STORY OF THE WEEK

Night Moves By Tom Lakin

Night Moves

By Tom Lakin
Here is somebody who knew him before—before the war, before he came home and began drinking and took a job waiting tables at Ken’s.

POEM OF THE WEEK

The Garden By Bruce Bond

The Garden

By Bruce Bond
In his final year, my father grew tomatoes. He knelt a lot. He watered. He stared into the space where language left him.

FINAL WEEK TO ENTER

FINAL WEEK TO ENTER
Deadline: Wed., July 31, at midnight, PDT.

We’re looking for short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, and excerpts from long fiction and nonfiction.

Please see the Guidelines.

FICTION

Home Help By Janet Burroway

Home Help

By Janet Burroway
People of that generation did not divorce. And in any case, how could she be unhappy with my father—who was the source of all sweetness, intellect, fun?

Spring Issue

FEATURES


FICTION


FICTION

Spring Issue

FEATURES

Charlottesville Burning By Gregory Orr

Charlottesville Burning

By Gregory Orr
In the face of darkness, the words and images here call to the better instincts of humanity.


FICTION

The Fate of Others By Richard Bausch

The Fate of Others

By Richard Bausch
The old man looked over at him, not quite smiling. “I pissed in the fountain.” He heaved a long, slow sigh. “Twice.”


FICTION

Boston Commonat Twilight By Susan Minot

Boston Common
at Twilight

By Susan Minot
In that mysterious place, he would supposedly find someone to sell him pot.

FICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

FICTION

The Rescue By Joyce Carol Oates

The Rescue

By Joyce Carol Oates
Already it was late. He’d missed supper. Past 9 p.m. No one asked any longer—Where’s Daddy?

NONFICTION

Plain Lucky By Bill Barich

Plain Lucky

By Bill Barich
The height of my lucky streak came when the magazine chose, in 1955, to award a Chevy Corvette to the World Series MVP.

NONFICTION

Fifteen Dogs By Rick Bass

Fifteen Dogs

By Rick Bass
You really should go back and pick up those little pups. / Ah, they’re feral, they wouldn’t make good pets, they’re irredeemable.

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

Fifteen Ways to Avoid Gardening By Ann Beattie

Fifteen Ways to Avoid Gardening

By Ann Beattie
Call tick control. When they don’t show up, see if mosquito control can help in their own quiet, noncarcinogenic way.

NONFICTION

Don’t Beat My Sister By Charmaine Craig

Don’t Beat My Sister

By Charmaine Craig
Htet Htet explains that her difficulty (my word, not hers) actually began before her single mother sold her to the traffickers.

NONFICTION

Losing My Mother By Kate Small

Losing My Mother

By Kate Small
We run, balancing bags, pulling suitcases, through the airport hallways, and outside toward the cold December air.

READERS’ NARRATIVES

NARRATIVE OUTLOUD

NARRATIVE BY HAND

READERS’ NARRATIVES

Hong Kong By Nancy Gendimenico

Hong Kong

By Nancy Gendimenico
We toured the factory. We didn’t ask what these women were paid or how they were treated.

NARRATIVE OUTLOUD

Ca Dao By John Balaban

Ca Dao

By John Balaban
In 1971–1972, I returned to Vietnam with a tape recorder to collect the oral poetry know as ca dao.

NARRATIVE BY HAND

Notes and Annotations By William Butler Yeats

Notes and Annotations

By William Butler Yeats
Handwritten drafts of “Byzantium,” “Easter 1916,” “Under Ben Bulben,” and other poems.

NARRATIVE 10

iSTORIES

NARRATIVE 10

Narrative 10 By Ocean Vuong

Narrative 10

By Ocean Vuong
Q: A line that continues to inspire you?

A: “What if a piece of wood discovers it’s a violin?”

iSTORIES

Go-Go By Robert Kinerk

Go-Go

By Robert Kinerk
There was this go-go place in Oakland in 1968 where Kelly took us when we first got off the ship.
Phone Cards By Mary Morrissy

Phone Cards

By Mary Morrissy
I needs them to call my Angelo. How else he remember me? Please, I says, but it is no good.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Schooling By Ian Spencer Bell

Schooling

By Ian Spencer Bell
We had been dancing the reverence, walking around ourselves on both sides, picking up flowers, thanking corners.

POETRY

The Shape of God By Tyree Daye

The Shape of God

By Tyree Daye
I hold on to the shape of a star the way my aunts hold on to Jesus’s gown, his whiteness they have never trusted on anyone else.
Eating at the Fancy Shanghai Restaurant By Carlina Duan

Eating at the Fancy Shanghai Restaurant

By Carlina Duan
tell me more / I’m hungry / how much? I stutter in English, a wingless weight.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Black Sand By Matthew Gellman

Black Sand

By Matthew Gellman
All these barns with their busted spidery limbs strewn over the bunches of lupine as horses tuck themselves into the faultline of summer.

POETRY

A Blessing By Carlie Hoffman

A Blessing

By Carlie Hoffman
My younger brother and I crammed our bodies underneath the round dining table, field mice entering a tulip’s ear.

POETRY

Nevada City, California, Aubade By Sharon Olds

Nevada City, California, Aubade

By Sharon Olds
Others who hate injustice and extermination and murder are willing to go into its intimate places to hate it directly, up close.

POETRY

POETRY

iPOEMS

POETRY

Soledad andOther Poems By Deborah Paredez

Soledad and
Other Poems

By Deborah Paredez
Mary Ann is a fourteen-year-old runaway. Later she’ll say, I hitchhiked my way into history.

POETRY

Ode to the Boot Scraper on the Stoop andOther Poems By Austin Smith

Ode to the Boot Scraper on the Stoop and
Other Poems

By Austin Smith
The man who broke it too poor not to put it to use.

iPOEMS

Old-Time Religion By Christopher Warner

Old-Time Religion

By Christopher Warner
I light fires in the dark wake of space where you have tarried. Or died.

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-07 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-07

By Various Artists
Great new toons by Julia Bernhard, Pat Byrnes, Andrew Dicus, Mick Stevens, P. C. Vey.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-06 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-06

By Various Artists
New art and humor from Pat Byrnes, Farley Katz, Mary Lawton, Mick Stevens, and P. C. Vey.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-05 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-05

By Various Artists
New laughs from Lydia Conklin, Kaamran Hafeez, David Rowles, P. C. Vey, and Kim Warp.