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..."

Desert Daughters | Beata Garrett

"The desert swallowed my sister like Mama said it would, but it hadn’t spat her bones back yet and I was getting impatient..."