STORY OF THE WEEK

STORY OF THE WEEK

Victor By Andrew Porter

Victor

By Andrew Porter
I’m learning to recall it slowly, but it’s hard. Some types of pain, I’ve come to understand, are just too deep to touch, are better left alone.

POEM OF THE WEEK

POEM OF THE WEEK

The Trade By Cristen Aery

The Trade

By Cristen Aery
Before you were promised into being, I was a child at the spinning wheel searching for something to believe in. I learned to lose myself in the whir and whisper of the machine.

SPRING 2025 STORY CONTEST

SPRING 2025 STORY CONTEST

SPRING 2025 STORY CONTEST

Our Spring 2025 Story Contest, which offers $5,000 in awards, is now open to all fiction and nonfiction writers.

Please see the Guidelines.

FICTION

FICTION

Crusaders By Natasha Ayaz

Crusaders

By Natasha Ayaz
We ate mostly stolen crops and small game caught with Husk’s crossbow. Everything tasted like chocolate to me in those days. Could’ve been cold dirt but it hit me like cocoa.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Rain By Dan Gerber

Rain

By Dan Gerber
One way or another, it always comes around, as surely as space curves and the earth keeps on circling and being circled.

POETRY

POETRY

Failure to Appear By Rosalie Moffett

Failure to Appear

By Rosalie Moffett
To be the grass someone’s memory spins its wheels in, the globe brimming with gumballs, or the palm—but I’m not, maybe never.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Willamette Shipyard Blues By Alex Tretbar

Willamette Shipyard Blues

By Alex Tretbar
Lost when they let me out
Just my welding gun
So I went down to the
    shipyard
Where it all began

POETRY

POETRY

Reasons to Go On By Craig van Rooyen

Reasons to Go On

By Craig van Rooyen
Because grass sprouts from the stump’s rings like tiny soldiers, lost in a labyrinth. Because this mess I’ve made I haven’t made alone.

FICTION

NONFICTION

FICTION

FICTION

The Pink Door By Guadalupe Nettel

The Pink Door

By Guadalupe Nettel
A little door appeared in my mind’s eye, allowing a glimpse of a female student, with soft brown skin, who was sitting in her underwear touching up the nail varnish on her toes.

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

John Irving at Iowa By Ron Hansen

John Irving at Iowa

By Ron Hansen
Suddenly John was there, in slim blue jeans and a rough white shirt that could have belonged to a Spanish troubadour or a sixteenth-century pirate.

CARTOONS

GRAPHIC STORIES

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2025-04 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2025-04

By Various Artists
New laughs over fiscal chaos, heavenly discernment, and delayed late-night deliveries.

GRAPHIC STORIES

GRAPHIC STORIES

Let’s Learn English! By Tracey K. Berglund

Let’s Learn English!

By Tracey K. Berglund
A visual exploration of some amusing homophones and homonyms in the English language.