STORY OF THE WEEK

Constance Ring

By Amalie Skram
Constance seethed with hatred for Ring. That lecherous, deceitful man—she had felt sorry for him and started to believe in him again.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Tankas

By Victoria Chang
My children, children, there’s applesauce everywhere but it’s not for you. It is strange to help someone grow while helping someone die.

OPEN TO ALL WRITERS

Narrative contest winners have gone on to win many other prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer, the Pushcart, and Best American prizes.

Please see the Guidelines.

CLASSICS

Closely Watched Trains

By Bohumil Hrabal
We kissed through the newly painted fence, and when we opened our eyes she had a sort of tiny red fence-pale striped across her mouth, and so had I.

N30B WINNERS

First Place



Second Place



Third Place

N30B WINNERS

First Place

All the Girls Are Fat in Heaven

By Madison Dettlinger
The thing about not eating is it takes strength. Secret strength too, which is the hardest kind.



Second Place

Reading Rilke and Other Poems

By Aria Aber
The men here don’t know where to place me, call me exotic grail, call me Ariana. Any other they know.



Third Place

Asteroid B612

By Anna Besh
Once I drove your car home after an entire night spent in the dark—a group of us trudging along to the top of a mountain.

FICTION

FICTION

FICTION

FICTION

Vieques

By Kevin A. González
She unfurled a Puerto Rican flag, pulled a Luger automatic from her purse, and yelled “¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!”

FICTION

Merry Elf

By Tom Jenks
You’re not yourself, his wife Ana said. It was what she always said. She was right, in a way.

FICTION

Out to Lunch

By Marian Thurm
His marriage is none of your business, Eric keeps reminding her. Don’t even think about spilling those crappy beans.

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

Dante on Broadway

By Hal Crowther
Who benefits when we obscure, neglect, and trivialize the accumulated knowledge of the past and its printed artifacts?


NONFICTION

Pilots

By Bridget Quinn
Our unspoken family motto, revered as any coat of arms, was something like We Shall Take No Shit.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Affliction Parish and Other Poems

By Wendy Barnes
Under the numb of sunrise, our synapses atrophied in sweet tea, we watch the floodwaters seethe then recede.

POETRY

Winnipesaukee and Other Poems

By Heather Christle
Some years a truck fell through the ice, and others someone would lean back too far laughing at a joke. The boat’s motor would take off their legs.

POETRY

Dear John and
Other Poems

By Lisa Fay Coutley
From the other side of the wall I hear the woman who could just as easily be me in my bathroom repeating I  am  forty.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

First Law of Thermodynamics and Other Poems

By Courtney Flerlage
Sam from the balcony above mine, at night I can’t see the stars above me because your balcony is in the way.

POETRY

Annunciation of the Self-Enclosed God

By Gina Franco
Once summoned, what is left but to become a flash of angel, or ghost, a bar of time, motionless but about to move.

POETRY

Exhaling and
Other Poems

By Bob Hicok
I was a skinhead in look and seem, a balding guy trying out the future with a shaved head while wearing blue jeans and a white T.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Oh You Little Faith

By Robin Myers
What if you really have, by now, acquired everything you need from the people who made you because they wanted to make you.

POETRY

Kunitzieform

By Sharon Olds
When Stanley’s thought was done, he turned his long, loping engine toward the task of telling it, word by word.

POETRY

Orisha Poems

By Leslie Sainz
Mother, I am not married but I give, am giving, fullness. Am conjuring. Egret in flight. Scent of powder, sea foam.

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2019-01

By Various Artists
New art and humor from Pat Byrnes, Maddie Dai, Joe Dator, Sara Lautman, and David Rowles.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2018-12

By Various Artists
Great new cartoons by Pat Byrnes, Felipe Galindo Gomez, Charlie Hankin, P. C. Vey, and Kim Warp.

Cartoon Art Volume 2018-11

By Various Artists
Laughs from Pat Byrnes, Charlie Hankin, Farley Katz, Olivia de Recat, and P. C. Vey.