before the first bite' by Melissa Llanes Brownlee  *  'I’m no good with names, I tell the nice cleaner' by Sarah Masters  *  'Leopard Sightings' by Arti Jain  *  'The Guest We Never Met' by David Dumouriez  *  'The House That Called Her Mother' by Anatoly Loginov  *  Debut Flash: 'Memory is all the home you get' by Romi H.  *  'The Girl Who Found Her Feet' by Mileva Anastasiadou  *  'The Hereafter' by Sarp Sozdinler  *  'Orderings' by Hugh Behm-Steinberg  *  'All Aboard That's Getting On Board...' by Pam Martin-Lawrence  *  'It’s Time and You Know It!' by Sudha Subramanian  *  'Always the same ice-cream van' by Lesley Bungay  *  'Change' by Sukhjit Singh  *  'How I Refused to Let Your Mother and Your Cancer Ruin Our Marriage' by Sharon Boyle  *  'Act of Cleansing' by Cheryl Powell  *  Debut Flash: 'Springtime Blues' by Cameron  *  'Readying' by Kleopatra Olympiou  *  'Rescue' by Michael Pettit  *  'The Trumpeter in the Rain' by Liz Milne  *  'Open Palm' by Heather Emmanuel  *  'The Pressing Question of Bees and Their Knees' by Karen Jones  *  'Hard Work at the Soft Play' by Kristina Thornton  *  'Down From the Door' by Sarah McPherson  *  'Paper Warrior' by Joel Bryant  *  'Sailing Ban' by Petros Isaakidis  *  Debut Flash: 'Ablution' by Atiqah Ghazali-alKashif  *  'Confirmation Class' by Joanna Campbell  *  'Wind-up Shoes' by Ali McGrane  *  'Crows Remember, Don’t They?' by Stuti Srivastava  *  'Premonition' by Thomas McColl  *  'Thank you for applying to be my courtly lover' by Chris Cottom  *  'Waxing' by Lucienne Cummings  *  'Her mother’s apple strudel recipe' by Liz Berg  *  'Queen Mary’s Marmalade' by Christine Collinson  *  Debut Flash: 'Blank' by Izelle Du Pisanie  *  'Nothing Left That Recognizes Us' by Kumar Sen  *  'Dear Bunny' by Kerry Byrne  *  'Someone in the playground' by Catherine O’Brien  *  'Making a Margarita After Filing for Divorce' by James Montgomery  *  'Bad Blood' by Alison Woodhouse  *  'Fifteen Ways to Grieve your Mother' by Lee Irving  *  'The Xylophonist’s Tune' by Sherry Morris  *  'One for sorrow, two for joy' by Harshita Nanda  *  'Dry Stone Walls' by Slawka G. Scarso  *  Debut Flash: 'Green' by Chris Hutchings  *  'The Moths Have Been At Our Love' by Abigail Williams  *  '6' by Nick Black  *  'Post Partum' by Damhnait Monaghan  *  'Stop Wave' by Rachael Dunlop  *  'Mary Randall’s Back' by Alison Wassell  *  'Good Dog Above' by Ian Johnson  *  'Revolutionaries' by Savera Zachariah  *  'The Five Stages of Ecological Grief' by Rosaleen Lynch  *  'Welcome' by Liam Hogan  *  Debut Flash: 'Reiki' by Anna Sweet  *  'Stolen moment' by Tim Love    *  'Anchor' by Rashmi Agrawal  *  'What Floated Back' by Meg Pokrass  *  'Telegraph' by Sharon Telfer  *  'The Texan' by Bronwen Griffiths  *  'Dinomum' by Zoë Davis  *  'Still Life' by Nora Nadjarian  *  'Mbele' by Anselm Eme  *  Debut Flash: 'The Visitor at Blackthorn Station' by Yolanda Lynn Sheppard  *  'Three Cows: Midsummer Reflections in the Up-Meadow' by S A Greene  *  'How to Prevent a Breakdown' by Katherine Garrison *  'Mr Shem' by Jude Mason  *  'A Brief History of Atomic Time' by Fiona McKay  *  'I Miss Smoking' by Cath Holland  *  'Fingernails' by Gessica Sakamoto Martini  *  'Talking About Potatoes' by Ronald J Greig  *  'Magnolia' by Emily Devane  *  Debut Flash: 'The New Vicar' by John Keogh  *  'The frequency of your life self-cleaning cycle depends on spillage and usage patterns' by Cole  Beauchamp  *  'Raka Is Fine Being A Flask' by Shrutidhora P Mohor  *  'Reduce by Half' by Michael Murphy  *  'Lipstick' by Sarah Freligh  *  'Final Whistle' by Madeleine Armstrong  *  '15 Days Till Day-Care' by Roberta Beary  *  'Sandcastles and Snowmen' by Foster Trecost  *  'Flight Tourism' by Catherine Marina  *  Debut Flash: 'Garage Sale' by Suvarup Saha  *  'Discernments' by J. Edward Kruft  *  'Are We Happy Now?' by Tom O'Brien  *  'On the Fifth Morning After the Timeline Rupture' by Erin Bondo  *  'Choosing the Right Kitchen Tool for the End of the World' by Sara B. Fraser  *  'Swimming Lesson' by Elena Zhang   *  'Last Date' by Niles Reddick  *  'The Real Sound of Music, Hillview Rest Home, August 1992' by Kate Axeford  *  'Cheesecake Factory' by Mandy Lange *  'Lifetime' by Lisa Thornton    *  Debut Flash: 'Photo Day' by Joy DeSomber  *  'We Stop For Turtles' by Mackenzie Kelley  *  'Out of Habit' by Garima Chhikara  *  'Gravity Run Amok' by Louella Lester  *  'Death Is Just A Point In Space' by David Luntz  *  'Nothing Bad Happens' by Emily Rinkema  *  'Milo’s On Her Way' by Sarah