by KATHLEEN SANDS Otabenga stood and spoke with purpose: “I will undergo both trials on the same day.”   Under his prestigious hat of spotted fur, Old Liboyo lowered his forehead. “That would be too much pain at once. Let … Read more

ANNOUNCING OUR CONTEST WINNERS! 1st Prize: “Cryptozoology” by Kathleen McNamara 2nd Prize: “Haunting Grounds” by Tessa Yang 3rd Prize: “Undertaker” by George Hovis Honorable Mention: “Colby Jack Accords” by Craig Sanders Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who … Read more

by STEVE PEET The boy lay in a dried out wallow beneath freshly cut rhododendron boughs. To passersby, had there been any, it was an ordinary brush pile worthy of no notice whatsoever. Except for a fuzzy pink hippo seizing … Read more

by JOHN MARCHINKOSKI The man on stage can’t explain how it feels to burn. Nothing describes the sensation well enough. The fluorescent stage lights overhead remind him of the burning. He considers invoking them, but the audience doesn’t know their … Read more

by DAVID JACOBS Have you heard about the lake in Tanzania that’s so alkaline it preserves the bodies of dead animals in a calcified state, fixing them in a lonely permanence? Or the rare autoimmune disease that turns soft tissue … Read more

by CHRISTOPHER RING Dry lightning lit on a ridge five miles off just as Jules crouched down to urinate. By sheer luck she had squatted on the southwest corner of the tower. Nothing told her to look that way, butshe … Read more

by DANIEL HOLMES She told Thomas it started with the Golden Gate Bridge. Amy’s parents had taken her as a child: one of those cheesy trips to San Francisco where her dad labored to align their itinerary with that of … Read more

by NICHOLAS LEPRE They searched for Francine every Thursday afternoon, after school, in the hidden spaces of the neighborhood. They were halfway to the reservoir, the September sun at their backs, the green leaves beginning to brittle. Kenna in her … Read more

by JOSHUA PRICHARD I met a woman out in Ashland once. I was there on shore leave, which we called it even though the shore’s never far away. I worked tow boats up and down the Ohio. Normally I’d take … Read more

by AMANDA YANOWSKI Fifty years ago, on the fifth of July, Birdie Sanders wakes up in her closet of a room on the second floor of the farmhouse thinking about the fields. Washing up in the bathroom, Birdie resents the clean … Read more