Stories are places to live, inside the imagination. We know a lot of them, and we’re in trouble when we don’t know which one is ours.
POEM OF THE WEEK
Little Road
By Tomás Q. Morín
I forgot the pucker the lips must make so the air passing through them will bend and become rue and way and road.
NARRATIVE OUTLOUD
Betrayal
By Tobias Wolff
That evening I went to Charlotte's room to confess. Betrayal was written on my face, in my eyes, the movement of my hands, and I knew it.
NARRATIVE 10
Narrative 10
By Austin Smith
Best part of the day?
Definitely the early morning. I grew up on a dairy farm and so am physically incapable of sleeping in.
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
The Stroke
By Ann Beattie
“I hated your secretary. I still resent how cowardly you were in her presence. Why didn’t you hire someone unqualified?”
FICTION
The Manzanos
By Kirstin Valdez Quade
My name is my grandmother’s: Ofelia Alma Zamora. I am eleven years old and too young to die, but I am dying nonetheless.
FICTION
hittingrod
By Brenden Willey
His father said, What’s keeping your mother? His father’s face slack but coloring, his annoyance no parody now.
SHORT SHORT
DRAMA IN 150 WORDS
NARRATIVE 10
SHORT SHORT
Into the River Again
By Stephanie Grant
After my mother died, I understood about the river of grief that runs beneath everything, easy to access, easy to dip one’s cup.
DRAMA IN 150 WORDS
NARRATIVE 10
Narrative 10
By David Corbett
Ten words you use most on the page? In life?
Cocktails! (The rest are irrelevant.)
NONFICTION
NONFICITON
NONFICTION
NONFICTION
A Real Writer
By Bill Barich
All tales of youth involve a large measure of folly, so I continue to be amazed that my brief career as a literary agent yielded any positive results.
NONFICITON
The First Eight Books, 1970–1985
By Gail Godwin
Two basic questions the editor should be addressing to the author are: Are you saying what you want to say? and, Are you saying it as clearly and consistently as possible?
NONFICTION
Cuba Libre
By Richard Smith and Tom Jenks
History is fickle. No one long rules it, though Castro’s endurance invited an illusion of success. Cuban youth have a saying, grown tired and ironic, “Un año mas.” One more year.
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
The Crossing
By Amber Adams
You cut through the surface impelling yourself buoyant and unresisting the water holding you as before the undertow of this war.
POETRY
Ghazals for the Body
By Portia Elan
My love has the lifespan of an Arkansas Black apple. Every time I unfold the paperclips their shear strength is less, is less.
The Children and Other Poems
By Kathy Fagan
I wasn’t made to live alone. One night there’s a sky with clouds by Magritte, the next you’re headed over the guardrail, and who do you tell?
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
Independence Day and Other Poems
By Elyse Fenton
The neighbor's sprinkler is set midday to soak the sidewalk and the dying summer grass, but it makes my daughter shriek.
POETRY
From the World-Womb of Our Impending Doom
By Spencer Hanvik
What do we hope for, horse? What do we hope for at this point? There is nowhere to run.
POETRY
Two Poems
By Christine Holm
You were never a cadet, but understood the importance of angles, the heat of friction, how uncontrollable the atmosphere.
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
Electricity and Other Poems
By Kitt Keller
I saw buildings shooting up into the air, skylines blossoming and wilting, the whole cycle running over and over and over: blueprints to rubble.
POETRY
Interior Design and Other Poems
By Corey Miller
It’s easier to say welter is the weight of the sea, to think every gibbous moon is waxing, every crescent moon remaining the same.
POETRY
If I Die in a Combat Zone
By HC Palmer
If I must be killed, I wish to be killed by a sniper. His efficient nail does not require a tree or an IED.
POETRY
IPOEMS
POETRY
Between a Cynic and a Romantic
By Ashley Romano
We just hope someone will prove us wrong—as in reptiles have three-chamber hearts, but the crocodile is equipped with four.
Two Poems
By Ed Skoog
Showering at night is short fiction, a history bulletin, a guidebook to invisible reservoirs of this region.
IPOEMS
No Apples, No Clover, No Hay, No Grass, No Carrots, No Maize, No Alfalfa, No Linseed, No Deep Bag of Oats
By Willa Carroll
Just sugar cubes and a crop for you.
iPOEM
NARRATIVE OUTLOUD
NARRATIVE OUTLOUD
iPOEM
The Eclipse That Quenched the Ego
By Elizabeth Metzger
Draw me a map of your agonies, all the missing rivers you dried, a star-thread species nobody could keep in the grave.
NARRATIVE OUTLOUD
Two Poems
By Dan Gerber
The author reads his poems “The Day I Fled My Twelve-Year-Old Life” and “Sail, Baby, Sail” at Narrative Night Santa Fe.
NARRATIVE OUTLOUD
Poetry Readings
By Donald Hall
The master reads five of his poems during our interview with him.
READERS’ NARRATIVES
READERS’ NARRATIVES
6 MUST-READS
READERS’ NARRATIVES
Goa, on the Arabian Sea
By Shelley Buck
Ulrike swam in the gentle waters of the Arabian Sea. She seemed to find relief from her gloomy partner and subservient role.
READERS’ NARRATIVES
Hollywood
By Lara Michelle
She said she’d sworn off men and was living with her transsexual female slave in a loft in downtown LA. She wasn’t accepting any new clients.
6 MUST-READS
We’ve chosen a miscellany—a great classic, a hilarious audio reading, a poignant photography portrait, one of the best dog stories ever written, poetry that will blow you away, and a marvelous send-up of Ayn Rand—to entertain and delight you. Enjoy!
