Valley Dog | Kathryn Hill

"When I lay down on the hostel bed, I remember the dog I saw once on the freeway to Paradise Valley. The dog was dead, its fur the color of old teeth, its body buttressed with gravel and dust..."

Yellowjacket | Tetman Callis

"This is a simple story. It has a philosophy student, a secretary, a nurse, a sprinkling of other persons as necessary or convenient, and an insect. The insect is one of this simple story’s eponymous hymenopterae..."

|| | Andrew Mitin

"The glass stem fluctuates in size, now trim, now robust, and I wonder how the burgundy does not leap from the bowl..."

The Depression, The Cold War, and The Chemist | M. F. McAuliffe

"He knows what the radiation’s done. He didn’t know for years; then he let himself suspect. And after that the job he had was still the best job he could get..."

Wild Geese Calling | Abigail George

"She tells me she doesn’t deserve me, that she can see she’s hurting me. I say she’ll feel better after she eats something..."

Devonian | Łukasz Drobnik

"Ferns stretch their feathery leaves like lazy barnacles reaching out for plankton. There are pine cones and pine needles crackling under our feet..."