The Alchemy of the Eye | Ian Goodale

"He felt as if his soul had been seized hold of, gripped tight by the ivory fingers and wrung dry until he fell headlong into the grave, limp and defeated by the obsession inspired by this thing the woman had shown him..."

The Sorrows of the Pelican | Matthew Harder

"I have always dreamed of being a writer and, whether it was a midlife crisis or my destiny knocking, I recently picked up my pen and began to write again..."

TNT | Donald Anderson

"The blast rattled my teeth and rib cage. It pushed on the air in my lungs. In the time it took for the concussed dust to settle, I worried I’d loosened the grid..."

Hands | Rebecca Ruth Gould

"When they first met, he shook her hands boldly and directly, as if it were a normal thing to do and not a violation of the law in the Islamic Republic of Iran..."

Death Mountain | Matt Rebholz

"Up in the air anything could go wrong. Someday the engine could cut—maybe fuel had been leaking, spraying the fields like pesticide rain. The propeller would grind to a stop but the plane would push forward awhile, gliding, silent..."

In the Beginning | Kelsey Pinckney

"We went to church and when we met and sat together for the first time, it felt like always. B was always with R, which was more like usually, since nothing was quite like our always..."