Lynn Hurd   *  'The Cat Ate the Strudel' by Zoé Mahfouz  *  'Spring Sightings' by Maggie G. Daly  *  Debut Flash: 'gnome' by Emily Garland  *  'Hothouse' by J.D. Strunk  *  'It's Time' by Cally Ann Kerr  *  'How to Deploy an Antimemetic Field Device: Restaurant Edition' by Chris Clemens  *  'They Were the Years of Fat Water' by Myna Chang  *  'Cloud 10' by Keith Woodruff  *  'The Day I Finally Finished Writing My Novel' by Greg Hill  *  'The Final Toll' by JP Relph  *  'The Cartographer' by Shashi Kadapa  *  Debut Flash: 'Cityshell Resonance' by Natalie Mather  *  'Brandi says the Tooth Fairy Loves Her Best' by Emma Phillips  *  'Cheese Louise' by Chaz Osburn  *  'A Guide to the Cretaceous Fossils of the East Norfolk Coast' by Jenny Hart  *  'The Cradle Will Rock' by Mollie McLean  *  'Pentecost' by Fiona J. Mackintosh  *  'Trollbooth' by Stephen Connolly  *  '2:19 p.m.' by Chris Scott  *  'Just Another Life Experience' by Jessica Klimesh  *  'To Scale' by Nathan Willis  *  Debut Flash: 'Under the Bark' by EB Converse  *  'To Lose a Body' by Thao Vu  *  'January Candy' by Eileen Frankel Tomarchio  *  'Midnight Market' by Tammy L. Evans  *  'The New Year' by Gary Fincke  *  'One Day the Horses Disappeared' by David Henson  *  'Meeting Up with My Used-to-Be Best Friend at the Apple Fair in Early September' by Dawn Miller  *  'Sweep It Under the Rug' by Rachel Weinhaus  *  'Found Scraps of Masculinity' by Mike Keller-Wilson *  Debut Flash: 'Tagalong' by L.V. Leonhard  *  'Rewind, Rewind' by Linda M. Bayley  *  'Chihuahua Cow' by Thad DeVassie  *  'Little Mama' by Nicole Brogdon  *  Debut Flash: 'Unwanted Pitch' by Christian Todd  *  '917363' by Dan Schiff  *  'Step' by Kathryn Kulpa  *  'Initial Reactions' by Jane Claire Jackson   *  'Schrödinger’s Marriage' by Melissa Flores Anderson  *  Debut Flash: 'Centaurus A' by Olivia Woodcox  *  'Thaw' by Tracy Royce  *  'My Neighbor is My Future' by Stephen D. Gibson  *  'Ọwu Mịni Rẹma' by Meredith Chiwenkpe Asuru  *  'Wrestling with Genetics' by Robert Vaughan  *  'Unerasable' by Tracie Adams  *  'My Sister Begs for a Canary She Won’t Even Love' by Debra A Daniel  *  'Big League Chew' by Jesse Binger  *  'What Is Remembered' by Patricia Bender  *  Debut Flash: 'Fortune Telling is a Union Job' by Gwendolyn Hanson  *  'I miss my family in late afternoon' by Sarah Barbo Nielsen *  'Sweet, Ugly' by Nan Wigington  *  'Organ Donor' by Peter Beynon  *  'Coriolis Effect' by Mikki Aronoff  *  'Nothing to speak of' by Jude Higgins  *  'Night Shift' by Michael J. Ciaraldi  *  'Freytag's Triangle' by Mary Guterson  *  'Influencer' by R.K. West  *  'Girl as a Found Shell on the Beach' by Shareen K. Murayama  *  Debut Flash: 'No One Will Know Unless It Takes' by Jenna Martin-Trinka  *  'Cassandra said you shouldn’t make the coffee run to Bozeman today, ’cuz zombies' by Tom Walsh  *  'What Is Left Behind' by Monique Cuillerier  *  'Beating Odds and Keeping Time on Magnolia Street' by Jen Wyrauch Edson  *  'My Absent Heart' by L. Michelle Nichols  *  'The Note My Uncle Left' by Heain Joung  *  'Gone, and All Forgotten' by Jon Fain  *  'The Surprise Party' by Karen Crawford  *  'Thank You for Calling the Thoughts and Prayers Hotline' by Shantell Powell  *  'Dragonbeasts' by Alexandra Otto   *  Debut Flash: 'Don't write about the ceiling fan' by Anya Rosensteel  *  'Barometric' by Renuka Raghavan  *  'Gestalt (noun): a theory that a whole is different from and more than its disparate parts' by Rachel Abbey McCafferty  *  'New Shores' by Alex Grehy       

The sports gene I get from my dead father. He returns to me now as a scent. Water-logged leaves. He’s the tetherball attached to my pole, the flying trapeze of my soul. He runs a bar tab higher than a cloud then turns to me and says let’s hit the road, son. And when I argue with him about the keys, he says that’s a bunch of horseshit. But then I bluff: I can see his ailing pickled heart sitting in a laboratory glass jar on a top shelf too high to reach. I wrestle him to the ground, grab the keys, load Dad into the back seat. And for once, just this time, he won’t barrel down a back road at one hundred miles an hour, straight into the side of a quarrelsome train. --- Robert Vaughan is the author of 6 books, newest is ASKEW. He is also the EIC of Bending Genres.  

The sports gene I get from my dead father. He returns to me now as a scent. Water-logged leaves. He’s the tetherball attached to my pole, th...

Two Stories — Claudia Monpere Six Sisters Wearing Flip-Flops in the Damp Hospital...